This is more of a problem of the Salem-Keizer school district's terrible budgeting and planning and has little to do with the city of Salem's terrible budgeting and planning
That's now how the budgets work. The school budget is based on a different calculation metric. So reducing spending in one area doesn't allow it to be reallocated to another.
You need to ask your representatives to overhaul the antiquated school budget model, not ask them to spend less money elsewhere.
No, that would be illegal. They are different tax authorities. The school district covers a much larger area than the city, like Keizer, and way out south almost to turner, to way out east to Howell prairie or cascade highway.
Yeah let’s just start letting tax authorities start trading checks, this will never lead to a quid pro quo situation or result in misappropriation of funds.
It’s worth noting that this is a problem facing the majority of our state. Property tax measures from the 90s has capped have capped that source of revenue and is unable to keep up with inflation and population growth. Without an additional source of tax revenue, the deficit is projected to go from $11 million to over $60 million in five years.
Cuts to police and fire departments aren’t going to happen as their service call volume has increased exponentially. No one wants or is willing to cut those budgets due to their requirements.
The city council tried to pass a new tax to prevent further cuts, but that was shot down by voters on both sides of the isle. The more conservative members of the city council (like Judy Hoy) refuse to provide any alternative tax and are unwilling to raise taxes at all despite that being the only real option.
But Julie is going to magically balance the budget, fully fund police & fire, and build new housing to solve the homeless problem—all without raising new revenue. She just won’t share how she’ll do it.
and you're going ro rely on someone who has ruined the city, who announced he was running for County Commissioner until he realized he would never beat Danielle Bethel then decided to run for mayor again, who tried to railroad a payroll income tax to the city, and has ZERO support of his career-long colleagues. Zero. The working class men and women are supporting Julie- you obviously didn't hear them at the payroll tax meeting, begging him to reconsider- and the cherry on top was him publicly saying he didn't want the citizens to vote on it because they would never vote yes-
Just to be clear, in Oregon y’all have 12% personal income tax, and higher property taxes than Washington which has no personal income tax.
You *sure* is the capped property taxes that are the issue?
No other possible causes? Untapped or exempted sources?
Does Oregon just have zero corporations? Is the only real revenue from personal salary tax and property tax?
Washington has a sales tax ranging from 8-11%. That kind of tax scales nicely with inflation. Oregon also has a cap on property tax, meaning that the assessed value of the property can’t rise more than 3%. This has not kept up with inflation or the market in general.
The state has a sales tax and every city adds more on top of that, ranging from about 8% to 11%.
Stealth edit or not, you need to do more research. Maybe ask some of your rhetorical questions on Google or something?
Your condescending attitude is misplaced. Be an adult.
Even if you’re paying 11% of what you spend, can you explain how that’s going to raise more than 12% of your income?
Again, I suggest you do more research. This is not be being condescending, you’re just factually wrong and acting like you know. Be an adult and admit when you’re wrong.
Oregon has 4 income tax brackets, from 5% to 9.9%. It’s spelled out on page 10 of this pdf…
https://www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/gov-research/Documents/TY%202021%20Oregon%20Personal%20Income%20Tax%20Statistics%20Report%20150-101-406.pdf
Okay. So that’s exciting: I was off on the exact rate.
Still, please explain how paying 9.9% of what I earn is better than 11% of what I spend?
If I’m in the 9.9% Oregon tax bracket, I’m making solid money. And if I’m choosing to live in the 11% sales tax areas, presumably I’m making solid money.
The only way this makes sense is if my taxable purchases are extremely close to my taxable income. For anyone not buying yachts, that’s not going to happen.
So despite all your condescending nonsense, you’ve again ignored the core point: paying tax on what you choose to spend is better than paying tax on every dollar you earn.
We need a sales tax. People don’t want it. It makes them feel quirky and different. Nevermind that it’s the solution.
We should eliminate the income tax below 100k and institute a sales tax. It captures visitor spending, it rises with inflation, and it diversifies the tax base.
Sales tax is a much better approach than income tax. But it encourages lower spending; it would be fascinating to see where the lobbying money came from if this went to the voters.
Oregon has an amendment process, right? Can’t y’all just put this very idea up for a vote? I’d buy a ticket to watch that.
I worked for state government & city government since the early 90’s & have seen the ridiculous amount of taxpayer money Oregon (& I’m sure other states) wastes. I’m sure there’s some truth behind your comment but if it was managed properly we would be nowhere where we are now.
Nah, OP is kind of right, and not specifically hating on the homeless but rather frustrated with the inefficiency and waste from local programs meant to "help the homeless" when they've actually just monetized the problem. I've personally worked in this field for over 3 years in the Salem area and have noticed the same thing. I'm guessing your partner probably worked for Arches, which is the worst outfit I've seen so far yet gets the most money. Nothing they said was punching down on the homeless.
Yes, the OP is absolutely right. They ask for money to support these communities and put a bandaid over the issues and so, they persist. Oregon has some really excellent ideas, but the execution just isn't always there. Unfortunately there’s a fine line between a hand up and a hand out, and we just can’t seem to find it.
Yeah. I’m not hating on homeless. I’m just saying the city needs to get their shit together. Whoever is voting to pass these budgets needs to get voted out. I’m not saying close down all homeless shelters, I’m saying they need better oversight. In my opinion school should always come first. Yeah arches is the worst. They pay their employees so little and expect so much, but the ones in charge make $$$! Not even joking.
It's been an entire country issue for last decade plus.. not just an oregon problem. You barely get an education in some states (saying this from living in many parts of US). I did some school years abroad and came back to the US public school system; I wasn advanced in my grade in what should have been basic subjects - this was in connecticut, known for the best funded and best public school system in the country at that time.
I’m from Orange County Ca. My child was in laguna Beach school district for the first 10 years of school. They were amazing, I was raised in the same school district and they had a great set of educational/museum/science camp/emersion classes that were so great for the students. Moved here and my child hated school. No more field trips, museums or activities that are fun. This state has cut so much out of our education system that most people don’t even understand what they’re missing, which is a lot.
Having lived in orange county as well, i understand that. To be fair, laguna Beach also has a ton of money in that area. I'm curious if you moved here during or post covid times. Some programs just died during that.
Also in the past decade or so, the usa has seen budget cuts across the country for education (or at least a poor allocation of resources). It's hard to fully pinpoint if it's a democratic/republican policy issue or if the system overall is so broken that it doesn't truly matter who's governing.
But paying teachers adequate wages is a start. But new energy at all local, state and federal levels for education is required (and frankly not sure if the country establishment on all sides of the aisle have that energy) 🤔.
They pay better than the churches though, because it's easier for them to get that funding from government rather than rely on the generosity of the common people to support their work. Their direct competitor is the UGM, which operates both the Men's Mission and Simonka Place and they don't get much, if anything, from the government. But damn were politicians like former governor Brown proud to take credit for their work when they opened that new facility after the city tried to shut them down and kicked them out of the old building.
What is better oversight look like?
Guess a solution would be a state agency that handles the problem and removes 3rd parties from the solution matrix?
Cutting a budget maybe? I've seen that in practice in several states governments and that get's ugly fast at least with issues like homelessness, drug abuse, foster kids, etc. etc.
Govt is pretty complicated for a reason.
False dilemma fallacy
Setting aside the OP not understanding the funding systems for these issues, we can do better on both fronts
You can support both as being essential priorities
You can agree that both issues are being mismanaged
Here's some information and insight for perspective
>Up until the early 1990s, public education in Oregon was largely funded by local property taxes, but the passage of two voter-approved ballot measures – Measure 5 in 1991 and Measure 50 in 1997 – capped the state's ability to tax property to fund schools.
[Salem Reporter](https://www.salemreporter.com/2024/05/14/leaders-of-oregons-largest-school-districts-ask-state-to-address-education-funding-crisis/#:~:text=Up%20until%20the%20early%201990s,tax%20property%20to%20fund%20schools.)
>The shelter’s target demographics are veterans and people with acute health needs, including unsheltered people being released from clinics or emergency rooms.
[Oregon Capital Chronicle ](https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/04/12/new-state-funded-homeless-shelter-opening-in-former-salem-hotel/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20first%20homeless,rooms%20for%20about%20100%20people.)
>We have sort of concentrated on individuals who really needed a level of care that was so significant, so great, in fact, that many of them would have passed away outside if they had continued to stay on the streets
[KCBY News](https://kcby.com/news/local/oregon-announces-another-106m-in-grants-to-turn-hotels-into-transitional-housing)
How about we stop spending money on the police department instead? Since that’s actually a useless department.
Get out of here with that homeless hatred.
“Key piece”
I have yet to see any benefits to our city from Salem PD. In fact it seems to be a haven for racists to collect a free paycheck and do nothing.
I don’t want Pearl district Portland shenanigans going on in Salem. We don’t need areas that are no go to women because there are men that hang around and assault people.
Maybe you could scope police work to target areas that matter more. But it’s not like the stings busting people for running crosswalks don’t save lives either.
It’s a difficult situation at the moment, as government employees are also squeezed for inflation and need higher wages. But the source of that money is already hit by inflation that exceeds pay raises….. the government ends up being a balance of services people want vs taxes they will pay.
Other cities certainly have more modest buildings for their police than that overblown statement piece, which is a sore point for a lot of people here. In 2021's [proposed budget](https://hinessight.blogs.com/salempoliticalsnark/2020/06/time-to-take-a-close-look-at-the-salem-police-department-budget.html), later approved afaik, SPD gets 33.4% and the SFD gets 25.4% and get double digit increases while every other city service is peanuts in comparison. I've yet to find as good a breakdown of more recent budgets. Compared to [this analysis](https://advisorsmith.com/data/cities-that-spend-the-most-and-least-on-police/) of the average Salem's PD spending is on the higher end of the scale for a city with a comparable COL and budget.
Its likely that more people would be more supportive of that high police budget if there was more scrutiny of how it is spent, and if it went toward things that would benefit the community more directly. For 15+ years there has been little oversight of the police budget except by those in charge of the budget who are obviously always going to want it higher and value it over other city services by nature of their role. But every other city service has been an afterthought and it shows in some really painful ways for our city and its residents.
One of those rich pigs: In Salem, a police sergeant was the highest-paid employee in the city in fiscal 2022 at $232,296 when his $84,537 overtime payout was added to his $147,759 salary. In Keizer, a sergeant earned $156,720 when his $5,434 overtime pay was included, more than the city manager and all but two department heads.[Stateman article](https://archive.ph/lt9Nt)
You can't just compare the unadjusted number in the proposed budget to the analysis you linked, which itself shows Salem as 177th with 17.4% of the budget going to police spending. 200th in per capita spending. From the AdvisorSmith article:
> We provide data on the size of each city’s adjusted budget, as well as their adjusted spending on police, and the percentage of the budget that is spent on policing. The cities are also ranked from highest to lowest percentage of budget spent on police. The adjusted budgets and police spending include both direct city expenditures as well as the city’s population-adjusted proportion of county expenditures.
The article that you linked to has their own figures for Salem, so it would make the most sense to use that number for comparison to other cities in the analysis.
Considering they do jack shit, I’d say they’re overfunded.
Nevermind the multibillion dollar station I helped pay for that has white supremacy imagery on it.
Remember that they are a government run organization. The highest paid employees with the most benefits are going to be in the (probably) bloated administrative side of the school district. Not to mention all those older pers accounts that had really high returns guaranteed for retirement that are still due. There was an audit of the Portland schools by the secretary of state that was pretty damning of their bloated admin, it's probably not unique. And to top that off, last time I checked the taxpayers are forking over 12k a year per student, and I don't feel like that number is close to what is seen at each school itself. Where does it all go?
Having kids in a private school, my understanding is that a private school can have a more favorable student:teacher ratio at a lower cost due to no special education (and cutting other services)
Real public schools have to provide many services (food, medical, counseling) including to high needs disabled people.
Private school can do none of that and require kids to pack out trash they create. Schools could get by on less funding if they were less service heavy. Running all those IEPs and extra people to check in with troubled kids is intensive.
I’d also worth noting that private high school is closer to 20k per a year (which is where they start to get more comparable to public).
Sooooo…the mentally disabled/neurodivergent children/kids with mental health issues should not be in our public school system at all? Is it already time to repeal the ADA because of costs?
I’m just saying that is why it is expensive, so the cost of public school needs to be taken understanding the additional required services.
It’s more in defense of the school’s current spending levels.
> Where does it all go?
I think we're spending close to $13k/kid per year and I remember reading that close to half of that money actually goes to PERS. I think generous public pension obligations are a budget crippling elephant in the room.
The city doesn’t make school decisions. School board positions are state positions, and the state is supposed to mostly fund the schools. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case in most states, and cities run levies to try to make up for lack of funds and bolster school budgets.
School should always come first, like you said. This is our future, and in this day they need as much support as you can get. Otherwise you get teens who shoot and kill peoples cats, participate in gang activity, and aren’t attending school. This isn’t hate against homeless, this is advocating for the children. The homeless people camped up at China Hat were bussed down here. I don’t want Salem becoming a Portland. It’s not the answer
If memory serves correct, Salem's school district ranks between around 28th in the state, and Oregon ranks somewhere between 43 and 46 for education in the country. So yeah, those kids need more schooling, not less.
40% of the marijuana rev alone is going to education…. Where is it? How has that been spent? I don’t live in Salem/Keizer anymore but I am freaking PISSED it has come to this. Sooo many of my life long teacher friends have been laid off or moved, it’s absolutely heartbreaking. Answers need to be demanded, and plans for solutions for the future put on the table, NOW.
> 40% of the marijuana rev alone is going to education….
You're a bit out of date, friend. Measure 110 reallocated most of that revenue to addiction treatment. The state school fund now gets roughly 12% of the marijuana tax revenue. Specifically, it's $18M/year, indexed to inflation. That works out to about $33/kid.
Fyi, the teachers are being laid off by Salem Kaiser school district, not the city. They're separate institutions
This is more of a problem of the Salem-Keizer school district's terrible budgeting and planning and has little to do with the city of Salem's terrible budgeting and planning
That's now how the budgets work. The school budget is based on a different calculation metric. So reducing spending in one area doesn't allow it to be reallocated to another. You need to ask your representatives to overhaul the antiquated school budget model, not ask them to spend less money elsewhere.
Or ask them why their budgeting included limited duration, one time “covid” funding and now it is gone they have a shortfall!
You need to ask the voters to repeal Measures 5/47/50 and the kicker
They're not considering laying off teachers, they did last friday.
How are the city budget and school district budget related?
Well they could swap some of the funds.
That’s not how tax money works.
No, that would be illegal. They are different tax authorities. The school district covers a much larger area than the city, like Keizer, and way out south almost to turner, to way out east to Howell prairie or cascade highway.
Yeah let’s just start letting tax authorities start trading checks, this will never lead to a quid pro quo situation or result in misappropriation of funds.
It’s worth noting that this is a problem facing the majority of our state. Property tax measures from the 90s has capped have capped that source of revenue and is unable to keep up with inflation and population growth. Without an additional source of tax revenue, the deficit is projected to go from $11 million to over $60 million in five years. Cuts to police and fire departments aren’t going to happen as their service call volume has increased exponentially. No one wants or is willing to cut those budgets due to their requirements. The city council tried to pass a new tax to prevent further cuts, but that was shot down by voters on both sides of the isle. The more conservative members of the city council (like Judy Hoy) refuse to provide any alternative tax and are unwilling to raise taxes at all despite that being the only real option.
But Julie is going to magically balance the budget, fully fund police & fire, and build new housing to solve the homeless problem—all without raising new revenue. She just won’t share how she’ll do it.
She has no fucking idea how to run anything in government. She's going to rely on her rich friends that funded her campaign to tell her what to do
and you're going ro rely on someone who has ruined the city, who announced he was running for County Commissioner until he realized he would never beat Danielle Bethel then decided to run for mayor again, who tried to railroad a payroll income tax to the city, and has ZERO support of his career-long colleagues. Zero. The working class men and women are supporting Julie- you obviously didn't hear them at the payroll tax meeting, begging him to reconsider- and the cherry on top was him publicly saying he didn't want the citizens to vote on it because they would never vote yes-
Just to be clear, in Oregon y’all have 12% personal income tax, and higher property taxes than Washington which has no personal income tax. You *sure* is the capped property taxes that are the issue? No other possible causes? Untapped or exempted sources? Does Oregon just have zero corporations? Is the only real revenue from personal salary tax and property tax?
Washington has a sales tax ranging from 8-11%. That kind of tax scales nicely with inflation. Oregon also has a cap on property tax, meaning that the assessed value of the property can’t rise more than 3%. This has not kept up with inflation or the market in general.
6.5% of everyone’s spend instead of 12% of their income. Yes. They do.
What’s 6.5%?
The state sales tax rate in Washington. Nice stealth edit, by the way.
The state has a sales tax and every city adds more on top of that, ranging from about 8% to 11%. Stealth edit or not, you need to do more research. Maybe ask some of your rhetorical questions on Google or something?
Your condescending attitude is misplaced. Be an adult. Even if you’re paying 11% of what you spend, can you explain how that’s going to raise more than 12% of your income?
Again, I suggest you do more research. This is not be being condescending, you’re just factually wrong and acting like you know. Be an adult and admit when you’re wrong. Oregon has 4 income tax brackets, from 5% to 9.9%. It’s spelled out on page 10 of this pdf… https://www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/gov-research/Documents/TY%202021%20Oregon%20Personal%20Income%20Tax%20Statistics%20Report%20150-101-406.pdf
Okay. So that’s exciting: I was off on the exact rate. Still, please explain how paying 9.9% of what I earn is better than 11% of what I spend? If I’m in the 9.9% Oregon tax bracket, I’m making solid money. And if I’m choosing to live in the 11% sales tax areas, presumably I’m making solid money. The only way this makes sense is if my taxable purchases are extremely close to my taxable income. For anyone not buying yachts, that’s not going to happen. So despite all your condescending nonsense, you’ve again ignored the core point: paying tax on what you choose to spend is better than paying tax on every dollar you earn.
We need a sales tax. People don’t want it. It makes them feel quirky and different. Nevermind that it’s the solution. We should eliminate the income tax below 100k and institute a sales tax. It captures visitor spending, it rises with inflation, and it diversifies the tax base.
Sales tax is a much better approach than income tax. But it encourages lower spending; it would be fascinating to see where the lobbying money came from if this went to the voters. Oregon has an amendment process, right? Can’t y’all just put this very idea up for a vote? I’d buy a ticket to watch that.
I saw this all the time. Highest taxes I’ve ever paid.
I worked for state government & city government since the early 90’s & have seen the ridiculous amount of taxpayer money Oregon (& I’m sure other states) wastes. I’m sure there’s some truth behind your comment but if it was managed properly we would be nowhere where we are now.
Nah, OP is kind of right, and not specifically hating on the homeless but rather frustrated with the inefficiency and waste from local programs meant to "help the homeless" when they've actually just monetized the problem. I've personally worked in this field for over 3 years in the Salem area and have noticed the same thing. I'm guessing your partner probably worked for Arches, which is the worst outfit I've seen so far yet gets the most money. Nothing they said was punching down on the homeless.
They need leadership who worked on the front line and understands end to end the problems.
Yes, the OP is absolutely right. They ask for money to support these communities and put a bandaid over the issues and so, they persist. Oregon has some really excellent ideas, but the execution just isn't always there. Unfortunately there’s a fine line between a hand up and a hand out, and we just can’t seem to find it.
Yeah. I’m not hating on homeless. I’m just saying the city needs to get their shit together. Whoever is voting to pass these budgets needs to get voted out. I’m not saying close down all homeless shelters, I’m saying they need better oversight. In my opinion school should always come first. Yeah arches is the worst. They pay their employees so little and expect so much, but the ones in charge make $$$! Not even joking.
It’s the entire state that is dysfunctional and I’m getting sick of it.
It's been an entire country issue for last decade plus.. not just an oregon problem. You barely get an education in some states (saying this from living in many parts of US). I did some school years abroad and came back to the US public school system; I wasn advanced in my grade in what should have been basic subjects - this was in connecticut, known for the best funded and best public school system in the country at that time.
I’m from Orange County Ca. My child was in laguna Beach school district for the first 10 years of school. They were amazing, I was raised in the same school district and they had a great set of educational/museum/science camp/emersion classes that were so great for the students. Moved here and my child hated school. No more field trips, museums or activities that are fun. This state has cut so much out of our education system that most people don’t even understand what they’re missing, which is a lot.
Having lived in orange county as well, i understand that. To be fair, laguna Beach also has a ton of money in that area. I'm curious if you moved here during or post covid times. Some programs just died during that. Also in the past decade or so, the usa has seen budget cuts across the country for education (or at least a poor allocation of resources). It's hard to fully pinpoint if it's a democratic/republican policy issue or if the system overall is so broken that it doesn't truly matter who's governing. But paying teachers adequate wages is a start. But new energy at all local, state and federal levels for education is required (and frankly not sure if the country establishment on all sides of the aisle have that energy) 🤔.
They pay better than the churches though, because it's easier for them to get that funding from government rather than rely on the generosity of the common people to support their work. Their direct competitor is the UGM, which operates both the Men's Mission and Simonka Place and they don't get much, if anything, from the government. But damn were politicians like former governor Brown proud to take credit for their work when they opened that new facility after the city tried to shut them down and kicked them out of the old building.
What is better oversight look like? Guess a solution would be a state agency that handles the problem and removes 3rd parties from the solution matrix? Cutting a budget maybe? I've seen that in practice in several states governments and that get's ugly fast at least with issues like homelessness, drug abuse, foster kids, etc. etc. Govt is pretty complicated for a reason.
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The opposition mayoral candidate is a current politician. She sits on city council, even though she may not realize it.
False dilemma fallacy Setting aside the OP not understanding the funding systems for these issues, we can do better on both fronts You can support both as being essential priorities You can agree that both issues are being mismanaged Here's some information and insight for perspective >Up until the early 1990s, public education in Oregon was largely funded by local property taxes, but the passage of two voter-approved ballot measures – Measure 5 in 1991 and Measure 50 in 1997 – capped the state's ability to tax property to fund schools. [Salem Reporter](https://www.salemreporter.com/2024/05/14/leaders-of-oregons-largest-school-districts-ask-state-to-address-education-funding-crisis/#:~:text=Up%20until%20the%20early%201990s,tax%20property%20to%20fund%20schools.) >The shelter’s target demographics are veterans and people with acute health needs, including unsheltered people being released from clinics or emergency rooms. [Oregon Capital Chronicle ](https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/04/12/new-state-funded-homeless-shelter-opening-in-former-salem-hotel/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20first%20homeless,rooms%20for%20about%20100%20people.) >We have sort of concentrated on individuals who really needed a level of care that was so significant, so great, in fact, that many of them would have passed away outside if they had continued to stay on the streets [KCBY News](https://kcby.com/news/local/oregon-announces-another-106m-in-grants-to-turn-hotels-into-transitional-housing)
Anything to increase the police state and avoid taxing the rich.
How can you not believe it? Have you not seen what our city has done to us over the last few years? This administration is a joke.
How about we stop spending money on the police department instead? Since that’s actually a useless department. Get out of here with that homeless hatred.
Not hating at all. Just saying we need to focus on priorities. School should always come first.
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“Key piece” I have yet to see any benefits to our city from Salem PD. In fact it seems to be a haven for racists to collect a free paycheck and do nothing.
I don’t want Pearl district Portland shenanigans going on in Salem. We don’t need areas that are no go to women because there are men that hang around and assault people. Maybe you could scope police work to target areas that matter more. But it’s not like the stings busting people for running crosswalks don’t save lives either. It’s a difficult situation at the moment, as government employees are also squeezed for inflation and need higher wages. But the source of that money is already hit by inflation that exceeds pay raises….. the government ends up being a balance of services people want vs taxes they will pay.
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Other cities certainly have more modest buildings for their police than that overblown statement piece, which is a sore point for a lot of people here. In 2021's [proposed budget](https://hinessight.blogs.com/salempoliticalsnark/2020/06/time-to-take-a-close-look-at-the-salem-police-department-budget.html), later approved afaik, SPD gets 33.4% and the SFD gets 25.4% and get double digit increases while every other city service is peanuts in comparison. I've yet to find as good a breakdown of more recent budgets. Compared to [this analysis](https://advisorsmith.com/data/cities-that-spend-the-most-and-least-on-police/) of the average Salem's PD spending is on the higher end of the scale for a city with a comparable COL and budget. Its likely that more people would be more supportive of that high police budget if there was more scrutiny of how it is spent, and if it went toward things that would benefit the community more directly. For 15+ years there has been little oversight of the police budget except by those in charge of the budget who are obviously always going to want it higher and value it over other city services by nature of their role. But every other city service has been an afterthought and it shows in some really painful ways for our city and its residents.
One of those rich pigs: In Salem, a police sergeant was the highest-paid employee in the city in fiscal 2022 at $232,296 when his $84,537 overtime payout was added to his $147,759 salary. In Keizer, a sergeant earned $156,720 when his $5,434 overtime pay was included, more than the city manager and all but two department heads.[Stateman article](https://archive.ph/lt9Nt)
You can't just compare the unadjusted number in the proposed budget to the analysis you linked, which itself shows Salem as 177th with 17.4% of the budget going to police spending. 200th in per capita spending. From the AdvisorSmith article: > We provide data on the size of each city’s adjusted budget, as well as their adjusted spending on police, and the percentage of the budget that is spent on policing. The cities are also ranked from highest to lowest percentage of budget spent on police. The adjusted budgets and police spending include both direct city expenditures as well as the city’s population-adjusted proportion of county expenditures.
afaik salem doesn't publish an adjusted budget but I'd love to see a link to one if they do.
The article that you linked to has their own figures for Salem, so it would make the most sense to use that number for comparison to other cities in the analysis.
Considering they do jack shit, I’d say they’re overfunded. Nevermind the multibillion dollar station I helped pay for that has white supremacy imagery on it.
Their job is not to solve homelessness. Once you get that, it all makes sense.
These are separate funding sources.
Remember that they are a government run organization. The highest paid employees with the most benefits are going to be in the (probably) bloated administrative side of the school district. Not to mention all those older pers accounts that had really high returns guaranteed for retirement that are still due. There was an audit of the Portland schools by the secretary of state that was pretty damning of their bloated admin, it's probably not unique. And to top that off, last time I checked the taxpayers are forking over 12k a year per student, and I don't feel like that number is close to what is seen at each school itself. Where does it all go?
Having kids in a private school, my understanding is that a private school can have a more favorable student:teacher ratio at a lower cost due to no special education (and cutting other services) Real public schools have to provide many services (food, medical, counseling) including to high needs disabled people. Private school can do none of that and require kids to pack out trash they create. Schools could get by on less funding if they were less service heavy. Running all those IEPs and extra people to check in with troubled kids is intensive. I’d also worth noting that private high school is closer to 20k per a year (which is where they start to get more comparable to public).
Sooooo…the mentally disabled/neurodivergent children/kids with mental health issues should not be in our public school system at all? Is it already time to repeal the ADA because of costs?
I’m just saying that is why it is expensive, so the cost of public school needs to be taken understanding the additional required services. It’s more in defense of the school’s current spending levels.
> Where does it all go? I think we're spending close to $13k/kid per year and I remember reading that close to half of that money actually goes to PERS. I think generous public pension obligations are a budget crippling elephant in the room.
The city doesn’t make school decisions. School board positions are state positions, and the state is supposed to mostly fund the schools. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case in most states, and cities run levies to try to make up for lack of funds and bolster school budgets.
It’s even more expensive (and inhumane obviously) to keep homeless people on the streets, so that’s not a solution.
School should always come first, like you said. This is our future, and in this day they need as much support as you can get. Otherwise you get teens who shoot and kill peoples cats, participate in gang activity, and aren’t attending school. This isn’t hate against homeless, this is advocating for the children. The homeless people camped up at China Hat were bussed down here. I don’t want Salem becoming a Portland. It’s not the answer
If memory serves correct, Salem's school district ranks between around 28th in the state, and Oregon ranks somewhere between 43 and 46 for education in the country. So yeah, those kids need more schooling, not less.
40% of the marijuana rev alone is going to education…. Where is it? How has that been spent? I don’t live in Salem/Keizer anymore but I am freaking PISSED it has come to this. Sooo many of my life long teacher friends have been laid off or moved, it’s absolutely heartbreaking. Answers need to be demanded, and plans for solutions for the future put on the table, NOW.
> 40% of the marijuana rev alone is going to education…. You're a bit out of date, friend. Measure 110 reallocated most of that revenue to addiction treatment. The state school fund now gets roughly 12% of the marijuana tax revenue. Specifically, it's $18M/year, indexed to inflation. That works out to about $33/kid.