Lawmakers agree to add 100 troopers to state police force.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - The Legislature took its biggest step yet Monday in determining how many Oregon State Police troopers will patrol the highways - but it still hasn't resolved its most politically prickly questions about paying for the move.

The Public Safety Subcommittee of the Joint Ways & Means Committee agreed to put $217 million from the general fund into the OSP budget for 2007-09 - up from the $179 million appropriated in the current biennium.

The spending proposal would be enough to add 100 positions to the Oregon State Police's highway patrol division. In addition, the agency would be able to add seven detectives for investigations involving methamphetamine and other drugs, and identity-theft and other major crimes. The plan also would put 15 additional forensic scientists, technicians and other staffers in the state crime labs.

The added troopers would bring the number of sworn officers to 431 on Oregon's highways. That's a big jump from the 304-trooper low point reached in 2003-05, when the state was digging out from its budget crisis earlier in the decade caused by plummeting income-tax revenues. Even with the increase of officers, it would leave Oregon State Police patrol division staffing well below the 665-officer level of the early 1980s - before voters approved a measure that ended the Oregon State Police's ability to rely on the gas tax and other revenue in the Highway Fund.

The Legislature has struggled this session to come up with a long-term revenue plan to match its rhetoric about beefing up a depleted state police agency. Most lawmakers - Democrats and Republicans alike - and Gov. Ted Kulongoski seem to agree that the current approach has failed. That is, leaving the state police in the same ring with advocates for public schools, health care, higher education and other program areas that compete each session for general-fund dollars.

Kulongoski last year proposed a dedicated revenue source, with a surcharge on auto insurance premiums as his top choice. Lawmakers were cool to that idea. While they've kicked around ideas such as increasing beer and wine taxes and dedicating some of that revenue to police, no such plan has gathered momentum.

Rep. Chip Shields, the chairman of the panel that deals with public safety budgets, said the idea was to move forward on the spending side while continuing to wrangle over how best to pay for highway patrols and other state police work.

"We've got to take care of getting 100 troopers on the road today, and we'll continue to look for a dedicated funding source - a real one that has dollars attached to it," the Portland Democrat said.

Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, was the only subcommittee member to vote against the budget. He said it falls short of the goal to restore round-the-clock patrols.

"Moving up 100 positions is movement, but it's not where I think Oregonians want us to be," said Hanna, whose district includes eastern Lane County.

Hanna lamented that the panel's recommendation fell short of the governor's call for 139 troopers. But Democrats on the subcommittee were quick to push back. Sen. Kate Brown, D-Portland, said if the Legislature had been willing to vote out a dedicated revenue source such as Kulongoski's dead-on-arrival surcharge on auto insurance premiums, that could have happened. Instead, the Legislature is committing dollars from the general fund.

"A 25 percent increase is a very significant addition to the department," said Rep. Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene. "It doesn't mean we've stopped looking for new revenue, but we need to pass a budget right now."

TROOPER LEVELS

The number of sworn officers in the Oregon State Police has yet to reach its historic high level.

High point: 665, in 1981

Low point: 304, in 2003

Proposed: 431