You Know Things

are pretty shittin' bad when the area near my hometown of Medford, Oregon, makes the NYT.

This article is about the decline of timber receipts and the closing of Jackson County libraries.

Now the question is whether May 15 will be another turning point. With the timber industry in steep decline because of environmental challenges and market changes and with prospects uncertain that Congress will bail out timber counties, as it has before, Jackson County voters will decide that day whether to increase taxes to pay for the libraries.

Some other counties in southern Oregon are in equally dire straits. In Josephine County, voters will decide on May 15 whether to tax themselves an average of $300 more a year to keep basic law enforcement services running. Curry County, which also has a ballot measure, has said it could go bankrupt on July 1.

In Jackson County, voting yes on the library measure would raise property taxes about $9 a month for an average homeowner, enough to finance the $8 million annual budget of the library system. Experts expect the vote to be close.