The vote for Jackson County Commissioners
Rick Dyer and Colleen Roberts have been in office since 2015. They both were part of the group of commissioners that voted themselves a pay increase that makes them some of the highest paid Commissioners in the state. They have failed to modernize the county building permitting system, using the state's system, which has resulted in delays and problems. This includes a failure to respond to the emergencies that occurred during the Talent fire and the rebuilding afterward.
Let me summarize it this way. They have built up an immense "rainy day" fund of $264 million. That is about double the cost to run the county for a year. The good part of that is that Jackson hasn't suffered any of the deficits that other counties have experienced. The bad part of that is that they have collected money from the county without using that money for the good of the county. It doesn't do anyone any good sitting in a bank account. I'd argue this is almost as bad as running the county on a knife's edge.
They do use the money for concrete things. Airport improvements, animal shelter buildings etc. They will spend money on one time expenditures. But if they can stuff away tens of millions of dollars and not use it for the public then they are collecting too much money in taxes. Note: we already have some of the lowest county taxation. That means they are not providing the services they could and should.
A county isn't a business and shouldn't be run like one. It's a public service that should provide services and use the funds we have to make our lives better.
The services the county doesn't provide? They do not contribute to library services, mental health facilities, homeless facilities, or transitional housing.
All that unspent money isn't serving the public interest.