Polk County Itemizer-Observer • February 25, 2015 5A
Polk County News
Taxes: County rate among lowest in state
Continued from Page 1A
In other words, it has very little
to do with how much the county is
collecting in taxes for its general
fund, which pays the majority of
operation costs for the sheriff’s of-
fice patrol and jail divisions, district
attorney’s office, treasurer’s office,
assessor’s office, clerk’s office and
community development depart-
ment, among others.
Only about 14 percent of taxes
collected in Polk County goes to
county government based on a
$1.72 permanent tax rate and an
additional 54 cents per $1,000 of as-
sessed value going to the county
road bond, which will expire after
next year. The rest mostly goes to
cities and schools. As a comparison,
education — local school districts
including temporary bonds and
levies, education service districts
and community college districts —
accounts for about 49 percent of
property taxes, Schmidt said.
“When you look at just the per-
manent rate for the counties, we
are (12th) lowest,” Schmidt said of
county government.
How did Polk County end up on
the low end of the tax rate scale?
The short answer is more money
wasn’t needed at the time.
The permanent rate — the
amount per $1,000 of assessed
value — was determined in 1997,
based on the 1995 total property
value within each taxing district —
county, city, school district, water
district, for example — divided into
the amount of revenue levied in
that district.
For Polk County, and 17 other
counties in the state, the federal
government was paying timber
subsidies based on harvest levels
— aka O&C money — which affect-
ed that rate.
“We didn’t need to levy as much
money as we actually needed to op-
erate because of O&C money,”
Schmidt said. “We’ve lost almost all
of that and now we can’t make it up.”
Subject to a steady decline since
2007, those payments are now gone,
leaving a hole in the county’s budget.
Polk County Administrator Greg
Hansen said, at the time when tax
rates were set, there was a belief the
federal or state government would
figure out a solution to the timber
issue.
“I think there was a belief that
the environmental regulations
would ease up,” Hansen said. “They
only got worse. That hope was
greater than it should have been.”
To this point, Polk County has
relied on budget cuts to make up
the difference. Hansen said making
more cuts to general fund depart-
ments outside the public safety de-
partments isn’t a viable option any-
more. Staffing in general fund de-
partments at its highest point was
138. Now there are 92 employees.
“Every (general fund) office we
have, our FTE (full-time equivalent
positions) are smaller than most
counties this side of the moun-
“I think
there was
a belief
that the
environ-
mental
regula-
tions would ease up.
They only got worse.”
— Greg Hansen on the loss
of timber payments and the
county’s permanent tax rate
tains,” Hansen said.
With options for decreasing
spending all but exhausted, what is
left is increasing revenue.
The county realistically has two
options: creating a public safety
district that would charge its own
permanent rate or a local option
levy like the 45 cents per $1,000
that will go before voters in May.
Creating a taxing district for pub-
lic safety has been done just twice,
both in Deschutes County, and it
would require a countywide vote to
create a new permanent tax.
However, Hansen said there is a
major roadblock to passing a tax-
ing district. If the county were to
receive the extra money to pay for
public safety, it wouldn’t need to
levy its full permanent rate to oper-
ate the rest of its departments. A
county can levy less than its per-
manent rate, but there would be no
legal requirement to do so. With no
guarantees to voters, Hansen said a
taxing district would be a hard sell.
That’s what makes short-term
(three to five years) local option
levies and longer-term bonds at-
tractive for raising revenue, Schmidt
said.
Polk County’s proposal would
bring the amount of taxes — per-
manent and law enforcement levy
rates — to $2.17 per $1,000, still
15th lowest out of 36 counties
based on current tax rates. Adding
in the county’s road bond, residents
would pay $2.71 per $1,000 in 2015-
16. The road bond expires in 2016.
County officials say the levy is
the quickest and best option within
its power to boost public safety.
“A federal legislative fix could
occur, but Polk County isn’t going
to be the one that makes that hap-
pen,” Hansen said.
CASA: County program
has grown significantly
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Members of a planting crew place native plants in the ground last week as part of a
restoration project on the Luckiamute State Natural Area near Buena Vista.
Restoration work continues
at Luckiamute natural area
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
LSNA Funding
BUENA VISTA — If you are
not careful, you don’t see
them — tiny little twigs pok-
ing out of the mud left from
a recent flood.
Those twigs — really native
plants — are part of the on-
going restoration project at
the Luckiamute State Natural
Area near Buena Vista. The
925-acre state park in south-
east Polk County is located
near the confluence of the
Willamette, Santiam and
Luckiamute rivers and fea-
tures wetlands, upland
prairies and floodplain forest.
Because of its unique at-
tributes, LSNA has been rec-
ognized as an Oregon Con-
servation Strategy “priority
area,” and Oregon State
Parks established a master
plan for the tract in 2009.
Restoration on about a
third the tract has been
going on for years, and will
be for years to come. The
project has received more
than $1.1 million from vari-
ous sources, public and pri-
vate, to be stretched out over
a lengthy period of time.
“It’s about a decade’s
worth of effort,” said Kristen
Larson, the Luckiamute Wa-
tershed Council coordinator.
The council is undertaking
Luckiamute State Natu-
ral Area funding sources,
2010 through 2020:
• Oregon Watershed En-
hancement Board:
$439,317.
• Meyer Memorial Trust:
$606,357.
• Bonneville Power Ad-
ministration: $100,000.
• Oregon Community
Foundation: $2,750.
Total: $1,148,424.
the restoration work.
This winter, the Luckia-
mute Watershed Council re-
ceived a grant and began work
on the third phase of restora-
tion. To date, more than
509,000 native plant species
— 30 varieties of shrubs and
trees — have been planted on
316 acres of the LNSA.
Work doesn’t end there.
The tiny plants placed in
the ground by crews last
week will be monitored and
through a “plant establish-
ment” program, meaning
crews will come back to the
planting site, remove weeds
and other invasive species
that could choke out the na-
tives and plant more, if nec-
essary. The recently received
grant for the work will pay
for the upkeep for five years.
Previously, crews would
replace invasive species with
native plants and let them
fend for themselves, Larson
said. Often that resulted in
the invasives growing back
and killing the new plants.
“That is really important
to have better success,” she
said of the five-year plant es-
tablishment work.
The benefit of planning
restorations in the LSNA is
that many places feature
mature ecosystems.
“We look at what is work-
ing and try to mimic that,”
Larson said.
Planting last week was
happening on a lesser-used
portion of the LSNA, but a
“car counter” installed at the
main trailhead off of Buena
Vista reveals the little-known
park is seeing more visitors.
Larson said outreach
events — such as the New
Year’s Day hikes — will con-
tinue to highlight the combi-
nation of ecosystems within
the LSNA, particularly the
floodplain forest now rare in
the Willamette Valley. Addi-
tionally, the council hopes to
add interpretative signs
along the trails this spring or
summer.
“After doing this work, it’s
nice to know people are
noticing the changes and
coming back,” Larson said.
Continued from Page 1A
That the girl was thinking
about that at such a young
age was devastating for Bar-
nett.
“That hit me so hard. …
At that point I realized me
as her CASA was her only
lifeline,” Barnett said.
“I was the only one she
trusted.”
More lifelines like Barnett
are needed.
Under the direction of
Katey Axtell, CASA’s director,
Polk County’s program has
grown dramatically in the last
two years — Barnett, now as-
sistant director, served as in-
terim director in early 2013
when there were only nine
CASAs. Now there are 47
CASAs available, but that’s
still far from its goal of having
“a CASA for every child.”
The program has been
able to surpass a major
milestone, though.
“Every new case has a
CASA,” Axtell said, adding
the program is now assign-
ing CASAs to older cases.
The program needs more
than 30 additional volun-
teers to finish the job, Bar-
nett said.
In March, CASA will begin
a 10-week volunteer train-
ing session with hopes of
making progress toward
that goal. Barnett said vol-
unteers don’t need special
qualifications to serve —
just time and “a heart for a
child.”
Want to Help?
What: Polk County
Court-Appointed Special
Advocates orientation
meeting.
When: March 6 at 5
p.m.
Where: Board of
Commissioners confer-
ence room, Polk County
Courthouse, 850 Main
St., Dallas.
Of note: Becoming a
volunteer CASA isn’t the
only way people can
help the program. Office
support, event planning
help and board mem-
bers also are needed.
Volunteers must pass a
background check and
go through training re-
gardless of their role.
For more informa-
tion: 503-623-9268, ext.
1301.
“We’ve been blessed with
some dynamic, dynamic
people,” he said.
CASAs report to the judge
assigned to the case, but
work with Department of
Human Services, school dis-
tricts, police, the child’s par-
ents and other groups de-
pending on the case, to as-
sure the best outcome. Bar-
nett said cases average ap-
proximately 10 hours per
month and CASAs are limit-
ed to two cases, unless they
sign a waiver.
It typically takes 18
months to resolve cases —
meaning children are re-
turned to their parents or
adopted — which is why
volunteers are asked to ded-
icate at least two years.
“There are times when we
become the only adult in
this child’s life that maybe
hasn’t lied to them, abused
them and neglected them,”
Barnett said. “We are always
there for them.”
Though it doesn’t require
special skills, volunteers
should prepare themselves
for ugly situations involving
abuse.
“It really takes a special
kind of person, because you
see a lot of stuff,” Axtell said.
Barnett often takes the
more difficult cases, but
said every horrible situation
he’s dealt with was worth
seeing a healthy family re-
united or a child adopted by
a loving family in the end.
“The potential to help a
child and maybe break the
cycle of abuse …,” Barnett
said. “If we can intervene
and break that cycle, then
maybe the next generation
of that family won’t go
through this.”
Solution on Page 7A
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