Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 06-09-26_TUESDAY_7AM

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

Open phone calls for the first segment, former Sen. Baertschiger hs some questions needed answering about the Jo County Budgeting process...

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausor drilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. It is pebble in your shoe Tuesday. You got a pebble? Let me know. 770563-770KMED. Josephine County, former Josephine County Commissioner Herman Berchiger joins me.

We'll be talking a little bit later this hour. About questions in that budgeting process last week. Everything's fine. Everybody gets their raises. And then Danny Jordan joins me, the administrator of Jackson County. Yeah. And it's just a interesting talk, a deep dive into, okay, can we afford public employees, especially unionized public employees?

I think that's really about it. We talk with Matt. Matt, good to hear from you. What's on your mind this pebble in your shoe Tuesday? Yeah, I don't really have a pebble. I didn't catch that entire interview, but the question that always comes to mind for me is... Oh, let me just recap, though, briefly here. Steve Bonta, publisher of the New American, the New American.com.

We were talking about the Iran war and the negotiation process, and it just looks to me that... The way we were both kind of looking at this, it said the motivations for China and for Iran are not the type of motivations that I think our president is comfortable with. You know, we're here to make a deal, here to make a deal. But it's a different culture, I guess, we're dealing with. What do you think? Well, that's obviously the case. Yeah. They do see things completely different.

So I've had this saying that I'm pretty sure I made it up, but it is not what you did. It's what you do. Right. And so we all make mistakes. We all make decisions. And then things happen. And then we have to decide what the game. next. So my question would be for your interview was I didn't hear if he said, yeah, okay,

this is what we should do with Iran or this is what we should do with China. It sounds like he has extensive experience, especially with China. Yeah, he lived there for several years. And he said, no, wonderful people, nasty government. That's how he termed it, you know. Words of that effect. That's probably most of the world, quite frankly. So, because, what? Well, I guess in regards to Iran, he did make a common. He says, well, you know, we weren't involved in the Middle East back in the 70s. You know, we weren't. Actually, we were.

So what's that? Actually, we were, weren't we? Yeah, but. You know, well, the Shah, you know, and all that stuff. But he made the comment. I didn't. He made the comment. You know, we weren't messing around over there, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

But I don't find that to be very honest. For one of the, like you just said it and I repeated it, the other thing is, everything is a threat now. And so I'm not saying I'm offering a solution. Like I knew what, you know, what the correct tax to take with Iran was. But it's not like you can say, well, that's just this other part of the world and we're separated by two oceans and, you know, it'll all be fine. When hackers can reach out from any part of the world and reach you and shut down services, the nuclear weapons aside, there are so many ways for, nations that aren't friendly to us to reach out and harm us.

You know, quite frankly, you know, everybody keeps talking about the Jews, everybody keeps talking about China. I've got to say, I've had it with Europe. I'm sick of them. I don't think they've been good allies. You know, they weren't interested in trying to change anything with trade after we bailed them out after World War II. So I have a lot of issues with that.

But the one thing I wanted to touch on, too, real quick, I kept hearing this term 12 or Shia or Shia, and I kept thinking, what is that? Shia 12er. I've not heard this term. Help me up. Okay. So about 85, I actually asked Rock. So about 85 to 90 percent of Shia Muslims worldwide fall into this category.

So you've always heard about the Shia and the Sunnis, you know, fighting all the time. you know, for thousands of years, I guess. But they're the ones who believe in their own rapture. Like, as a Christian, we have our rapture. They have theirs. And they believe this 12th imam has been hiding out. And there's a lot of similarity to the story of Jesus Christ. And they believe that in the rapture, he will come back with Jesus Christ hand at hand

and settle all accounts. that they'll come in, they'll bring the final piece. And this is where I get sketchy on Iran. If Iran had a nuclear weapon, they already have all kinds of other weapons. They obviously are never going to stop sponsoring care. If they have a nickel, they'll spend it on someone to kill somebody. That's always true. But I don't know what the solution is.

It's not like they can't reach us now. Clearly they can't. They have missiles that went 2400 miles. And I'm going to go ahead and take our government's response to that as, yeah, they actually have this missile. We didn't make this up. So I just don't know what the solution is. I know what the problems are. Those are easy. They get reported every day. What's the solution? What do you do with Iran? Is there a possibility that there isn't a solution? Well, it is. I mean, short of just turning it into glass, which I don't think, you know,

there's a lot of interest in that either, right? No, there's zero interest in that. that and that's why some people are struggling with us messing around with them at all. I'm just not sure where we go with it. And that's the, you know, I heard him talking again. I can catch the whole interview. Maybe he started out with a solution. No, no, he wasn't. We were just, we ended up by getting into this.

We started to talk about these, a couple of Israeli stories that they were talking about. One of them is that the DIA now raising the threat from Israeli. spying on the United States to an extreme level. They're saying they're actually spying on it on us at an extreme level. This is a DIA deal. And I was just kind of wondering if this was more along the lines of, well, the intelligence agencies hate Trump, so we've got to come up with something, you know, to throw out there. Or if there may be something to it.

And then also, Section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which would completely integrate the Israeli military with the United States military. We don't do that with anyone else. And so it's somewhat controversial, but getting talked about very little right now, Matt. That's what was talking about. It's a controversial that it's in writing? Well, maybe that's it. But maybe that's just it.

What was going on all along. Maybe that's, well, maybe that's just it. And I don't know, but it does seem strange. Why would we be so integrated with anyone else's military other than the fact like, okay, you're an ally, we'll share intelligence now and then as we see fit, rather than actually bring. you inside the, you know, the network, so to speak. But that's just me. Well, could we say that at least it's transparent?

And up to now, there's been no transparency. I just assume that we have those kinds of relationships with every one of our allies. I just assume that's what's been going on. And maybe this is just disclosing it. I don't know. Yeah. But, yeah, I don't have a solution for it either. I don't have a solution for it either, but I don't have a solution for it either.

but I don't think that Iran is looking for a deal like the president keeps saying. Would you agree with me on that much? I don't think they care. They're looking to make a deal. I think they would rather see all 90 million of their citizens dead first before they would ever give up power. I honestly believe those people, when you read about, you've got to read up on this 12-Rashia. These people, this is the reason the nuclear weapon thing is terrifying with them.

because I think everybody else cares about survival, even China, even Russia. I don't think these people care. I don't think they care at all. And quite frankly, the terrorism and stuff, look at it. Just look at the crazy stabbings and all the other stuff going on all over the world. And he thinks happening and happening and happening. And the Western world just says, well, you know, it's just going to be part of life now. We opened our borders and, you know, this is what's going to happen.

You know, it's just a different culture. And we have to respect that culture, Matt. You know, they think differently. It's deteriorating, Bill. Yeah, they think differently than us, and because of that, we have to be, you know, accepting of this and that they just get stabby now and then. They just get stabby and stabby and you just have to tolerate that. What's wrong with you, Bigot? Okay, I just want to leave you with this because I know you got to go.

I just want to leave you with this. The people who are supporting open borders here and all over the globe, do they think they're going to be able to reel this in at one point? That they're doing this to turn over the whole table and the game? I do think they think they can reel it in. And that's an absolute. They're out of their mind. Absolutely. I give you a real American salute for that one.

They were out of their mind. Yes. We will bring in the stabbies and the rapies and the crime fields and the problems like that. And then we'll be able to get control of it. No. What happens when you bring in the stabbies and the rapies eventually the stabbies and the rapies take over? And then they, you know, point you and say, thank you for inviting us here. You stand up.

against wall please uh yeah turn around yeah we have a bullet for you this is the bill mire show on the right side this is the sean hannity morning minute if you go back to twenty twenty four seventy five percent of the vote nationwide in our presidential election nationwide was in within three hours and it's taking california a week every single state in twenty four except California had counted more than 75% of the vote after two days. California took five. California got to 90% of the vote after 11 days after the presidential election. One house race in California, final vote margin was less than 200 votes, was called 29 days after the election.

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Fantastically furnished by Garrison's home. Gerson's.com. Everyone should be able to grow older with respect and be safe. But many older adults, especially those who identify as LGBTQIA2S plus and those living with HIV can be at higher risk. Abuse can be physical, emotional, or financial. If you see signs of abuse, don't ignore them. Learn how to recognize and report abuse at Oregon. That's organ.gov slash respect. That's organ.gov slash respect.

Brought to you by the Oregon Department of Human Services. This is the Bill Meyer show on 1063 KMED. Call Bill now. 541-770-5633. That's 770 KMED. It's Pebble in your shoe Tuesday. One pebble. For me, the Oregon Department of Human Services.

I'm just kind of curious. And maybe I just tossed this out to the Southern Oregon jury. is there a growing, is there a growing evidence of abuse against LGBTQ, two spirit, whatever it is, you know, the island of misfit humans elderly? Is there a lot of evidence? Boy, they sure are talking. The state is talking about that a lot lately. Maybe there is.

And I don't want to be one of those people who has my head in the sand if I'm wrong. But what? You know, grandma decided to change her gender and now we're, and now we're withholding food or we're beating her in the in the bed or something. I don't know. Is that what goes on? Maybe it does. It's just one of those things that that kind of elder abuse I've heard very little about.

Maybe I'm willing to, you know, to listen to someone that says, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we had a neighbor and they were elderly and gay. And because they were gay, we went after them or people went after them and abused him. Does that happen? because this is the state of Oregon, we tend to be very sensitive about such matters. I understand. That's where we come from. Let me go to Tom. Hello, Tom. It's Pebble on your shoot Tuesday. Welcome.

Thank you, Bill. Yeah, just what you were talking about right there. You know, it's just another excuse to spend millions of dollars for another line of bureaucracies. But, you know, you really did a deep dive into looking at America's entanglement with forward adventures and so forth. And Steve mentioned Washington's advice of staying out of foreign entanglements, partners with all, friends of all, but alliances with none. Well, today that would be considered, I think, naive is the way they would look at that today. Yeah, and not very profitable for the military industrial complex either. So, you know, we're spending – we're going bankrupt because of all these foreign entanglements.

And so you really, you know, the issue is what is really appropriate for forward involvement. And, you know, what happened with Vietnam, it was sold to us as fighting communism, fighting for freedom and so forth. Yeah, it was about preventing the dominoes from falling. It was looked at, you know, hey, Vietnam falls, then everybody else falls. The rest of the world is taken over by communism. Of course, the funny thing is, is that ironically, Vietnam went coming. But, you know, here we are. So it was sold to us on a lie, and that lie has never been resolved.

It's kind of like the Kennedy assassination, the CIA murdered Kennedy, and they got away with it, and it's never been resolved. And so we have this deep, boil festering deep within our body politics. And so Vietnam is the same way, and it's been, because it was never resolved, we've gone into one war after another. And so basically foreign entanglements has been normal. That's what the United States does. And it's absolutely insane.

It's bankrupting. We have, you know, hundreds of military bases around the world. Yeah, let me, I want to disagree with you slightly gently, though, on some of this. All right. It's bankrupting us now. It wasn't for a long time because, you know, essentially, I think our military garrisons were about defending the Petro dollar, right? We've talked about that before.

the Middle East agrees to sell oil in dollars. We don't exchange dollars for gold any longer. Remember Nixon did that back when I was a kid, you know. And so we promised to defend the Gulf states and provide military, you know, assistance for them and make sure that nobody attacks them. And they agree to sell oil in dollars. And it worked pretty well in, to a certain extent, at least in not constitutionally, but we got to export all our inflation.

But I think we're now reaching the end of that game, don't you? Isn't that really what we're talking about? Yeah, and in truth, we could have been so sustainable all this time. The United States, it's capable of as if it was the only country in the whole world. I mean, the resources there are remarkable. But just getting this issue of four. Foreign entanglements really needs a deep look. And I'm just concerned that it just keeps on going and going and going.

Well, people keep voting for people who they think will have a lighter touch on foreign entanglements. And we keep getting people that want to, you know, drag us into one conflict or another. That's what Trump ran on. I remember stepping out of the Trump towers there. and all the microphones pointed in his face, and he says, you know, I just wonder what America would look like without spending all our blood and treasure in the Middle East, and look what he's doing now. But maybe what happens is that once you become president, the system doesn't permit that. That's not the system that you've become president of. Well, like I said, this insanity has been normalized, and perpetual war has been normalized, bankruptcy has been normalized, and inflation's been normalized.

This is, we don't have to have, this is a radical extremist agenda perpetrated by both political parties, the Democrats and Republicans. And that's all been normalized. Maybe we can denormalize that. Appreciate you called, Tom, as always. Dave's here, too. Dave, you wanted to talk about the official merger, I guess, of the United States and Israeli military here. And there's talk about doing that. They're going to be voting on it here, this integration.

I don't like it, but what we got here. here is if you look at Five Eyes and the CIA really works for Great Britain because you can look at what they did with back when his first administration, when Britain, their MI6 teamed up with the CIA and committed an act of war against the United States. So, you know, it's not unusual for allies to be integrated into our system. Maybe it's just unusual that we're officially doing it, right? We're abutually doing it. Yeah. And, you know, the Five Eyes is ending. Trump is ending it.

And it all stems from bankers. The bankers are the ones that want the war because they make money on both things. And, you know, and they make it on oil and sanctions and all kinds of stuff. Yeah. All right, Dave. Appreciate that. 732 at KMED. I think this is Gene.

Hello, Gene. How are you? It's Pebble in your shoe Tuesday. I'm pretty good. I do have three things to bring up, though. Okay. One is the ones that are wanting nothing but meat, did he think about the fact that they have to kill plants in order to eat them?

Oh, you're talking about the IP 28 people, right? Yeah. the ones that are trying to get all meat off. Yes. No hunting, no fishing. And another thing, you were talking about the abuse. There has been abuse of all people, no matter the age. But as for the elderly, you hear about people getting ripped off all the time, and they

are not the gobbly group. Okay, well, that's what I was wondering, because the state is obviously looking and trying to make the case that there is a big problem with LGBTQ elderly people not being allowed to live in dignity. Now, if it's happening, all right, we have to make sure and nip that in the bud. I'm just not familiar with any of it. Maybe I just travel in the wrong circles, Gene. That's all I was wondering, if it's real or not, or is this a contrived problem? I think it's contrived because I saw when I was in high school, there was one gal there who was gay, okay, fine. Nobody was abusing her.

Well, we're talking about someone who is elderly and unable to fight back being abused over their orientation. It's a little different. Well, they're being abused over ripping off their money and controlling them and everything. But you hear about it all the time. All right, Jean. And it's not the queries that are getting abused. The elderly people are getting ripped up. So what we're talking about is that it's not LGBTQ elder abuse.

It's just elder abuse in general being ripped off. And maybe somebody happens to be LGBTQ. And hence, that's being held up as a reason why they're being abused? I know they're being abused for the money. For the money. Okay. Jean, I appreciate the call. Thank you for that.

at 734. We'll talk with a former state senator, Barrett Jigger, here just a minute. Talk about a few things, Josephine County, and then Jackson County Finance at 8 o'clock with Danny Jordan, the administrator. This is Bill Meyer with KMED. Programming note that if you miss one of my shows or you want to go back and listen again, I always archive about three months of my show at Bill Myershow.com and KMED.com. You can search by Dayton Topping. Download the hour of your choice, and you can share them too. Bill Meyer Show podcasts are made possible by Klausur drilling, so please visit Billmyershow.com and KMED.com for podcasts. And to find out more about our sponsor, Clouser Drilling, that's simple, visit clouserdrilling.com. Have you thought about what happens to your home, your investment accounts, and everything you've earned throughout your life when you pass away?

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Retirement Advisors.com helping you plan with confidence. News brought to you by Millette Construction, specializing in foundation repair and replacement. Get on solid ground. Visit milletconstruction.com. This hour of the Bill Myers Show is sponsored by Glacier Heating and Air, making sense of the heating and air business. George Strait's Ocean Front Property in 1987 was the first album to debut at number one on the country charts. Whether you're Arizona Oceanside or further

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estimate. CCB number 32787. KMED News, here's what's going on. Jackson County officials speaking at yesterday's Chamber of Commerce Lunch. They gave a 50,000 foot view of the county's budget. The total 2026 to 2027 suggested budget coming in at just under $700 million. It's about 6% higher than last year. Overall services not hurt by increased public employee retirement costs and loss of O&C timber money. Administrator Danny Jordan did remark in his presentation that the basement section of the Jackson County Jail has been closed as a cost-cutting. move and the challenges on the horizon include rising insurance costs and soaring unionized worker wage and benefit demands. A driver and his dog escaped safely from a rollover pickup truck crash near Kirby yesterday afternoon. News Watch 12 reports the crash happened around 3.30 p.m. The 23,000 block of Redwood Highway. Everyone's okay except for the truck and the Joe County Sheriff's Office is investigating. Leshwab tire center is laying off 70 workers at its corporate headquarters in Ben yesterday. According to Oregon Live, the company says it's part of the car.

of a restructuring plan and didn't disclose what categories of jobs it's cutting or the severance or benefit packages of the laid-off workers. Last Thursday, Medford Police contacted Wendy Diamond in an animal neglect case. Several cats were found alive or dead in bad condition at the Diamond home. A local animal rescue asking for the communities help for the surviving cats. According to KOBI 5, Sanctuary 1 has taken in the survivors. They're in pretty rough shape. You can find out more of what's needed and how you can help on their website.

1.com. Bill Meyer, KMED News. Shopping for a new air conditioner? Glacier heating and air provides state-of-the-art train heat pumps and air conditioners at competitive prices. But Glacier also understands there's a commitment beyond the initial investment. You want a company who will stand behind their products and workmanship and make every effort to provide value and service. That's why Glacier has such a great reputation. If you have concerns about your AC, give Glacier Heating and Air a call. They're making sense of the heating and air business. Visit glacier hacac.com.

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We're a casualty insurance company and affiliates and not available in all states or situations covered subject to policy terms. You're here in the Bill Myers Show on 106-3, KMED. And I appreciate you being here. It's Pebble in your shoe Tuesday. Former Josephine County Commissioner and former State Senator Herman Berger, we talk politics every week, kind of the news of the day here. And gosh, I've got to tell you, Herman, yesterday spent about an hour and a half listening to the Jackson County officials go through the budget to head of talk over at the Chamber of Commerce here.

It was pretty interesting, especially. I'm going to talk with Danny Jordan here at about 20, 25 minutes or so and talk about the challenges of unionized workers, the workforces. And what Danny was talking about is state law that essentially puts a thumb on the scale. And it's all when it comes to the negotiation process, all in favor of the employee and not in favor of the taxpayers whatsoever. It's kind of what he was alluding to yesterday. And I imagine you kind of know something about that.

that, a little bit about that. I can't add any more to it. Danny Jordan's absolutely right. And, you know, the interesting thing when I was negotiating union, well, it's obviously they get whatever they want just about, okay? Yeah. And when I would bring up, hey, there's only so many beans in the jar, and once the beans are gone, we have to start letting employees go.

They don't care. Okay. They simply don't care. And so essentially, if we were to take public employees at their word then, if they don't care about layoffs then, we could end up having, you know, three or four sheriff's deputies, three or four school teachers, and they're all millionaires, right? You know, Bill, you brought up a good point, and I've made this statement many times. if you really want to be a multi-millionaire in the United States, don't be a public employee because that's not what it's about. Public employee is about security, about consistency, decent wages and everything, but it's not

a job that you're supposed to be a multimillionaire. I'm sorry, that's just how it is. But isn't that what's kind of happening when you include, well, Per's benefits, especially Tier 1. I know Tier 1's, you know, those people are raging out at some point, but pretty generous, aren't we in this? Tier 2 is pretty good, too, so, you know, don't discount that. Okay. It's pretty good. So what's happened in Josephine County, this was a crazy budget season in Josephine County.

So at first it starts out with, you know, Ruth Nelson was our finance director. She really didn't want to be the budget director and finally was convinced to be the budget director and then resigned at the last minute. So then we brought Arthur O'Haron, who used to be the finance director, Josephine County, long time ago. And I think very highly of Arthur. But he didn't come in in in the middle of the movie. He came in at the end, you know, when the credits are being put on the script. That's where he came in.

And then you have three commissioners who, if you watch the meeting, they have no experience. I'm telling you, zero experience at government budgeting. So this has became, then you've also had this weird thing where all of a sudden the commissioners discharge former people on the budget committee who, have been on there who have experience and replace them with people that have zero experience. So now we have just about zero experience on the Budget Committee. We have a Budget Director who came in at the end of the movie. And it was just, it was unbelievably, you know, I watched these three commissioners.

I watched the chair of the Budget Committee make a motion. and under Robert's rules you can't make a motion. I mean, they don't even know how to run a meeting. It was very, very sad to watch this budget season, let me tell you. Okay, well, if somebody wants to raise a question, though, I know that Mark Kirby, who's on the budget committee, and I talked with him last week, he came a bit under fire for asking too many questions, I think.

One of the commissioners had. Which were never answered to this day. Yeah. So how are you supposed to, what's the protocol for acting or for conducting this meeting then, you know, according to the rules? It's very disappointing, you know, and I have a multitude of questions, and I'll just throw a couple of them at. I won't go through all of them. Okay. You know, what's the real general fund ending ballot? You know, they throw all these smoking mirrors out there. they say that they have reserve funds of $31,882,600. Now, that sounds great to the public, but it's a bunch of, it's so misleading because.

Well, how do you say, how do you believe it is misleading, Herman? Because all those reserve funds that they added up are all earmarked. So it's just money that hasn't been expended. I'll give an example. Oh, okay. So if it's, oh, so if it's earmarked then, it can't just, be slushed around for anything you want, right? Yeah.

Okay. Only money, you know, when I was in there, I always paid attention what I called the general fund ending balance, okay? Because the general fund is the only discretionary money that the commissioners had. All the rest of that money is like stuff that goes from Oregon Health Authority, goes to the county health, you know, the roads and from ODOT, right? That kind of thing, into the roads department. Well, you know, I've got the list here in front of me.

We got equipment reserve property. reserve, roads and bridges, fairgrounds, airport, jail, commissary, sheriff forfeiture, DA forfeiture, clerk records, building safety, grant projects, forestry, mountain. All of those, you can't, you can't move the money around, okay? You can't. A little bit on the forestry money, but still, so that's, yes, there's money sitting in there collecting interests, but they're allocated to those programs. You can't touch them.

So when they say, oh, wow, we got $31,882 reserve funds, it sounds like they have a pile of money they're sitting on. All right. Would it be better if we talked about maybe a contingency fund instead, which was liquid and you could move to anything you wanted? And then... That's kind of what the general fund ending balance is. Oh, okay? Okay. That's the only money you really have discretionary where you can just move it.

You can put, send it wherever you want. So when I got in there, it was low. It was like $2 million there. And I remember you talking about it. You had almost like no cash, really no cash available on hand for, well, I mean, $2 million is not a lot in government speak, you know, that kind of thing. No, and all the government budgeting schools that I went to. when I was in the legislature, they always talked about, you know, that should be somewhere around 10% of the total budget.

So if you got $180 million budget, you should have about $18 million in there. You would like to. You don't always going to get there. But, you know, that's kind of where you're shooting. So I was always trying to shoot. I said, you know, we should have at least 12. Go people crazy. Because bureaucrats can't stand seeing money sitting.

And the thing is, though, is that the bureaucrats, in other words, the staff at joe county especially are running the show these days at least from what it looks like from the outside absolutely yeah the the democrat party has taken over josephine county right now you think so you think it's the democrat party really absolutely i mean look at coline martin she runs as a republican conservative but yet in uh in the in the 2024 election when she ran for commissioner back then she was on the democrat slate to vote for okay So, come on, give me a break. And then she appoints the former chair, the Democrat Party,

was zero experience in budgeting to the Budget Committee. You're not telling me there's something going on there, Bill? Well, there does appear to be some growing strength in the Democratic Party then because I think didn't calling get about 48% of the vote in that runoff or in that primary. That's right, in our jungle primary here in Josephine County. Yeah, because John West was, what, 28? 28%, I think, yeah. That was a big gap there.

So is that indicative of the Democratic takeover finally coming against one? Well, just look at the numbers. So anyway, so back to the budget, you know, are the revenues rule? Since they couldn't ask, they simply didn't answer hardly any question. So it's hard to. And I can't wait and make any judgment until they're. they pass the budget, because there's still going to be changes going on, when they pass the budget, and then I can look at it, and I can start putting things together.

And we actually have a small team of really smart people that are going to look at that budget very closely because I don't think there's any long-term stability in that budget bill. And that's another thing. When they talk, you're supposed to project out five years where you're going to land in five years, you know, Yeah, now, the thing is I didn't want to interject there, if you don't mind, Herman, is that I talked with Mark Kirby about that. He's on the Budget Committee last week, and he said that where he was concerned, his concerns that he raised being on the Budget Committee, was that they were using figures, I think, that the county was using figures that, 3% a year that it was going to be going up for all the expenses. And he just didn't think that they were going to be working off of good numbers if they did that. Well, 3% is not a good number because it's never 3%.

It's always under that. It's 2.5, 2.3, 2.7. So it's never 3%. 3% is the cap. Okay? They cannot. So you're... Oh, I think he was talking about the expenses rising 3% a year.

Oh, well, that's baloney. Yeah, give me a break. Yeah, we all know that's... We all know that's pie in the sky, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That's, you know, and so, and then, you know, I wondered, like, where's all the interests going? You know, the interests don't seem to be followed.

The interests are supposed to be following the money that is earmarked for the departments, or if you have grants. So say you get a $5 million grant, $5 million grant for the airport. You put it in the statewide banking system or the statewide investment pool. They changed the name now. So you set it in there because you haven't appropriated the dollars yet. Yeah, you haven't spent the money for the airport runway or whatever it is you're doing. Okay.

You know, $5 million, even at 4%, it is that I looked it up today, we are getting 4% right now. $5 million, you know, getting 4% is a lot of money. So when that money, is that $5 million gains interest, then that interest needs to go to the airports too. You follow them what I mean? Yeah, okay. So if it's airport money and it's being in, it's being saved for a little bit before they can spend it on the airport project, the interest has to stay with the airport. So you're thinking it's not where it's supposed to be or what?

I don't know. I don't see it showing up. So I want to know where is that. Then the other thing is the ending fund balance is general fund ending fund balance is $9 million, but they can't tell me where does the $9 million come? Well, you only go at 5.5, plus you get some OSB monies and you get a little money here, a little money. It's not a lot, though.

How do you get the $9 million when you don't even take in that? So there's a lot of questions, and when the final budget gets done, we are going to go through there, and we're going to refine our questions and then submit them to the county and see what happens. Okay. Well, I look forward to really hearing more about this because there has been talk about, if you're already saying that interest that should be staying with in a certain account is not showing up in the budget, then the question is, is it showing up somewhere else in order to make it appear that they have more money to spend and slush around than what they might really do, Herman?

That's the question that's on my mind today. And then, you know, I worry about the sheriff, the sheriff budget. So I want to make something perfectly absolutely clear, Bill, because my pundits are making stuff up. Okay, my pundits are saying I'm anti-law enforcement. My record doesn't show that. In eight years in the Senate, I was, I pounded harder than any other Republican in the Senate for more money for Oregon State Police. And I got it. You notice there's a new Oregon State Police building in Central Point.

And the reason I had to fight, I had the fight was Senator Bertic tooth and nail. And I always got Peter Courtney to finally side with me, and that's how we got the dollars. And I'm going to tell you why. People don't realize rural counties in Oregon benefit from the more populated urban counties. Okay. In other words, we get more tax dollars into our county per capita than they do in the big counties. Okay, the big. So there's a little bit of equalization.

did the realization that the small poorer counties can't, you know, don't have the money available to do that. Yeah, I'll give you another example. Our gas tax dollars per gallon go to the roads. Rural counties in Oregon benefit far more. We're getting money from Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Lane counties. They're pouring in gas tax dollars in the rural counties. I'll give me an example. Harney County, population 7,500, one of the largest, I didn't know this until I was looking this up,

one of the largest counties in the United States, they got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles of state roads in those counties. Do you think 7,500 people pay for all those roads? Nope. No way. And that is a bone of contention with the Democrats from the north end of the state. So when I got the money for OSP down here and everything, that was a big cat fight. Let me tell you, because they were saying, you need to pay for it yourself. Why should we take Multnomah County money, tax money, and put it in Jackson County or Southern Oregon?

So most people don't realize that. And I hear people down here in Josephine County who say, oh, we want our tax dollars return to Josephine County. So we're already getting more than our share. When it comes right down to it. Well, we're getting way more than we contribute. Way more. Okay. So anyways, so back to the law enforcement.

I worry about that. So my question, you know, when I was county commissioner, I've got our Sheriff's Department in a new evidence building. I got our Sheriff's Department a new armored vehicle. It was a half a million dollars, something like that. I got them all new handguns, all new long guns. I got him more deputies, but the sheriff and I butted heads because the sheriff wanted more deputies than I felt we can afford. I gave him some, but I never gave him what he wanted.

So this time he comes back, he wants 20 more deputies, but I don't, then he turns around and says, but I can only hire 10. So if you can only hire 10, find 10, why do you want the money for 20? So at the end of this, at the end of this fiscal year, if you don't hire 10, if you only hire 10 and you didn't hire another 10 equaling 20, then that money should still be in the sheriff's account and that money should be allocated into the next budget year. But does that money stay there or does it get spent on other stuff, right? That's what I. Exactly. You got it. Right. Exactly. Okay.

So we need to track these dollars where they're going because if they're, the philosophy of government budgeting, the simple, the simple philosophy is at the end of your fiscal year, you should be at zero, okay? And the reason for that is government shouldn't make a profit. And so if you have a whole bunch of money that is not dedicated to a project or something that's just sitting there in a pot, that means you actually tax the taxpayers too much. So that's, you know, in government budgeting, everything has to go to a fund. It has to be dedicated to something. It can't just, you can't just have like a slush fund, okay? Because that means you tax the taxpayers too much. You didn't need it.

So that's kind of the funnel. Now, it gets a lot more complicated. I made that very simplistic. But that's the philosophy behind government budgeting. You know, it's a projection of how much money you're going to take in and how much money you're going to spend, and that should come to zero. Unless it's allocated for a long-term project or something like that. You know, like you could have a jail fund that you have for 40 years

and you keep putting money in that jail fund, so after 40 years you have enough money to build a jail. So long as it's dedicated to a fund, you're okay. But it's not just to a slush fund. And the suspicion is that, and what we want to make sure is that there aren't just slush funds being formed in Josephine County with a little bit of playing fast and loose with the numbers in the budget right now. We don't know yet, but these are the suspicions. I'm sure it's going to look really good in a camp. for someone to say, I voted to add 20 more deputies to the Sheriff's Department.

That's a good line for a campaign, wouldn't you say? But did you really add 20 new deputies, or was it funding for 20 new deputies, eight or nine or ten get hired, and then just another 10 deputies' money ends up being spent on other stuff that they would prefer? I don't know. Or they just run out of money. I don't have any more. Could be too. I'll tell you what, let's wait until he ends up getting passed,

and then I guess you're going to go tear it apart, or at least to dig in deeply on it, right? Right. And you know, I was listening to your show, and you were talking about, you know, people say, oh, we got to support law enforcement, and they're worth $250,000 and everything.

So when you look at levies, when you look at levies, I'll give an example. November 2023, that's our law law enforcement service district. That's the fund law enforcement service. It's parole, evidence, some other things. It's the only, you know, people always support our sheriff. We support our sheriff. Only 51% voted for that. Forty-nine percent voted against it. So I think a lot of people say, yes, I support the sheriff's office, but when it's time to cast a vote,

maybe not so much. And that's something to keep in mind. We'll talk more about this in the future. I'm sure, Herman. Appreciate the call. All right. All right. I see next three. All right. Former state senator and Josephine County Commissioner Herman Berchiger. This is KMED and KMED HD1, Eagle Point Medford, KBXG grants pass, K-294AS. Ashland, K-290AF Rogue River.

And we're going to continue on this, you know, this money side, you know, of all the money, you know, spinning through our counties. This time we're going to shift over to Jackson County. Ended up having the pleasure of watching Danny Jordan, the. administrator, county administrator, kind of give a 50,000 foot review or view of the money here. And there are some challenges. There are some challenges, even though we're doing well, there's some challenges. We'll kick that around coming up. Have you thought about what happens?