Proposed 2008/2009 Lane County budget is online now. Click here to view the budget.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Lane County is preparing a budget that assumes Congress won't renew the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Act -- and after years of preserving public safety services, deep cuts to law enforcement are going to be on the table.

"We've always tried to preserve public safety," said David Garnick, budget/financial planning manager for Lane County. "That's why public safety is taking the lion's share of the reductions."

A public hearing with an overview of the budget is scheduled for April 29. Budget worksessions begin May 1, and a final budget is due June 30.  Click here to view the budget committee schedule.

In a preliminary forecast produced in February 2008, the county looked at three options for the 2008-09 budget: one with renewal of the Secural Rural Schools act; one with step-down federal funding; and one with the non-renewal levels.

Under the third option, many areas of public safety lose funding from the county's general fund. Some, like search and rescue, supervision of sex offenders and other services, drop to zero dollars. Click here to view the February forecast.

Russ Burger, the Lane County sheriff, outlined some of the impacts in a March 20, 2008, letter to Jeff Spartz, the Lane County Administrator. Read a related story here.

Alex Gardner, the Lane County district attorney, wrote KVAL with his concerns. Read his comments here.

Without the federal money, Lane County Administrator Jeff Spartz said it will be nearly impossible to fund the jail at its current level.

"Virtually for all practical purposes, we'd have no public health department, we'd have dramatically reduced social services," said Spartz.  "We'd have to cut into several other major programs.  This is achieving an ugly but rough balance."

So how did things get this bad?  Taxpayers have no one to blame but themselves, Spatz said.

"A large segment of electorate have for years when propositions were put on the ballot have viewed it as Chicken Little screaming the sky is falling," said Spartz.  "And it looks like the sky is almost down on us now."
    
None of the proposed cuts are final.  The non-renewal budget is a worst-case scenario. 

Budget officials drafted three versions of how to dedicate the county's general fund. One version, called the renewal budget, assumes Congress renews the act and funds payments to counties. A second version assumes Congress renews the act under a declining funding formula, providing less money each year. A third version, the no renewal budget, assumes the money from the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Act goes away.

The task is further complicated by Oregon law requiring basic levels for some county services like tax collecting and public health. In some cases, if the county fails to adequately fund a program, the state could intervene by providing the service -- and billing the county for delivering the services, Garnick explained.

When Lane County Commissioners tackle the budget, the cuts will cover the loss of money from the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Act.

But Garnick said those cuts only get the country through fiscal year 2010/2011 without further cuts. The county faces a "structural deficit" whereby costs associated with delivering government services outpace growth in property tax revenues. Expenses are growing at about 5 to 6 percent a year; revenues are only growing at 3 to 4 percent due to limits on property taxes enacted by Oregon voters.

Lane County has attempted to implement new tax revenue sources, like a county income tax. Voters rejected those efforts.