Klamath Falls, Ore. – Battle lines are now being drawn in Klamath County over a jail levy coming on a special election ballot in May.
The levy would raise about 5 million dollars a year for 5 years to fund jail operations.
If passed, property taxes would go up by $1.14 per thousand dollars of assessed value.
While he doesn’t like taxes, Klamath Falls city councilman Bill Adams supports measure 18-100…
‘I just have a tough time not adding the dollar fourteen to that, and going and making sure these people stay in jail.”
Werner Reschke is not in favor of the measure…
“Because we’ll never control costs if we keep giving them more, and more, and more.”
Reschke is the man behindwww.klamathjaillevy.com – an anti-jail levy site.
Backers of the ballot measure have a website, too: www.klamathpublicsafety.org
Bill Adams believes the levy will be good for the local economy in the long run…
“We’re working on economic development in this community, and if we can’t at least keep the criminals in jail, I think we present the county with a really poor picture of what things look like here.”
Former Klamath County Commissioner Dennis Linthicum disagrees…
“If we don’t pay attention to the surrounding community and business environment and people on fixed income, we’ll never be able to continue this onslaught of rising and escalating costs.”
The question will ultimately be answered by Klamath County voters on May 19th.
There’s still time to register to vote in Klamath County’s May special election…April 28th is the deadline.
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