How much more money do our county workers make compared to other counties overall? I have a friend who started working for the county recently and I don't think he's going to be moving out of his trailer home any time soon, so I doubt he's making that much per hour. I'd like some hard facts to go with these hard problems. I think we need to lay up on the drug crime arrests too. Though it's scary that the county has already let the drug arrests go, and this is violent arrests they are releasing right now.

How about not arresting people for drug crimes? They are not hurting anyone but themselves. What a waste of time and money the Drug War is. Make drug use a medical concern, not a legal one.

I gave up 5% to keep my job and have to pay all my 401 and only make about 30,000 a year and have to pay half my insurance.. How about some county workers and officals cutting back...

I'll bet the idiots on the board never even considered lowering their own pay or laying of some board members to help cut expenses.

Ricky, you are correct the tail has wagged the dog long enough. I can recall when Eugene was a logging town. The ambulance service was run by a guy by the name of Leonard. There was a jail way smaller than now and they were not constantly letting criminals out all the time. Now if you watch, they roll fire trucks on almost all accidents, haz mat people if there is a quart of gas spilled. Sometimes dozens of police converge on incidents. I can remember times when there was only one State Trooper out in the whole of Lane County on the graveyard shift, and if he was lucky if there would be a Deputy Sheriff out also. I can remember times when State Troopers controlled and directed traffic at accident scenes, assessed the situation and then called for needed personnel. Now ODOT directs traffic, and everyone shows up whether needed or not. Oh, I know someone out there will say "If we save one life it is worth it"., and I agree up to a point, but you still don't need a fire truck on a minor fender bender. There are so many things they could do to save money, and for starters PERS needs to be reformed. Government employees need to pay their half of their retirement instead of the taxpayer footing the whole bill. We need to quit putting people in State positions that are already drawing a 100 grand plus on PERS, Rosenblum, Attorney General for one. This is crazy folks, the tail has wagged the dog long enough.

POSTALONE, wow, we agree on something! As for the so called timber payments, WHY should thousands of taxpayers across the country have to share the burden of running OUR local government services? Local taxpayers should PAY for the services they need and use. Also, local government should live within the means of the community they serve. This does NOT mean bloated salaries, benefits and retirements, to name just a few. As far as letting the criminals out of prison, if any of the released commits a violent crime or murder, all involved in his improper release should be charged in the same way you or I would be charged if we aided, abetted or helped facilitate such a crime. The penalties for this strictly political act should be swift and severe as possible. Those who have taken a vow to “Protect and Serve” and do just the opposite should loose their position, their retirement AND their freedom. It’s time for the community to dictate to our public servants, NOT the other way around.

The lost timber payments have been known about for years and lane county has done nothing but cry about no funds. It doesnt appear that these cuts were prioritized but rather are trying to cause panic by letting ciminals out of jail and cutting law enforcement. I wonder how they will handle the lawsuit if one these cons who are let out kill someone.

188 full time workers being fired IS reducing the payroll... This has nothing to do with unions either...

Maybe it's time to consider reducing the over-compensated public workers? Benefit packages far exceed what we can afford and demanded by unions. Give the employees an options to not join unionsand not pay union dues and the rest of us a chance to improve our town where unions are pushing their agendas to get more power and collect more revenue.

Releasing criminals is the best these idiots can come up with? How about cutting some payroll? We have the lowest jail capacity in the nation, how is that new police station going to rank? The most magnificant police station in the nation but no place for criminals? Lane County has some screwed up priorities.