Curry County Oregon will change

The Public Safety Property Tax levy was soundly defeated in Curry County, so what's next?

What Sheriff John Bishop believes he’s facing after Tuesday’s defeat of a public safety property tax is hardly the stuff of childhood Wild, Wild West games.

Throughout the past several months, Bishop has also related to the board his worst fears: criminals running rampant, no one available to respond to even the worst of crimes – and then, if an arrest is made, nowhere to put the perpetrator.

He’s spoken of the “Mexican Mafia,” insurance rates on homeowners and businesses increasing, the county’s liabilities and his obligations to maintain the safety and welfare of the citizens.

Tax measure 8-71 would have increased Curry County’s tax rate from 59.9 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation an additional $1.97 per $1,000 for those living in unincorporated Curry County and $1.84 per $1,000 for those living in the county’s three cities.

“It’s unfortunate that we were not able to inform the citizens well enough with regards to the importance of the levy,” said Commissioner David Brock Smith, by and large the measure’s biggest supporter. “And it would have been much easier to inform citizens if we’d had a unified board. The only organized opposition was the city of Brookings; I don’t know what their motives are for the opposition. Only time will tell.”

However one County Commissioner, Susan Brown was bubbly, she opposed the levy.

“Now we need to get to work.” said Commissioner Susan Brown, the holdout against the measure on the commission board. “I think it’s an opportunity – a huge opportunity. We’ll sit with the citizens and see see what we can do. It’s all good.” 

We'll see about that, doesn't sound so good to me.  The Cities of Brookings and Gold Beach have their own law enforcement, but residents in unincorporated areas are pretty much on their own. People are saying the State may have to intervene if law enforcement becomes non existent and they plan to close the jail and release all the criminals.  The State might enforce some local income tax levy to keep law enforcement going.