Curry and Josephine Counties

 House Majority Leader Val Hoyle, D-Eugene invoked precisely the right metaphor when she said, "I don't feel good that we have parts of Oregon that are becoming like parts of Appalachia.”  There are many reasons for the financial death spiral of the poorest counties.  But much seems to be made of the fact that the poorest counties, particularly Josephine and Curry, have the lowest property taxes in the state.  This is an outdated legacy from another time.  Once, timber revenues provided sufficient funds for all county operations and services.  Perhaps the counties should have raised their property taxes but, as observed by the Oregonian editorial board, “It's hard to vote for a tax increase when you don't have a job.”

This is still only the second worst economic depression in 100 years.  During the worst one, there was leadership at the federal level for a more enlightened response.  No one thought to tax the citizens of Appalachia to provide them with adequate services – schools, police, prisons, or emergency response.  If it had been considered it would have been dismissed out of hand as absurd.  Instead the Tennessee Valley Authority built dams up and down the Tennessee River.  This provided jobs immediately in construction and in perpetuity for operation, management and maintenance.  It provided flood control and priceless recreational assets that we enjoy to this day.  The Rural Electrification Act widened the focus to bring electricity to rural areas throughout the country, to backwaters that could not provide the economies of scale needed by the private sector to make the effort possible.

I don’t know the precise modern equivalents of the concrete and steel monuments of the last century.  I know that environmental assets can be managed and that there is some yet-to-be-found balance between – say - commercial logging, and environmental stewardship.  I know that, more and more, critical services like health care can be decentralized and that this by itself can mean jobs.  I know that a fast internet connection can make it possible for many different stripes of entrepreneur to work from anywhere.  I know that high tech in farming, power generation, transportation and tourism can support a rural economy in a way that can protect the environment and provide people with a livelihood.

Punishing Curry and Josephine counties with income taxes because they did not levy the property taxes to support their community will not work.  The quaint New Deal  home remedies of relief, recovery and reform might – but not right away.  And the needed revenue will not be found in the cash strapped rural counties.  That stable revenue base has to come from outside.  It will take imagination, leadership and investment at the state and federal level to see the way through this long dark tunnel.