COOS BAY — County officials want to make one thing clear: The federal timber payment renewal is temporary and payments won’t measure up to those in the past.

They want voters to pass their proposed measures to fund law enforcement and public health.

At a League of Women Voters forum Thursday night  in Coos Bay, officials discussed the three county measures voters will consider when their ballots come in the mail for the Nov. 4 election.

Whether two of them — one for Coos County Public Health and another for the Coos County jail and South Coast Interagency Narcotics Team — are necessary any longer with federal timber money coming in for the next four budget seasons seemed the question of the night.

The first payment of the timber aid renewal will bring in 90 percent of the last one received in the 2006-07 fiscal year. Payments will shrink each year. The last payment may only amount to 40 percent of what Coos  County received in 2006-07, Commissioner Nikki Whitty said.

If the county managers decide to save some of each payment — the money going into the general fund won’t replace what was lost when the payments expired the first time.

“We would not be able to bring back the services that we cut,” Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said.

With smaller and smaller amounts coming in, officials contend the tax levies are still needed to provide services.

The Public Health measure would provide $450,000 to the department each year for three years. Officials say the money is needed to maintain the current level of services. The law enforcement levy revenue would open more jail space and fund SCINT operations. Taxes would not be collected until 2009 for both levies.

County leaders also emphasized the levies are paying for services everyone in the county uses.

“There is not a citizen in Coos County that does not benefit from Public Health,” Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean said.

Even those who have never been in a county clinic are affected by restaurant inspections and drinking water monitoring carried out by public health staff, Coos County Public Health Administrator Frances Smith said.

The money is needed to keep local control over county public health until the state can figure out a way to fully fund all the services it mandates, Stufflebean said.

Sheriff Andy Jackson made the same point about the jail and SCINT.

“If this tax levy does not pass, it will put the onus on each city to do it’s own drug enforcement,” Jackson said. “If you think the problem is bad now ... it will get worse.”

Still audience members wondered: Why not pay for patrol deputies rather than only jail staff?

Frasier said when law enforcement officials visited with city representatives, they got the message that the cities didn’t want to pay for deputies. Levy supporters changed their focus.

“We felt it had a better chance of passing,” he said.

When asked what would happen if the levies did not pass, county officials said citizens would see more service cuts. Frasier said funding instability affects recruiting in his office and the types of crimes prosecuted. Jackson said he would have to look to the commissioners to know what his department would be able to operate.