By Patric Hedlund, TME

Kern County leads the state in oil and natural gas production. But the county’s reported $49 million decline in property tax revenue from those same oil and gas fields is a result of the ongoing plunge in the market value of fossil fuels.

The result is a call by the Kern County Board of Supervisors for excruciating budget cuts over the next four years by all…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

In November 2015 County Administrator John Nilon pointed to his chart to explain how much of the $2.87 billion Kern County budget is allocated to items that are mandated and not ‘discretionary.’

The Mountain Communities rely on their sheriff’s deputies.

Top: A man is taken into custody by Frazier Park deputies and CHP after he was reported to be brandishing a weapon near Pine Mountain Village on August 25, 2014.

Middle: Frazier Park deputies take a man into custody after he was reported to be on the elementary school grounds threatening to kill himself with a gun in 2011. The gun was discovered later near The Mountain Enterprise office.

Above: Frazier Park deputies respond to a report of an armed man making threats on June 12, 2012.

Counties of comparison on safety spending

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This is part of the August 5, 2016 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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