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LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Article Excerpt
Byline: The Register-Guard

League supports county tax

The League of Women Voters of Lane County supports Measure 20-114, the Lane County charter amendment to limit income taxes and to require they be spent for public safety. If approved, a new county income tax will generate increased funding for a range of correctional, treatment and prevention programs.

Although Lane County spends 61 percent of its discretionary budget on public safety, limited revenues have required significant budget cuts. Due to staff reductions, 4,000 offenders are released early every year and misdemeanors, such as theft, cannot be prosecuted. Law enforcement resources are woefully inadequate to protect citizens and to provide sanctions that encourage offenders to participate in alternative programs such as drug court.

For juvenile offenders, there would be increases in substance abuse treatment and the opening of 32 of 64 unused detention beds. The League, which supports violence prevention and early intervention programs as more effective and cheaper than incarceration, is particularly supportive of the increased funding 20-114 would provide for crime prevention, for substance abuse treatment and for programs reducing domestic violence.

Measure 20-114 proposes an income tax which, unlike property taxes, considers ability to pay. The proposal includes low income exemptions, personal deductions and property tax credits. To avoid a new bureaucracy, tax administration would be contracted to Portland, which has had a similar tax for decades.

FLORENCE ALVERGUE

NANCIE FADELEY

Co-presidents...

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