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Governor wants trooper funding
Herald and News 1/10/07
Governor wants trooper funding
Herald and News 1/10/07
SALEM (AP) — With his proposed surcharge on auto insurance premiums going nowhere, Gov. Ted Kulongoski is pressing lawmakers to find another way to fund 139 additional troopers so the Oregon State Police can patrol major highways around the clock.
‘‘If the members of the Legislature have a better idea ... then I say let’s put it on the table and make it happen now,’’ Kulongoski said Tuesday at a news conference where he was surrounded by a group of troopers who back his plan. Kulongoski’s budget proposal contains a surcharge that would cost the average auto insurance customer an estimated $35 a year. The idea has drawn opposition from his fellow Democrats as well as Republicans.
Kulongoski said the state police devote 254 of their troopers to patrolling the highways — one for every 14,492 residents — giving Oregon the lowest number of officers on the road, per capita, in the country.