Document text
House OKs plan for more troopers Wire and staff reports SALEM -- Another 18 troopers would patrol Southern Oregon's increasingly busy highways by 2001 under a new two-year State Police budget that won lopsided House approval Monday. It would put a total of 100 new troopers on the road statewide. The $165 million general fund budget is up by 14 percent from current spending and is in line with the total proposed by Gov. John Kitzhaber. The 1999-2001 budget went to the Senate on a 46-10 vote. The spending increase would raise the number of troopers from 380 to 405 by July and to 480 by January 2001. Some of the minority Democrats who voted against the measure said they were doing so out of principle -- to protest a lack of an overall budget plan from the Republicans. "We're budgeting in the dark," said Rep. Barbara Ross, D-Corvallis. Rep. Judy Uherbelau, D-Ashland, opposed the police budget on grounds that all the officers should be added this year instead of spreading the hiring over 18 months to minimize the impact on the two-year budget. "This budget is really smoke and mirrors," she said. "If we are going to add 100 troopers, we should add them up front. We should get them out there where they are needed now, not a year and a half from now." But Rep. Ben Westlund, R-Bend, chairman of the subcommittee that drafted the budget, said it's more sensible to phase in the new troopers because of training needs. State Police trooper ranks have dwindled from 641 two decades ago, when voters removed police from the highway trust fund, to 399 today. "The important thing is that we are putting 100 more State Police troopers on the road," said Rep. Rob Patridge, R-Medford, the budget's floor manager. "This needs to be done over time. We have done it many times before. We need to look at this so that we have time to recruit and train people." Of the 100 new troopers, OSP would assign 18 to a seven-county Southern Oregon region, including five in Central Point and three in Grants Pass. Others would go to Klamath Falls, Roseburg and Coos Bay. The State Police sought 200 more positions to bring the ranks to pre-1980 levels. Westlund said careful juggling allowed the panel to add 100 troopers when Kitzhaber initially had sought only 25 more. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA