 | | CENTRAL OREGONIAN | | Scott Cooper serves as the Crook County Judge. He can be reached at: Scott.Cooper@co.crook.or.us |
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If the world were perfect, I would drive a BMW to work every morning. I would live in a brand-new house, with every conceivable electronic gadget there is to make my life easier. There would be a cook and a gardener, and my children would attend exclusive private schools, as they prepare for Ivy League educations.
In reality, I drive a 10-year-old Oldsmobile with a crack in the windshield that I know I need to have fixed. I live in a comfortable house built in 1949. The electronics cabinet is hardly state of the art, filled as it is with my college stereo system. The cooking and gardening are handled by my wife and me, who take turns. Next year, when my oldest daughter begins school, it will definitely be in a Crook County public school.
This lifestyle reflects not the world as we would like to live in it, but rather the reality of the money we have and what it will buy. Like every family in Crook County, we make educated guesses about how much money we will have each month, and we allocate it accordingly. Basic functions like mortgage and utility payments and saving for retirement and the kids' college funds get first priority. Eating out or buying a movie ticket may or may not be a choice in any given week, depending on how much is left over.
The work I do at home to balance the revenue we have against the money we want to spend and save is not much different than the work I do every day at the county. Just as the "needs" of my family always seem larger than the available bank account, so the "needs" of Crook County always seem to outstrip the available revenue sources.
Starting this week, the county has entered its annual budget process. Already, my e-mail is full of pleas from county staff and various special interest groups with a common message: "We need more!"
We need more deputies. We need more prosecutors. We need more 9-1-1 dispatchers. We need more jail beds. We need more inspectors, more planners, more nurses, more drug and alcohol counselors, more finance clerks, more lawyers, more secretaries, more books, more vehicles, more computers, more maintenance, more buildings. To all of this, I reply, "Yes, you do. And how will you pay for it?"
Crook County and its staff are under a lot of stress right now. I know that when I see the lights in the offices of county department heads burning long past 5 p.m. I know that when I encounter jean-clad department heads in the hallways on Saturday mornings. It's a testament to the high morale and quality of staff who are working for the people of Crook County that these folks do what needs to be done to keep the business of government moving. Certainly, I don't deny that a few more bodies to share the workload could benefit everyone.
But the question isn't how much do we need. The question is, how much can we afford?
To put it in perspective, the county's total property tax collections next year are expected to top $5 million. That's about 10 percent of the total budget. Of that $5 million, 80 percent will be consumed in funding public safety activities. The breakdown is as follows: The sheriff will need $1.6 million or more to fund operations at current-year levels. Operating a jail in Crook County and renting additional much-needed jail beds in Jefferson County will cost $1.5 million. The district attorney needs $475,000 to run his departments, which includes the prosecutorial function, victims advocacy and child support enforcement. The juvenile department needs $400,000, at least $100,000 of which will be used to incarcerate and detain offenders. Emergency management gets about $37,000. All totaled, that's just over $4 million, and that's before anybody gets a raise or a cost-of-living adjustment, any new deputies are added, any additional jail beds are rented, any new prosecutors are hired or before allowing for any inflationary increase for supplies.
That leaves a million dollars to pay for everything else which can't fund itself through fees or with federal and state support.
So where does the million go? The library takes $477,000 right off the top. The assessor gets $310,000. The treasurer and tax collector, who is also the county's finance and budget officer, requires $172,000. The fairgrounds gets $72,000 - a number derived by applying a statutory formula. Again, these are current-year numbers and do not reflect any increase for inflation.
At this point, we've funded public safety and the tax and finance system at prior-year levels. Our popular library and fairgrounds will keep their doors open. Unfortunately, that's only 10 of the 27 county departments. Where will the money come from to pay for the rest of the government?
Fees pay for a portion of the government. The community development function (planning, building, environmental health) pays for itself. The Road Department is wholly dependent on a combination of gas taxes and payments from the federal government to maintain more than 600 miles of paved and gravel roads in our 3,000-square mile county. The landfill pays its own way and makes an annual contribution to the general fund, which is used to offset the costs of maintaining county facilities. Public health, mental health, services to children and families, veterans services and parole and probation are paid for by state government, which lately has been decreasing the support for these activities. Internal service charges (monies charged by one fund to another) generate revenue to sustain the county administration apparatus, including the county court, county counsel, human resources and information technology functions.
It's complicated, and it's cobbled together. Somehow it works, and the government continues year after year.
As we go through the budget process in the next few months, there are going to be statements in the media and statements by public officials in various forums explaining sincerely why they need more resources. There will be statistics thrown about. There will be much pointing to averages and medians, much citing of per capita expenditure comparisons to other Oregon counties and much mention of rising caseloads. It's all legitimate and understandable, and I have sympathy for every hard-working county official who comes before the county court to ask for more resources to help cope with the fast-paced environment in which we currently live.
But sympathy doesn't increase the tax base, and most citizens I know take a dim view of higher taxes and ever increasing fees. That brings me back to the beginning of my story. When I think or my wife thinks or my children tell me that we simply have to have "more" of something, the answer is always the same: "Okay, but how are we going to pay for it?"
Expect in the next few months as the county goes through its annual budget process to hear that question many times over.
Scott Cooper is the Crook County Judge. He can be reached at: Scott.Cooper@co.crook.or.us. |
