Oregon Legal Research Blog
Cutting public sector budgets is a complex enterprise. Sometime cutting $$ out of a budget means cutting 2, 3, or 20 times the original $$ cut, e.g. when you cut a budget item and lose the matching funds or when you cut “officers of the state” positions (e.g. state police or state park rangers) and lose the revenue from licenses or law enforcement.
Sometimes it makes sense to spend money to make money, which can work in the public sector the same way this works in the private sector. For example:
Oregon has a variety of county, municipal, and justice courts. And now it has a new county justice court. Read the online Blue Book entry on justice court judges (or follow the OJD link). You can also read the state statutes on Justice Court: ORS, Chapter 51.010 et seq.
Clackamas County’s new Justice Court has a new Justice of the Peace: Oregon City attorney named Clackamas County judge, by Steve Mayes, The Oregonian, Monday June 15, 2009.
Excerpts:
“Karen Brisbin, an Oregon City criminal defense attorney, is scheduled to be sworn in today as Clackamas County Justice of the Peace.
Brisbin, 58, will oversee the county’s newly formed Justice Court. She currently serves as the Sandy municipal judge and has been an attorney since 1981.
The part-time judicial position pays about $44,000 a year, and the appointee will serve through 2010. In November 2010, voters will select someone to serve a full six-year term….
…
The county estimates that within three years, the court would raise about $1.9 million a year, which would pay for traffic safety programs.” (read full article)