Just a few hours after this article is released, the Josephine County Commissioners will meet in their weekly business session to finalize the terms of the Adult Jail and Juvenile Detention property tax levy renewal to be on the November 2026 ballot. This levy was first approved at a rate of $0.93 per $1000 of assessed value by voters back in 2017, and as local option levies are limited to 5 years in term, another voter renewal is now required.
There are different opinions out there as to whether the rate should change, whether to consider a services district for permanent funding of the Juvenile Justice detention center operations, and how much of a budget operating deficit is currently present in “Fund 17,” the Adult Jail & Juvenile Detention & Residential Fund. However, most understand the need to maintain the current operations of both the adult jail and the juvenile detention program. After all, juveniles sometimes commit the same types of crimes as adults and all three major police agencies that operate in Josephine County need the use of both the adult jail and the juvenile justice detention program.
Expense inflation has outpaced growth in property tax revenues and assessed values since the $0.93 levy was first approved by voters almost 10 years ago. Discussions by the Commissioners, Sheriff, and Community Justice Director in the last two months have included the potential of increasing the levy rate, renewing the levy at the same rate, or bringing voters a new service district proposal which would permanently provide new funding for the Juvenile Justice detention operations.
It has been stated that the Adult Jail needs the property tax rate equivalent of about $0.89 to fully fund the Adult Jail operations. This only leaves $0.04 for the Juvenile Justice detention program if the levy is renewed at the same $0.93 rate, despite the Juvenile Justice detention center needing a countywide property tax rate closer to $0.30 to fully fund this program.
Commissioners appear poised to simply renew the levy at the same rate of $0.93 as it has been for the last 10 fiscal years. But you’ll quickly see this math doesn’t add up, given the jail needs 89 cents and juvenile detention needs approximately 30 cents.
In my opinion, a simple renewal at the same $0.93 rate without a tax increase is the right way to go, and the ballot title and explanatory statement should explicitly state it is a renewal. Below is why we should simply stick to a renewal at the same rate for at least one more levy period.
If you look at the full budget for the jail or for juvenile detention, a tax rate of 89 cents for the jail and close to 30 cents for juvenile detention is close to the need. However, these figures appear to have been calculated assuming the full budget is spent and there are no temporary staffing vacancies or other budget savings throughout the year.
Over the last seven closed fiscal years, the two County Law Enforcement funds underspent their adopted budget by a total of close to 9.4% each year on average. Operations in the Adult Jail and Juvenile Detention Fund (also called Fund 17) have underspent their budgets by approximately 8.2% on average in the last seven years. Most savings in these types of programs come from staff turnover and temporary staffing vacancies throughout the year.
It’s also been stated recently by County officials that there is a deficit of close to $3 million per year if the County moves forward with the same 93-cent rate. But that’s not the case when you put some more realistic assumptions toward the budget projection.
The real deficit appears to be closer to $1.1 million per year based on FY27 budgeted amounts as shown in the chart I prepared above.
And the County’s FY27 budget adopted a couple months ago shows that the Jail and Detention Fund is starting the current fiscal year with a fund balance of about $2.4 million. Or in other words, there is still about $2.4 million in unspent levy revenues from the voter-approved Jail/Juvenile levies over the last 9 years. Further stated, it appears that the Jail/Juvenile Justice detention programs can get by for close to two more fiscal years before additional revenues are needed or before additional County General Fund subsidies would be needed for these programs.
Therefore, County Commissioners should be in no hurry to either increase the tax levy rate or go out for a public vote on a new tax-funded service district for the Juvenile Justice detention program. Voters should be presented with a simple levy renewal measure this November for the jail and juvenile detention levy at the same rate of $0.93 per $1000 of assessed value.
Then we can take our time over the next two years to study more precisely how much additional revenue may be needed to “fully fund” the jail and juvenile detention services. And the 93 cents plus the unspent levy revenues from the last levy term are enough to call this a “renewal” in the proposed ballot title and explanatory language.
Furthermore, the County’s General Fund balance now stands at over $21 million at the beginning of the current fiscal year according to budget documents. This is up from about $8 million just five years ago, providing another potential cushion to defer any necessary tax rate increases for at least the next 2-3 years.
That’s my two cents, or three minutes of public comment on the proposed $0.93 jail and juvenile detention levy renewal.