Benton County may have asked for too much when it put an unsuccessful $110 million bond measure on the May 16 ballot — or perhaps didn’t clearly communicate the need for it.
Whatever the reason, officials say they intend to find out in the coming months why Measure 2-140 failed so spectacularly before they ask taxpayers once again to back a proposed jail.
Commissioner Xan Augerot said it’s too soon to know when elected officials will again send a request for new tax funding to constituents, but she was among officials who said the county will move as soon as possible to ask voters what motivated their choices this time around.
“I know that we would like to go out while we still have interest and community attention,” Augerot said.
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The economy
By Friday evening, May 19, officials had counted 24,209 ballots out of 60,120 registered voters — an about 40.6% turnout. The gap narrowed slightly, from 14.2 to 13.7 points, 13,758 voting against and 10,451 saying yes.
Nearly everyone who returned a ballot voted on the measure. Just 192 returned ballots did not count as a vote.
With turnout close to historic returns for a special election, voters appeared poised to defeat the linchpin component in a sweeping, nearly $200 million overhaul of the county’s criminal justice system.
The ballot measures that failed last Tuesday generally asked voters for new money, according to analysts, while those seeking to renew tax obligations fared much better.
Local governments across Oregon put 58 funding measures to a vote on May 16. By the following morning, 42 appeared set to pass.
Of the 16 that were failing, eight were for bond measures, according to a Portland-based pollster and analyst.
Others asked for rate hikes or new tax mechanisms, John Horvick, vice president at DHM Research, noted on Twitter.
He was responding to Curtis Wright, a communications consultant who volunteered to represent the political action committee backing the Benton County ballot measure.
Wright said in an interview on election night that voters likely balked at the potential increase to their tax bill.
He quoted a Bill Clinton campaign slogan coined by consultant James Carville: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Climbing price tag
The price for revamping the justice system began climbing last year.
The measure grew to include provisions for buildings that could host frontline services for folks without shelter or in mental health crises.
A consultant had told the county keeping people out of the criminal justice system was among the most effective ways to support the criminal justice system.
A 2019 report concluded interceding in someone’s life before they’re interacting with police can keep that person from charges of crime for being unhoused or having a mental health crisis.
It was step zero, according to the county-ordered analysis — diversion around the criminal justice system from the start. A 911 call usually puts a police officer in front of someone in a crisis, where social workers or people specially trained in de-escalation might funnel that person into social care programs instead of jail.
Crisis intervention teams and telephone support lines became mandatory in Oregon, largely in line with a federal response to protests over the police murder of George Floyd in 2020.
But Benton County has been courting the voters long before then. The question since the start of the millennium has been how to more than double the 40-bed capacity of the jail built in 1976.
Originally expected to be a temporary fix, the jail has been outdated for years, and the county spends about $1.2 million each year housing inmates in other jails in Marion and Wasco counties.
Benton County asked for $18.9 million to build a jail in 2000 Oregon May primary election; $17.7 million for a jail in the 2001 November general election.
More recently, the county sought $25 million in November 2015, when voters missed approving a bond measure by just 5 percentage points.
Since then, jails are under increased demand. Inmates who are violent offenders can’t be housed with nonviolent offenders. Jail officials also say courts slowed down during the coronavirus pandemic, causing lockups to fill up with inmates awaiting trial.
In a 2018 study, Benton County projected a need for 107 beds to accommodate an expected average inmate population of 92.
The need for a jail, however, was just one component of the bond proposal.
Justice system
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