Background Numbers

In May of 1996, Jackson County asked voters to approve a new tax base. At $.74 per $1,000 of assessed value, it updated the previous tax base of 18 cents per thousand established in 1916 and replaced an expiring library levy of 53 cents per thousand. The campaign centered on all county services in the General Fund; libraries, County Health, public safety, parks, and land use.

In one of the early 1996 campaign meetings, Jack Walker spoke to the campaign committee offering both support and insight. He said that although he ran on a no-new-taxes platform, two years on the Board had opened his eyes to the need for a new tax base. It failed by 4%.

Voters polled said they did not trust the county to keep libraries whole and preferred to support two separate levies.

Four months later, voters were offered a new package with the county and libraries separated on the ballot. The county measure passed by 10 points and the library measure by 18 points.
Ironically, the second go-around involved a higher levy than the proposal that had failed just four months earlier. However, the September ballot stipulated how much each entity would receive: 62 cents per thousand for libraries and 28 cents per thousand for other county General Fund services.

Just two months later, in the November election, Measure 47 passed, sweeping all levies into municipal or county tax bases. The historical society’s 22 cents per thousand (established in 1947), the Criminal Levy (approved in 1995) for 63 cents per thousand, and the recently passed library and county levies plus the existing county tax base of 18 cents per thousand all became the new county tax base at just under $2 per thousand.

Since then, the majority of the Board of Commissioners and County Budget Committee have diligently worked to erase the voters’ last directive on property-tax expenditures.