County: No law enforcement tax on November ballot
EUGENE, Ore. - The Lane County Commission decided not to ask voters in November whether or not they support new taxes to support the jail and sheriff's deputy patrols.
The jail and sheriff's office have made cuts in recent years as first timber revenue from public lands dwindled.
Federal payments in lieu of timber revenues, which have helped counties and schools for over a decade, received only a one-year extension from Congress at a fraction of its previous levels.
The commission said it will later consider whether to take a tax levy to voters next May intead.
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You are about 8 times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist. | You are about 2 times more likely to be sexually assaulted by a cop than by a criminal. | Domestic violence is 2-4 times more likely in police families than in the general population. | Source: National Center for Women and Policing-2010 NPMSRP Annual Report | US National Safety Council | Abuseofpower.info
If we voted in favor of any law enforcement levy, the Commissioners would just reduce the current amount of money that is actually going to law enforcement and put that amount into one of the Commissioners' pet projects instead.  Net result: more taxes for no increase in law enforcement. No I'm not a cynic; just have years of experience watching governments try to shove it to the taxpayers.Â
I think the County put themselves in a no win situation with the highly publicized jail releases. I think they realized too late that it was just too blatant. I think the public would have shot it down just because it would have felt like giving in to bullying.
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And yes, let's get pot legalized and concentrate law enforcement on real crime!
I would just about bet that any attempt by the county to put a law enforcement only levy to the voters would be met by extreme opposition of the union. The problem again would be PERS, if they did a law enforcement only levy, a good portion of that would have to go into the PERS contributions. There has to be some reason why they would not submit a law enforcement only levy.
there will be lots of money left over after pot is legalized,they wont have to waste time and money on pot