It’s hard to believe it has been almost 20 years since I retired from the sheriff’s office, but one thing hasn’t changed according to a recent Chronicle story — the county budget.

It’s bad, and cuts are likely.

The culprits are the same: declining revenues and spending more than comes in. It would be easy to place blame on the current commissioners, but as I mentioned, this has been going on for years.

And the blame can and should be shared, starting with voters. After all, we elect people who typically promise stuff — often free stuff — knowing (we should know) nothing is free. Some of this “stuff” is necessary and actually fits the role of government.

And some stuff is just spending other people's money.

The pressure isn’t only local, though. Unfunded mandates from the state and federal government have driven these local costs, too, as the federal government prints, borrows and spends money it doesn’t have. 

Meanwhile, it’s election time, and guess what? The promises for more “free” stuff are in full swing.

This promise of this free stuff is bad enough, but it is the appetite of voters that is the problem.  It seems to be what we want. Should a candidate tell us the truth — spending is out of control — we agree, but we want more anyway.

Bob Ferguson has an ad suggesting that we have too few law enforcement officers in Washington per capita without acknowledging he’s part of the reason why.

But he has a plan to fix it, of course: more spending. 

But he doesn’t acknowledge his party's role in the problem in the first place. Defund the cops, they demanded. They did, and it turns out it wasn’t nirvana after all. Now, he proposes lots of spending to get more cops back.

Money wasn’t the reason most left anyway. It was stupid, public, picky and endless bashing of the profession that was the biggest contributor.

In private business, it is demonstrably less expensive to keep customers than to find new ones. That applies here too; it would have been much cheaper to support good cops than to find new and qualified candidates and spend a year training them. “Qualified” is important here. Once again, the party in power creates a mess, and then promises to fix it, too.

But when I was cheated by a “licensed” dealer in an automotive transaction and reported it to his attorney general's office, it was two years before they got interested. I guess suing an older owner of a flower shop out of business was more important.

Meanwhile, locally, we have a ballot measure to support our 911 center. It, of course, is part of public safety and, as an older resident who has used the service for medical aid, I want that to work, so I will be supporting it. 

It doesn’t matter why we are in this fix. The biggest reason in my opinion is that when the system was created, what was lacking was a plan to keep the technology current. The reason goes back to spending; we mostly agreed we wanted it, but really didn’t want to pay what it actually costs to have it. A 24-hour staff and the technology to support it.

None of that is cheap.

In fact, nothing to do with public safety is, but we do need it. But here is something you may not know and I’ve mentioned previously.

Do you realize one of the more significant users of the county jail is the Washington State Patrol? Do you know each user of the jail (cities and county) are required to support that jail by user fees, except the Washington State Patrol?

That means every time the Legislature meets and proposes an even stiffer penalty for impaired driving (or other misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor crime) and they parade a representative of the Washington State Patrol up to testify in favor of said penalty, they testify there will be a minimal or no fiscal Impact.

No matter the noble nature of the penalty, local governments foot the bill.

Did you also know that the Washington Department of Corrections used to be responsible for felons in county jails? That meant medical, too, but with the stroke of a pen, they changed years ago to save money and dumped it on counties. 

Those costs were not insignificant.

I’ve been out of the business a long time, so maybe I’m wrong about this. They have changed the policy and the state is paying a Democrat’s favorite line — “their fair share.” 

Maybe, but I doubt it. If anything, it's gotten worse.

Washington is and has been a fully Democrat-run state for some time now and, as a result, also has become more expensive. Democrats always seem to be looking for more ways to spend money. That's just their way. 

And when the voters object? Well, they always have a friendly court to remind them who is boss.

•••

John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.