PROPOSALS ON TABLE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY

A four-point plan to put Lane County's public safety programs back on their
feet will cost about $34 million annually, according to a preliminary
budget estimate that will be discussed tonight by the county's Public
Safety Task Force.

Public safety agency heads and elected city and county officials also will
begin tonight to devise a way to finance their plan, with the goal of
putting a proposal on the November 2006 ballot. Possible revenue sources
include a sales tax, personal or corporate income taxes, a restaurant tax,
amusement and entertainment taxes or the property tax.

The task force plan aims to attack methamphetamine use and property crimes;
to expand drug, alcohol and mental health treatment; to reduce family
violence; and to prevent future crime.

The 39 specific proposals range in cost from $5.7 million to fully operate
the county jail and Forest Work Camp to $70,000 to operate teen peer courts
in six communities.

The proposal results from wide-ranging discussions among task force members
in three prior meetings. The group has not formally endorsed any aspect of
the draft plan, nor has it indicated which revenue source it prefers.

Other major features of the plan include hiring 23 sheriff's deputies for
rural patrols and resident-deputy programs in rural areas; adding four
sheriff's detectives to investigate property crimes; adding 13 employees to
the district attorney's office for increased drug and identity theft
prosecution; covering the $2 million cost for operating a 100-bed jail in
Springfield; and adding two dozen parole and probation officers to focus on
drug crimes, domestic violence and sex offender supervision.

The draft plan also proposes to economize by shifting detoxification
functions away from the county jail to a new center at a cost of $210,000.

The shift would save 2,000 inmate-days annually at the jail.

On the crime prevention side, the proposal would spend $3 million annually
on structured after-school activities. Another $200,000 would go toward
partnerships with school-based family centers for parent education, youth
enrichment and improved school performance for at-risk families.

More than $1.7 million would be spent to bolster alcohol and drug treatment
for adults and juveniles.

The draft plan also would spend $3.6 million to hire 38 employees to open
all of the unused space at the county's juvenile detention center - adding
32 beds to hold about 700 delinquent youths annually for an estimated 65
percent reduction in repeat crime.

In its previous meetings, the task force identified the shortcomings of a
public safety system scarred by years of budget cutting.

Scores of idle jail beds; reduced drug, alcohol and mental health
treatment; slashed juvenile crime prevention programs; and parole and
probation officers with an average of 100 offenders each to supervise in
the community are a few of the identified problems.

The panel also identified the deep roots of the county's shortfall in
public safety funding. Until the late 1970s, county coffers were flush with
logging revenues from federal lands in the county. With no need to raise
the property tax rate, county government felt the hit from voter-approved
property tax limitations and now has the 35th-lowest property tax rate,
including timber revenue, in the state, according to task force documents.

The county government now faces annual operating cost increases of about 6
percent, with tax revenues that can rise at about 3 percent, according to
task force data.

Public safety programs consumed 32 percent of the county general fund in
1980. The percentage now stands at 65 percent.

Task force members also have acknowledged that they face an uphill battle
with voters, no matter what is proposed.

With the exception of one 1997 vote, Lane County voters have consistently
turned down public safety-related tax proposals. A proposed countywide
income tax was rejected by a 3-to-1 ratio, while a four-year tax levy
proposal failed by only 13 votes.

Drawing on their experience at the polls, task force members seem to have
settled on an approach that buys enough new service to make a measurable
difference to residents, rather than a piecemeal approach that relies on
continued voter approval of funding.

The task force has taken no formal vote on anything. It was formed at the
invitation of county officials and the mayors of Eugene and Springfield to
gather from a broader base of community leaders.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. today in the Carmichael
Room at the Lane County Juvenile Justice Center, 2727 Martin Luther King
Jr. Blvd. in Eugene. It begins with a 15-minute public comment period.