KLAMATH FALLS — Klamath County commissioners have decided not to ask voters if they want to raise their property taxes to pay for the jail.

The Herald and News in Klamath Falls reports that the board voted Tuesday to remove a three-year jail levy from the May 15 ballot.

The reason is that the Legislature enacted a bill this year allowing Klamath and other counties to use money normally restricted to road maintenance to fund sheriff’s offices.

The $1.6 million levy would have cost the owner of a $200,000 home an extra $80 a year.

Rural counties have been scrambling to fill budget gaps since expiration last year of a program that subsidized federal timber payments to counties to make up for logging cutbacks forced by fish and wildlife protections.