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 Oregon Trails
An Occasional Newsletter
from
The Association of Oregon Counties |
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News From Both Coasts
March 11, 2011 |
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| NACo Legislative Conference | |
Washington, DC - The 2011 National Association of Counties Legislative Conference featured the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Attorney General of the United States, an MSNBC host, a freshman U.S. Senator
and three U.S. Congressme n including one from Oregon. In addition to the parade of speakers, the annual conference provided an opportunity for 18 Oregon county commissioners and judges to participate in a host of NACo Steering Committee activities and educational seminars.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) spoke to the conference Tuesday, outlining the new budget process in the House and discussing the need for better management of public lands. U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) spoke earlier and addressed many of the same themes. The reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools Act is a priority for both Northwestern lawmakers, but budget realities have made their task much harder.
Generally, the new Congress was a hot topic at the conference. County officials from across the nation heard from a myriad of Washington insiders on how the playing field has changed significantly in recent weeks and many of the players are still trying to figure out the new rules. Add the deficit and budget challenges and an atmosphere of uncertainty reigns.
 | | Multnomah County Commissioners Judy Shiprack and Diane McKeel |
On a bright note, Multnomah County Commissioners Diane McKeel and Judy Shiprack had a prime opportunity to invite NACo to Multnomah County for the 2011 Annual NACo Conference in July. Commissioners McKeel and Shiprack spoke of all that Oregon has to offer visitors and introduced a video from Travel Oregon showing what our state is all about. |
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| More from Washington, DC | |
A big part of the NACo Legislative Conference is the resolution process. Each of the NACo steering committees considers a number of resolutions submitted by various states and
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AOC President Janet Carlson, AOC Executive Director Mike McArthur and AOC 1st Vice President Tammy Baney enjoy the sunshine on Capitol Hill during a full day of visits to Congressional offices |
individual members. Oregon commissioners submitted four resolutions and weighed in on one other. NACo's Environment, Energy and Land Use Steering Committee passed out the four Oregon resolutions on biomass and the EPA Tailoring Rule, the EPA's Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) Rule, stormwater runoff from logging roads and the USFWS wind siting guidelines.
The Public Lands Steering Committee, chaired by Tillamook County Commissioner Tim Josi, passed out a resolution asking for Interior Secretary Order 3310 be rescinded. Jackson County Commissioner C.W. Smith testified before a Congressional Committee last week, urging Congress to rescind the rule. Order 3310 calls for the BLM to inventory lands for wilderness characteristics, designate them as "wild lands" and manage them for wilderness without Congressional approval. |
| Early Learning Council |
The Governor's Early Learning Design Team was announced Wednesday. The Early Learning Design Team is tasked with preparing a detailed action plan to implement the recommendations of the Governor's Early Childhood and Family Transition Report. Benton County Commissioner Annabelle Jaramillo and Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Baney have been chosen to be a part of the Team, as has Multnomah County Public Health director, Kathleen O'Leary.
The Early Learning Council (ELC) could potentially pull together responsibilities of the Commission on Children and Families, parts of public health and parts of mental health into a single department that would be housed under the Department of Education.
The AOC Commission on Children and Families Task Force has been looking closely at the ELC and will bring its recommendations to the Human Services steering committee on Monday. A report will be made at the Legislative committee as well. For more information, please contact Mark Nystrom. |
| Large Value Appeals |
HB 2569-1 (the dash one amendments are not yet available online) is ready for prime time. Dash one (-1) embodies the simple concept the AOC-convened Large Value Work Group agreed to: In a large value appeal, where there is a lot of money in dispute, the assessor issues a deferred billing credit, the taxpayer has full use of her money, and the taxes are not collected or distributed to schools, counties, and other local districts. In return for that, there is no interest accumulating for either party on this deferred amount.
However, Rep. Katie Eyre Brewer objected to moving the bill today in the House Revenue Committee. She states that without a hammer over the appraiser, the appraiser will have incentive to beef up the value on the appraisal and stretch out the appeal. This notwithstanding the fact that taxing districts are not receiving the deferred taxes, which provides substantial incentive to get the appraisal right. Rep. Eyre Brewer wants to impose a 50 percent cap on deferments.
The committee let discussions continue, and held the bill.
A single example of our current risk: For districts in Multnomah County, in the Comcast case alone, the accruing interest is $40K/MONTH; in the second year of the appeal (about to begin) it will double as the amount in dispute for each year accumulates; and so on. A 50 percent cap will do little to limit the incentive for the taxpayer to extend the appeal. Meanwhile, districts pay. |
| Health System Transformation Team |
Proposed language for a Legislative Concept was released on March 3th. The Team requested that feed back to the proposal be submitted by March 7th. A concern for commissioners is that the proposal used language that made it appear as if all the mental and public health dollars that come from Medicaid or Medicare would be captured in newly formed Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Despite commissioner's role as the mental and public health authorities there currently is no language in the request for proposal (RFP) that would require the ACOs to work with counties. The language did not include provisions for the 40 percent of the population that received mental health care from community mental health that do not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. For more information, please visit the Health System Transformation Team's Website or contact Mark Nystrom.
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| Future Energy Conference | |
The Northwest Environmental Business Council and the Portland Business Journal are teaming up to bring this valuable conference. Topics that will be covered include:
- The business of renewable energy
- The business of energy efficency
- Energy policy & economic development
- Energy sector updates
The conference is April 12-13 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Check it out! Future Energy Conference.
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| AOC Weighs In For Wildlife Damage Control | |
During hearings by the Natural Resources Subcommittee of the Joint Ways & Means Committee, held to consider the budget of the Department of Agriculture, AOC expressed appreciation for the potential reversal of the recent trend in state funding of Wildlife Services. The Governors Budget enhanced the ODA contribution by $100,000 for the 2011-13 biennium, bringing the total to $220,000. Notwithstanding that the State has jurisdiction over wildlife, counties have backfilled the receding state support for animal damage control. In biennium 2009-11, contributions by counties have totaled $2.4 million. AOC pointed out that counties cannot sustain this level of support, and asked the subcommittee to hold to the figure in the Governor's budget as a good starting point.
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| Wildife Services Stakeholders Meeting |
On Wednesday, a group of some 20 stakeholders in Wildlife Services/animal damage control met at the Local Government Center to discuss funding for the services. This meeting was nearly a year after the initial stakeholders meeting convened by AOC. Since that meeting, the Governor's proposed budget has been published with some good news. It proposes to add $100,000 of general funds to each contribution made by the Departments of Agriculture and Fish & Wildlife, for a total state general fund contribution for 2011-13 of $440,000. This still pales compared to the counties' contribution statewide of $2.4 million.
The meeting this week was attended largely by private producers, who gave the federal agency an earful about receding federal funds for field staff, and despite this being a federal program, the heavy reliance on county, state, and private money. The group decided to form a core group of producers to meet periodically and share ideas about appropriate future funding.
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Redistricting Road Trip | |
The Senate and House Redistricting Committees, chaired by Senator Bonamici (D-Washington County/Portland) in the Senate and co-chaired by Representatives Garrett (D-Lake Oswego) and Lindsay (R-Hillsboro) in the House, announced 12 field hearings to be held around the state in March and April. The first hearings were supposed to take place on the North Coast Friday March 11th but were postponed due to the threat of a tsunami.
It is very important for county commissioners, clerks and election directors to be involved in the process as the decisions made in the redistricting process will be in effect for the next decade. The week before last, Benton County Clerk James Morales provided testimony to the joint meeting of the House and Senate redistricting committees on one of the key criteria for redistricting decisions, "communities of interest."
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| Local Budget Law bill clears another hurdle | |
HB 2425, the product of a year-long interim workgroup involving state agencies, local governments and the newspaper industry, passed unanimously out of the House General Government Committee Thursday morning. The bill has the potential to substantially reduce the amount of budget publication costs to counties while also providing more transparent information to the general public. The bill also begins to take small steps toward increasing the utilization of the internet in lieu of the newspaper.The next step for HB 2425 is a vote on the House floor.
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| Video Lottery News | |
The House Revenue Committee amended HB 3188 Friday that requires counties to deposit video lottery money in a dedicated account.
The original bill had included a requirement that a person be hired to manage the video lottery. After listening to AOC's concern that this requirement was expensive and unnecessary, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Matt Wand (R-Troutdale), agreed to delete this requirement with his -1 amendment. The amended bill does require counties to deposit their video lottery money in a dedicated fund (which many counties currently do) and report how they used the money.
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A Website for all seasons www.aocweb.org. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be informed.
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Laura Cleland
Association of Oregon Counties
503-585-8351
Eric Schmidt
Laura's Assistant |
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