Page 13
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Loss of fed money hurting counties
Wyden promises strong battle for O&C
(Continued from page 1)
(Continued from page 1)
Schafer said that the
county has made every ef-
fort to make its various de-
partments as self-sustaining
as possible. Yet, despite
those efforts, Curry County
is still in a very compromis-
ing position.
“We have already spent
the last six years moving
everything we could outside
of the general fund, putting
it on its own, raising fees
and doing everything we
could,” Schafer said. “We
don’t have anything left in
the general fund that’s not
mandated under the state
Constitution. There’s no-
where to cut anymore.”
In nearby Coos County,
the lack of federal funding
will be felt in the county’s
public health department,
according to Commissioner
John Griffith.
The county’s general
fund contributions to-
ward that department will
dwindle from the current
level of more than
$600,000 to around
$100,000.
“We’ll still be able to
provide services, but proba-
bly not at the level we have
been,” Griffith said.
He added that positions
at the county are being
eliminated, and others are
simply not being filled.
Counties in Eastern
Oregon aren’t fairing too
well, either. Wheeler
County Judge Jeanne Burch
said staffing cuts would be
difficult to implement, be-
cause the county only has 35
employees at the moment,
many of whom hold multi-
ple positions.
“The problem is, we
don’t have the luxury of
doing just one job,” Burch
said. “Everybody does sev-
eral.”
For example, Burch
serves as the county’s chief
executive officer and chair-
man of the county commis-
sioners, plus presides over
probate and juvenile courts
and handles all the county’s
payroll operations.
Wheeler County col-
lects approximately
$750,000 in taxes per year,
Burch said, and only one-
sixth of its residents pay full
taxes.
“There’s no question
that we don’t have the
wealth that a lot of counties
do,” Burch said. “We don’t
have enough property tax
dollars coming in to make a
difference.”
The county’s tax rate
already is set at $8.52 per
$1,000 of assessed property
value, which places it at the
maximum level allowed
under the state’s Measure 5
and Measure 50-imposed
tax limits.
‘Delinting’
the Caves
(Continued from page 1)
featured in the August 2006
issue of “National Spe-
leological Society News.”
NSS is an organization
formed in 1941 to advance
the exploration, conserva-
tion, study, and understand-
ing of caves in the United
States. The organization is
subdivided into individual
clubs called grottos, which
are located in many commu-
nities around the nation.
These clubs carry out cave-
related conservation projects
on behalf of NSS.
Projects include cave
mapping, cleaning, scientific
study, and gating caves to
protect the natural environ-
ment or hibernating bats.
There are many projects
that volunteers can work on
at Oregon Caves. For more
information contact Roth at
592-2100.
Burch said that Wheeler
County officials met to dis-
cuss funding issues last
week, but were hard-pressed
to find any solutions.
“Frankly, we didn’t
come up with any answers,”
Burch said. “We’re not get-
ting any good news.”
Harney County resi-
dents, also in Eastern Ore-
gon, would see a drastic
reduction in the road depart-
ment budget if federal funds
do not come through.
“We don’t get
any general fund money; we
run almost exclusively off
the safety net,” said Kerry
Landers, supervisor of the
road department. He added
that 81 percent of his depart-
ment’s budget comes from
that source.
The county has some
reserve funds that will
“sustain us at a moderate
level for a few years,” he
said. “But if they’re not re-
funded, we’re in trouble.”
Of all these counties,
only Curry is planning a
property tax levy to try and
compensate for the loss of
federal funds. The five-year
$4 million local option tax
will be decided by voters in
May, Schafer said.
If that tax passes,
Curry’s tax rate will in-
crease to $2.45 per $1,000
of assessed property value.
And although the county
held a series of town hall
meetings to inform citizens
of the proposal, with more
meetings scheduled before
May, Schafer acknowledges
that the levy’s passage is far
from guaranteed.
“It’s going to be a tough
sell for us,” she said.
Griffith said that Coos
County Sheriff Andy Jack-
son is considering an operat-
ing levy for his department,
but that an amount hasn’t
been set.
At this point, Griffith
said he has “very little” hope
that the federal government
will step in to help Oregon’s
counties.
“Congress worked on it
all of last year and failed,”
Griffith said.
A former logger, he said
that the ultimate long-term
solution is to turn control of
the federal land over to local
officials.
“The federal govern-
ment should either manage
its land or get rid of it,”
Griffith said.
At the state level, it’s
highly unlikely that the
counties will be getting any
help from Salem. The state
is in no position to offer any
assistance, said Anna Rich-
ter Taylor, communications
Ddirector for Gov. Kulon-
goski’s office.
“The state doesn’t have
that kind of money to step
in and backfill that,” Taylor
said.
She added that Kulon-
goski plans to travel to
Washington, D.C. this week
to try and lobby members of
Congress to continue federal
funding.
“The governor has been
very concerned about this,
and is working with Ore-
gon’s congressional delega-
tion and other states to lobby
Congress to provide at least
a one-year extension, if not
longer, to the program,”
Taylor said. “He’s been
doing the phone calls and
doing letters. The next step
is to go face-to-face with
them on their turf.”
However, Schafer is
critical of how the gover-
nor’s office has handled the
situation so far.
“All I get is lip ser-
vice,” Schafer said. “They
haven’t been down here to
talk to us. They don’t know
what the issues are, and they
don’t understand. They
don’t get it.”
In the meantime, county
officials throughout the state
will continue to be plagued
with uncertainty.
“I don’t think anybody
knows at this point what
will happen,” Schafer said.
“I don’t think anybody has
the answers.”
any form that it was to be a
transitional program,” Wy-
den said. “The intention was
to address an offset.”
Grants Pass resident
Chuck Davis said he was
worried about Bush admini-
stration proposals to sell
public land in order to fund
the O&C program. Wyden
expressed his opposition to
such a plan, and said that
most Republican senators
didn’t even support it.
Regarding the Iraq War,
Wyden said that he is one of
23 senators to vote against
the Oct. 11, 2002 resolution
authorizing the conflict.
Wyden also said he op-
posed President Bush’s pro-
posed plan to send an addi-
tional 21,000 troops to bol-
ster security forces in the
region.
“We’ve had a number
of surges already, and they
haven’t worked,” Wyden
said, adding that the Senate
has yet to have an up or
down vote on the plan.
He said there was an
effort under way in the Sen-
ate to “redefine the mission”
away from combat to sup-
port functions. He said that
the shift would likely be
done through the appropria-
tions process.
Senate Democrats are
also looking to replace the
2002 Iraq War Resolution
with a new one that would
limit Bush’s wartime au-
thority, Wyden said.
Wyden touted his
Healthy Americans Act, and
said that the plan was devel-
oped over the course of
three years, with input re-
ceived from citizens at town
hall meetings.
“The current health-care
system cannot be sustained,
folks,” Wyden said.
He said that the United
States will spend around
$2.3 million on health care
this year, which averages to
$7,000 per citizen. He said
that for that amount, “We
could have a personal doctor
for every seven people in
the country.”
Wyden explained that
the current health-care sys-
tem has been in place for 60
years, which is why reform-
ing it has proven to be diffi-
cult. The system was set up
during World War II when
Richardson backs funding for counties
State Rep. Dennis
Richardson (R-Central
Point) voted Thursday, Feb.
22 on House Joint Memorial
5, which encourages Con-
gress to renew O&C funding
vital to Oregon counties.
Currently, the Secure
Rural Schools and Commu-
nity Self-Determination Act
of 2000 will expire July 1
this year.
“Oregon lands were
transferred to federal control
with the promise of splitting
timber profits with Oregon
counties,” said Richardson.
“The federal government
has failed to enable respon-
sible timber harvesting, and
Oregon will lose $230 mil-
lion per year in vitally
needed revenue.
“If the federal govern-
ment cannot keep to its part
of the bargain, the timber-
lands should be returned to
Oregon control,” he said.
HJM 5 was passed 58-0
by the House. Once ap-
proved by the Senate, the
memorial will be sent to
President Bush, the Senate
majority leader, the speaker
of the House and the Ore-
gon congressional delega-
tion.
A copy of the memorial
is available online:
leg.state.or.us/07reg/
measpdf/hjm1.dir/
hjm0005.intro.pdf.
prices and wages were fro-
zen, and prior to the exis-
tence of a global economy.
He said that his plan
would “unravel the system,”
cut out middlemen and ad-
ministration, and is modeled
on the healthcare plans of-
fered to Congressmen.
“What I’m talking about
is not socialized medicine,”
Wyden said.
He also addressed con-
cerns that the United States
may be planning an attack
on Iran. Oregon Congress-
man Peter DeFazio (D-
Springfield) has supported a
resolution that would re-
quire Bush to seek Congres-
sional approval before en-
gaging in such a conflict.
Wyden said he agreed
with DeFazio, and that
many supporters of the Iraq
War would be unwilling to
back a war against the Ira-
nian regime.
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Ore. Guard soldier to be honored
All flags at public institutions were flown at half-staff on
Friday, Feb. 23 in memory of Oregon National Guard Sgt.
Long N. Nguyen by order of Gov. Kulongoski.
Nguyen, 27, died Feb. 10, 2007 in Mazar-e-Sharif, Af-
ghanistan. He was assigned to the 141 st Brigade Support Bat-
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