County considers taxing district for public safety.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

A special taxing district is one of the few options left for local governments to raise taxes since voters began enacting tax-limiting ballot measures to bridle government spending in 1990.

Lane County Sheriff Jan Clements will propose that option Wednesday when he asks the county commissioners to begin extensive preparations required to form a countywide taxing district to raise money for public safety.

Local leaders have discussed the idea off and on for years, said Bobby Green, president of the county Board of Commissioners.

If history is any indication, the proposal faces long odds. Voters have rejected nine of the last 10 tax increase proposals to bolster public safety programs in Lane County.

"We need to at least give the public the opportunity to look at it and make a decision," Green said.

The earliest the measure could hit a ballot is November 2006.

While the proposal is in its formative stages, Clements said the idea is to create a countywide taxing district to raise tax revenue devoted exclusively to public safety services - things like prosecution, jail and treatment programs, probation services, narcotics enforcement, a SWAT team, juvenile corrections and rural patrols.

Because most public safety programs serve both city and rural residents alike, a countywide district makes sense, Clements said.

However, Clements said he envisions a split-rate tax structure that would have rural residents pay a higher rate to cover the cost of rural police patrols. City residents, whose taxes already pay for urban police service, would pay a lower district rate.

"To me, that's the most equitable way of handling that," he said.

If voters approve the district, then tax money currently paid into the county general fund that pays for public service programs would be freed up for other county services.

However, Clements said he believes taxpayers won't go along with the plan unless they get a proportionate reduction in county general fund taxes and an absolute assurance that the new tax will be devoted exclusively to public safety.

"The principle of not charging taxpayers twice - once in their normal property taxes and then raising the money in the separate district - has to be maintained," he said.

Public safety programs currently are retreating in the face of budget cutting. The district attorney is reducing prosecution of low-level crimes. The county's probation officers are supervising 100 offenders on average. The jail is releasing inmates daily due to overcrowd- ing.

Clements said the crisis is fueled by the county's 6 percent annual growth in costs, driven largely by its obligation to pay PERS benefits and spiraling medical costs for employees and retirees. But revenue is rising only 3 percent annually. The gap is projected to grow over the next five years, according to documents prepared for Wednesday's presentation.

Because public safety consumes almost 70 percent of the general fund, it takes the biggest hits at budget-cutting time.

Clements, who is retiring after eight years as sheriff, said budget constraints have pushed public safety to the limits in Lane County, particularly in the realm of drug enforcement. He pledged to continue working for the proposal even after he is out of office.

"We cannot allow the continued erosion of public safety," he said. "It encourages lawlessness. We don't prosecute them. We can't incarcerate them if we do. We can't encourage treatment regimens because we can't enforce those regimens."

IF YOU GO

The Board of Commissioners will discuss the option of a public safety district at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the commissioners' conference room, Public Service Building, 125 E. Eighth Ave., Eugene. For more information, call 682-4203.