As votes trickle in on Measure 28, the Oregon State Police can’t help but turn a pessimistic cheek to what the failure of the proposed three-year state income tax increase could mean — less employees, less hours, but worst of all, less money.
If voters don’t approve the $300-million tax package for this biennium, $6.33 million will be trimmed from Oregon’s state police budget and 321 positions will be cut, Public Information Officer Lt. Glenn Chastain said. Many employees have already been given notice of impending layoffs, and with Measure 28’s failure, the cuts will go into effect.
“Measure 28 has no chance of passing,” Lt. Russ Burger said. “Right after the holidays and before tax season, nobody wants an increase.”
As an area commander, Burger supervises operations in Springfield, Florence and Oakridge. The Florence and Oakridge justice courts are very dependent on state funding, and Burger said Oakridge is presently operating at 25 percent of its normal effectiveness.
“Even if (legislators) pull a rabbit out of the hat, the damage is done and no one is looking back,” he said.
Chastain said 380 letters were sent to employees; 205 of which were sent to professional staff and 175 to sworn positions.
According to Terry Bekkedahl, director of the Oregon State Police Forensics Lab in Springfield, the sworn positions are uniformed officers who have been in the force since before 1990, the year the division turned to a non-sworn process. Sworn officers are involved in patrol, criminal justice and fish and wildlife, and make up 25 to 30 percent of the state patrol, Bekkedahl said.
“We’re not anticipating any funding from that measure,” he said.
The Springfield lab manages investigation evidence and court requests from several cities across the state, including Ontario, Pendleton, Bend, Central Point, Portland and Salem. As the second largest lab in the Forensics division, funding and employee retention are key to the effective processing of hundreds of criminal cases. Bekkedahl said the lab covers a variety of crimes from shoplifting to homicide, and added that the predicted loss of funding will significantly hinder performance.
“We serve the public,” he said, “but we do the leg work for the district attorney and law enforcement agencies statewide.”
An estimated 600 requests are sent to the lab every month, equating to more than 50,000 pieces of evidence studied at the location annually, he said. From the shoe and tire impressions left at a burglary to the semen and saliva samples taken from a rape victim, Bekkedahl said the evidence studied by forensic scientists and analysts is sent in from counties stretching from West Douglas to Polk.
“We don’t have enough people and we no longer can get info back to investigators in a timely matter,” he said.
Bekkedahl said he was forced to layoff nine of his 22 personal employees on Jan. 2 — the date of numerous statewide cutbacks — in anticipation of little or no funding after the special election. The Springfield lab currently employs the only full-time firearms expert in Oregon and doesn’t have any form of administrative support to help file daily cases.