Sheriff on budget: 'It's just friggin' horrible, it's a horrible mess'
EUGENE, Ore. - We're used to hearing doom and gloom talk from Lane County on the budget.
But officials say this summer, it goes from bad to worse.
KVAL News spoke with public safety supporters who want voters to have a say on funding this spring.
As for the impending 2012 county budget: "It's just friggin' horrible; it's a horrible mess," Lane County Sheriff Tom Turner told KVAL News.
Imagine this: after July 1, most Lane County patrol cars will sit idle because road patrols are no more.
Lane County faces a potential $14 million black hole, with Sheriff Turner seeing his department up for a $7 million to $12 million hit.
The dollars vanished with secure county payments, the program that compensates counties for federal land that doesn't produce revenue through timber sales.
Those county payment checks from Congress go away this year, with major ramifications for counties like Lane. The new fiscal year starts July 1.
"We are going to get to the position, based on early projections, we may get to the position
where we have no general patrols. We'll only have contract patrol," Turner said.
The sheriff said up to 90 employees could be laid off and at least 130 jail beds could be shut down.
"Criminals are talking about and discussing strategies to victimize people in our community," said Steven Sieczkowski, President of the Lane County Public Safety PAC.
Sieczkowski believes voters should have a say. He's asking Lane County Commissioners Wednesday, Feb. 8, to put a charter amendment on the May ballot.
If passed as proposed, the measure would guarantee 60 percent of the Lane County general fund to public safety: a 42 percent cut would go to the sheriff's office, then 9 percent each for prosecutors in the district attorney's office and for juvenile justice.
"It's not going to allow anybody to pull that funding from the backside. That means that will guarantee that funding," said Sieczkowski.
He emphasized they aren't asking for more money now--hoping Lane County officials will gain voter trust later, so that a future levy for the jail or sheriff patrols might have a better shot.
Backers of the charter change said if they don't get permission from the county board to place this on the May ballot, then they'll have to go out and collect signatures. That would push the election date back to next November.
KVAL News tried to get early reaction from Lane County Commissioners on Tuesday but they declined to comment.
