Lars Larson: How to Fund State Troopers
Here is an idea for funding the Oregon State Police.I am reacting to the lunatic idea of raising beer taxes in Oregon by 120% to provide a dedicated stream of income to fund the Oregon State Police. Now as far as I am concerned the Oregon State Police are critically under funded. Who did that? Democrat Governors and both Republican/Democrat Legislatures. The problem is that the Legislature right now has plenty of money to fund the state Police, Heck, they are looking at a 20% increase in most state agencies, and yet they have no money for the state cops.
Here is what we should do. Gut that ridiculous cultural trust. State government has no business buying artwork with tax money. What they should do instead is turn it into the Oregon State Police Trust, and let anybody who wants to write a $500 check to the Police Trust to do just that. It doesn't cost a dime because you are already paying the taxes.
For NW Reports I'm Lars Larson.
For NW Reports I'm Lars Larson.
That WOULD BE a good idea if it weren't you proposing. You are way to tainted by the left to contribute anything,
You see that's how Oregon progressives avoid many sound policies.
A prime example of this progressive disorder si liberal union hack Randy Leonard commenting on opposition to SoWa.
As the Tram and SoWa amendments were being debated before the usual rubber stamping, Leonard wrote
,
"Most of the opposition to SoWa is the Lar Larson types. The same people trying to destroy our public schools"
Of course that idea is beyond absurd but Leonard found it useful in that it provided many Portlanders the means to turn the other way while the city gave millions to SoWa developers.
So Lards baby, anything you offer up will be immediately rejected because,, you hate children?
The way I read it, the current tax is about $2.50 per barrel and the proposed is another $32.00 per barrel.
I think it's more like 1200%.
More to the point, are you saying that taxing beer drinkers $80 million a year is actually a good thing as long as the money goes to your pet issue?
I've heard the argument siting how Oregon had "X" number of state patrolers in 1980 and now has something like 1/2 that number -- meanwhile the population doubled (or something to that effect). But what nobody is talking about is the crime rate over the same period.
In 1980 the Oregon Crime Rate Index per 100,000 inhabitants was 6,686.9, by 2005 the index had dropped to 4686.6.
Between 1980 and 2005 the index has fallen by 2000.3 index points or, 29.91%.
These figures are all verifiable at: http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/orcrime.htm
Please don't jump to any conclusions here, I am all for a limited government protecting life, liberty, and property but, if I am correct, and we don't have a problem, why fix it?
geoffludt
http://www.rightOregon.org
Your stats are stupid. What you are saying is that it is fine to have almost 5000 crimes per 100,000 people. Guess what? If you are one of the victims of one of the crimes you would change your mind.
We do have a problem here. For certain.
And we don't need a cultural trust.
A better idea might be state police vanity plates with 100% of the cost going to the troopers. Then people could freely fund them as well.
The state politicos from both parties are all wet on this issue.
They are fools.
Funding the state police should be the number one agenda item. Safety is the primary responsibility of state government, not taking
care of health costs for illegals in the state or funding a cultural trust, or any of the other nonsense the state is invloved in. Lars is right, as usual.
Geoffludt, i think that one thing that needs to be taken into consideration is jurisdiction. State Police investigate and have jurisdiction over a different set of crimes. auto thefts, murder, domestic violence etc tend to fall under the jurisdiction of the local city police or county sheriff. State police investigate state crimes, patrol the highways, investifate OTHER jurisdictions, operate the state crime lab, and provide back up and coverage for the local departments as i understand it. so i'm not sure how those crime stats you cite impact the state police.
I haven't seen any justification for it. A drop off in the number of state police over time does not justify restoring the positions. I think proponents should at least give us some historical trend of crimes in Oregon, as well as a comparison of some kind with other states. This is the kind of data I would expect. But there has been nothing.