 Downtown Coos Bay |
When the sun set on the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act of 2000 in September 2006, people in urban areas generally took little note. In rural areas, in some rural areas anyway, it has meant, in the months since, a screaming emergency.
Some members of Congress, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden perhaps the lead among them (though he is not alone), have been trying to get those funds restored. One of his lines on the subject goes, “Without county payments funding, there is a real question as to whether or not these communities can survive.â€
If that sounds hyperbolic, visit Coos County, as the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee committee did this week, and find out what the cut of $7 million has done to services there.
The tale of woe the senators heard at North Bend could have been a comedy routine if it weren’t so serious.
Such as when County Commissioner Nikki Whitty told the group that Coos County was probably about to eliminate all local public health services. All of them. And ask the state to pick up the slack, if it could, whatever that might mean.
Just about every local agency at Coos apparently is facing huge cuts. In all, the county is planning to lay off more than 100 of its 410 employees by March. Law enforcement, for example, in a county where the only jail is located at the county seat of Coquille miles from the population center at Coos Bay-North Bend (so that police officers from those cities have to drive the mountain roads out of town to drop off a prisoner). But, generally, at least there used to be jail cells. Effective February 27, the sheriff’s office has laid off 19 of its employees – nearly a fifth. But that may be only the beginning; the commissioners have approved a budget plan knocking out 40 jobs at the office. As for the jail, the Coos Bay World reported, “The gutting of jail staff (about 60 people work in the jail) will cause the Sheriff’s Office to close half the facility. Jackson said the Sheriff’s Office has presented a preliminary plan, which needs approval from the commissioners, to cap inmate levels at 98. Currently, the jail holds about 160 prisoners on any given day.”
Speaking to the senators last week, though, Whitty was at least able to stun them with a capper.
Bad as things are, she said, “We’re not in the worst shape.”
There’s worse?
“Curry County may go bankrupt,” she said.
True; local government officials there have been holding a series of town hall meetings explaining that either residents pass a big property tax increase (something most usually are loathe to do) or else the county may go bankrupt.
It’s a true Congress-caused emergency. We’ll see how effectively Congress, and the Bush Administration, fix it.
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