I have long stated that local government budgeting is both a science and an art. The science is doing the accounting and reporting for past fiscal years correctly and in accordance with budget law and government accounting standards. The art is in doing future budget forecasts and trying to provide advice on the most sustainable way to finance critical departments such as law enforcement which are at the core of what government does here at the local level.
In my opinion, several past commissioners we’ve had here in Josephine County appear to be challenged by both the art and the science. And in my opinion, the Josephine County Finance Director that the County had for the few years leading up to early 2025 was definitely not a talented artist.
This led to extremely chaotic and inappropriate budget decisions during the budget processes in both 2024 and 2025. Budget processes and decisions in 2026 are headed in a better direction, one that finally honors promises made to voters.
Allow me to explain, without going too far into the budget weeds.
Cities and counties have a bunch of dedicated and restricted revenue sources that can only be used for specific purposes. The “General Fund” is the only part of the budget that has some tax and other revenues that can be given to various departments as needed. Most cities and counties in Oregon tend to prioritize public safety services in who gets available discretionary revenues.
Municipalities like Grants Pass and Josephine County provide General Fund dollars to many departments that are mandatory services, and then in Josephine County’s case what’s left tends to be prioritized for law enforcement and justice services such as the Sheriff, District Attorney, and Juvenile Justice. Most other major departments of Josephine County have their own funding sources outside of the General Fund.
At least that’s how it generally worked until the 2024 budget season in Josephine County.
Josephine County has long struggled to finance law enforcement and justice services. The County really hit the wall in 2012 when federal funding sources that were meant to replace timber funding in the 18 “O&C” counties were severely curtailed. And Josephine County has the lowest “permanent” property tax rate from back in the 1990s when permanent rates were arbitrarily frozen at the time by newly voter-approved state constitutional measures. Cities and counties have had to use the creation of voter approved districts or voter approved operating levies to change property tax rates anytime a change needed to be made in the last 30 years.
Josephine County started turning the corner in 2017 when voters approved a 93-cent levy for the operations of the adult jail and juvenile justice (most going to the adult jail operations). Then in November 2023, Josephine County voters approved a law enforcement services district at a rate of 99 cents per $1000 of assessed value to finance the operations of the Sheriff (other than the adult jail).
In campaigning for the law enforcement district, the Sheriff said the projected $5.5 million of new annual tax revenues would allow the Sheriff to add 27 staff members to significantly enhance rural patrol and response. Basically, the entirety of Josephine County outside the City of Grants Pass would now finally again have a local police presence and response that are expected and provided in most parts of the modern US.
Except in the 2024 budget process, led by former Commissioners Herman Baertschiger and John West along with an art-challenged Finance Director Sandy Novak, general fund money was taken away from the Sheriff and promises the Sheriff made to voters were temporarily broken by the commissioners. And then it happened again in 2025, primarily led by former Commissioners Barnett and Blech.
I was in one private meeting in 2024 where recalled former commissioner John West stated that the Finance Director (Sandy Novak at the time) told him that due to inflation and other factors, the new law enforcement services district just approved by voters would be essentially worthless in about 5 years. Or in other words, the incremental value by the district’s new 99-cent property tax rate would be completely used up within just five years. Well that is some abstract art that is, frankly, just flat out wrong. And during the 2026 budget season the veteran (retired) Finance Director that was brought in to get the County through the current year budget process essentially admitted that the 5-year forecast is not accurate and should not be relied upon for longer-term forecasting.
Despite promising 27 new staff members in the sheriff’s office, in 2024 because general fund money was taken away from the Sheriff as compared to recent years, the Sheriff was only given 5 new staff members. Recalled former Commissioner John West tried to argue for only giving the Sheriff 3 new staff members that year but was outvoted by others on the budget committee. So now voters were paying for 27 new staff members but only getting 5 new staff members.
In 2025, it got a little better, but law enforcement staffing promises were still not fulfilled. Led primarily by Commissioners Blech and Barnett, approximately 6 new staff members were added to the Sheriff’s budget during the 2025 budget process, and now we’re up to about 11 total new staff members under the Sheriff versus the promise and annual tax payments for the equivalent of 27. The Sheriff was still not happy, but he took what he could get and said this would be just barely enough for the Sheriff’s office to finally get back to 24/7 patrol services after several additional officers were hired and ready to serve.
In the meantime, recalled former commissioner John West brags about the County “saving” $2 million during his short tenure as commissioner before being recalled by voters. In reality, taking general fund money away from the Sheriff is why the General Fund reserve increased by about $2 million during that fiscal year.
Josephine County voters for two years have been paying for something they didn’t receive, and promises to voters have not been honored. But finally, the current 2026 Josephine County commissioners are poised to honor voters and finally give us what we’ve been paying for since the 2023 law enforcement services district voter approval.
During recent Josephine County Budget Committee hearings over the last two weeks, the Sheriff requested 10 more staff members in order to come close to fulfilling those district promises. The Budget Committee approved that request, and at least two of the three Josephine County Commissioners appear poised to keep those 10 new positions in the 2026-2027 budget when they adopt the budget at the Board level later this month.
The one Commissioner, Commissioner Richardson, who wasn’t fully in line with this request simply wanted to see the Sheriff fill all his current vacant positions before we add another 10 positions to his budget but did not appear averse to adding these 10 positions. As the Sheriff said, it’s necessary to add the 10 new positions into the budget for longer-term planning purposes, even if he may not be able to hire all 10 new positions in the next fiscal year. The process of hiring and training new qualified deputies is a long process.
Former Commissioner Herman Baertschiger was on the Bill Meyer Radio Show on Tuesday, June 9th, showing that he neither understands the art nor the science behind the Josephine County budget process. Implying that the 2026 Josephine County budget process was one of the most chaotic budget processes ever, and citing some alleged facts about the General Fund balance and the Josephine County “reserves” that were just flat out incorrect, Herman Baertschiger proclaimed that “we” are going to take a very hard look at this budget after the Board adopts the budget later this month. Who the “we” is remains unclear.
Baertschiger cited a $9 million General Fund balance, when the budget shows that the General Fund will start next fiscal year with a projected beginning fund balance of $21.8 million. Baertschiger may have learned a lot about the State’s budget during the eight years he was a state senator, but he clearly didn’t learn much about Josephine County’s budget during the four years he was a County Commissioner through the end of 2024.
It is quite puzzling to me how anyone could cite Herman Baertschiger as a Josephine County budget expert when basic quoted “facts” such as the General Fund balance are so wrong. And former commissioners Herman Baertschiger and recalled commissioner John West were the chief architects of taking General Fund money away from the Sheriff two years ago, so it stands to reason they both have something to benefit from continuing to confuse the public about the real financial position of Josephine County.
All that being said, the bottom line is that the current Josephine County Board of Commissioners appears poised to finally honor the Sheriff’s promises made to voters in 2023 when voters approved the Law Enforcement Services District. As I stated for the third year in a row when I testified to the budget committee last week:
“It’s time we now honor promises to voters. There is no pending fiscal cliff. The only pending challenge facing Josephine County is the renewal of the Jail/Juvenile Justice operating levy in the next year. And I think that can be renewed in some form without an increase in the tax rate. But that’s another discussion for another day!”