Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea makes a pitch for Measure H at Gridley Rotary Club. Photo by Connie Voss

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea discussed during the Oct. 10 Gridley Rotary Club weekly meeting why he wants voters to support Measure H in the Nov. 5 General Election.

Measure H is the Sales Tax Increase Measure, according to the Voter Information Guide. Butte County will add one cent on the dollar for purchases of personal property such as vehicles. It will not affect the cost of groceries or gasoline.

Honea began his presentation by saying he had "bad news to share" about Butte County's fiscal dilemma. Because Proposition 13 placed limits on property taxes, Honea said, there has not been enough revenue to keep pace with the increasing costs of providing critical services over the years. 

Butte County has a budget of nearly a billion dollars, Honea said. Eighty-five percent of that money comes from the state and federal governments and those funds must be spent according to federal and state mandates. The remaining 15% is the General Fund, over which the county supervisors have discretion. Providing public services and funding the library system take up the largest portion of the 15%, according to Honea.

While the costs of services and running the library have continued to increase, according to Honea, the property tax revenue has not. The biggest budget cuts have been to the library. Gridley Public Library is open only three days a week, compared to Chico that has the longest hours and open five days per week in the county.  Chico has chosen to subsidize that, Honea said.

There is currently a Prison Literacy Support program where the Sheriff has library staff help illiterate inmates at Butte County Jail learn to read and write, with the hope of reducing the number of repeat offenders. Additional funding is necessary to continue the program, which almost everyone at the Rotary meeting agreed is worthwhile.

The General Fund's services include the Sheriff's Office, the District Attorney's Office, the Probation Department and the Fire Department.

"The county has tried for decades to maintain those services as adequately as possible but we're now at a point where they can no longer continue to not cut into public safety because of the revenue gap we are talking about," the sheriff said.

The dilemma consists of two bad options, according to Honea: either raise sales tax on consumers or cut public safety services already in place. The need for public safety services will continue to increase, according to the sheriff.  

Honea said that he was forced to cut 22 positions in the Sheriff's Department in the last fiscal year.

"Right now," Honea said, "I have fewer and fewer deputies to respond to calls.”

The "Designated Area Deputy" program, where a deputy was assigned to work in a specific area, was cut due to budget shortfalls, according to Honea.

The Butte County Sheriff's Office "matters to Gridley," Honea said, and is "frequently needed to work cooperatively within Gridley and other city limits as well.

Referring to the 2022 Oroville Greyhound bus shooting, Honea said that the city of Oroville needed the assistance of the Sheriff's Office, because of the situation's magnitude. Furthermore, if a Gridley Police officer makes an arrest, the suspect is taken to Butte County Jail, which Honea operates. Honea said that there are currently 20 open jobs in the Sheriff's department and "deputies are working multiple mandatory over-time shifts... Eventually, those people are going to give out. They're going to start making mistakes. They're going to get tired." 

Butte County is in the process of building an additional jail facility expected to be completed next year. Some residents question why a new jail facility is being built when there are not enough employees to staff the existing jail. Honea explained that in 2011, California began sending prison inmates referred to as non-serious, non-sex related, convicted felons to county prisons. But many of them, according to Honea, have significant drug addiction, mental and medical health issues, as well as being more criminally sophisticated and disruptive.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea, right, smiles with Gridley Rotary Club president, Lynne Spencer. Courtesy photo

Currently, there are not enough medical beds available for the demand, Honea said. The existing jail has three medical beds; the new one will have 38.

Moreover, the Sheriff's Office plays a major role in handling large-scale disasters, such as the Camp Fire.

Honea said that the District Attorney's office is understaffed to the point that each Deputy District Attorney handles a caseload of 450. As a result, a new misdemeanor policy is in place. Those cases are not reviewed until the suspect's third offense. There simply are not enough staff members to handle all the cases, according to Honea.

Proposition 36 allows felony charges and increases sentences for certain drug and theft crimes, according to the Official Voter Information Guide.

Proposition 36, which Honea supports, will increase the penalties for theft- and drug-related crimes, including possible murder charges for drug dealers. However, without Measure H, there will not be enough revenue to enforce it, Honea said.

Honea said that the Probation Department "is also woefully understaffed, with officers resorting to phone calls for checking in with probationers."

When CAL FIRE dips into the reservoir to fight a fire, each trip costs several thousand dollars, according to Honea. Some residents argue that fire stations in remote areas are not necessary. However, during the Camp Fire, a fire engine in a remote area slowed the fire's progress by two hours, which “bought precious time” for Honea and others evacuating Paradise residents. Additional funding that Measure H could provide will help keep fire equipment in the outlying areas, such as Pulga and Bangor. 

If passed, Measure H would add a 1% sales tax on tangible, personal property items such as new cars purchased from a retailer. The tax is expected to bring in $44-million annually. Unlike federal and state supplied funds, the county will have discretion as to how the funds are used.