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 Oregon Trails
An Occasional Newsletter
from
The Association of Oregon Counties
Month, Year - Vol 1, Issue 1 |
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No Fooling Around
Co-chairs' budget and lots of other stuff
April 1, 2011 |
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Co-chairs' Budget Released | |
Salem - The highlight of the past week was the release of the Ways and Means Co-chairs' proposed budget. Legislative leadership had been pushing the Co-chairs to produce a budget by the end of March and they met the deadline with some time to spare. What they came up with is a sparse document, short on specifics, but long on the need for a shared sense of sacrifice by all. AOC has produced a complete analysis of the Co-chairs' budget. It's a good read.
With the release of the Co-chairs' budget, the heavy lifting begins. The Ways and Means subcommittees have been given their marching orders. There is a great deal of pressure being exerted by several groups to have the Legislature act on the K-12 education budget before the end of April. The logic is quick action will give schools budgeting certainty. There is no such pressure for other areas of the state budget. But, the Legislature must finish its work by the end of June as mandated by the annual sessions initiative voters approved last November. The last two weeks of May and the month of June are shaping up to be very busy. Very busy.
What is certain is that the Legislature still has much work to do, and most of it is difficult and complex. As we've reported in this space recently, many bills are being given public hearings, many fewer are actually being moved past the hearing stage and even fewer are making their way to the floors of the respective chambers. With the evenly divided House and slim majority in the Senate, partisan bills are simply not going as far in the process this session as they might have gone in past sessions. Maybe that's a good thing. |
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Legislature Scrutinizing Alternative Contracting Methods | |
Numerous bills related to public contracting in Oregon have recently received hearings in both House and Senate Committees to mixed reactions. Several of the bills address perceived abuses of the utilization of exemptions from the competitive bidding process. SB 581 calls for the establishment of a state-level "Alternative Contracting Review Board" that would require all contracts exempted from competitive bidding by a Local Contract Review Board to go through an extra review to determine whether the exemption was appropriate. Two other bills, HB 3415 and SB 772 would require counties to pay a fee based on the size of a contract to the Secretary of State Audit's Division, which would then conduct random of audits of certain projects. AOC expressed concerns over these bills and several others, due to additional costs and likely project delays.
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Tale of Two Bills from the Government Efficiency Task Force | |
Two bills recommended by last year's Government Efficiency Task Force took different paths this week. HB 2476, which makes optional the assessor's appointment of a county farm-values board, had a well-received hearing at the House Revenue Committee on Tuesday after being referred there do-pass by the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. The bill is scheduled for a work session April 5th, and should be sent to the House floor for passage.
The other path, however, went nowhere. HB 2475, which would have added features to the statutory process for declaring a county to be unable to provide minimal public safety services, had been scheduled for a work session by the House Judiciary Committee. The bill would have permitted an anticipatory determination by the Criminal Justice Commission on the county's fiscal status and provided the opportunity for 'gap funding' by the State to a county taking a public safety measure to its voters. After several conversations with county representatives, other stakeholders, and committee members, Co-Chair Wayne Krieger (R-Gold Beach) decided not to move the bill. Among his concerns were frustrations about the non-management of federal forests, the difficulty of getting a local measure adopted, and questions about gap funding. The bill is dead. |
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Health Care Transformation | |
Mike Bonetto and Sean Kolmer from the Governor's Office and Bruce Goldberg from the Oregon Health Authority met with a small number of commissioners and staff to discuss the impact of the Health Care Transformation on counties. There was a productive dialog and they asked counties to put together legislative language for how the coordinated care organizations (CCO) would handle the safety net functions of the community mental health programs. Additionally, the group is looking into funding stream efficiencies and the legal needs to create public/private partnerships so counties can contract with CCOs. Please contact Mark Nystrom for further information. |
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Taking Interest Off the Table in Large Value Appeals |
HB 2569 survived a work session Tuesday in the House Revenue Committee, and is headed to the House floor with a do-pass recommendation. The bill would authorize the county assessor to grant deferred credits to a taxpayer who files an appeal with at least one million dollars of value in dispute. The effect of the credit is to permit the taxpayer to retain disputed taxes without fear of delinquent interest with an adverse decision or anticipation of refund interest with a positive decision on the appeal. This concept is supported by all direct stakeholders in the property tax collections process. It is intended to control the size of refunds required to be paid out of the unsegregated tax account, which are not budgeted by local governments and schools.
Rep. Katie Eyre Brewer (R-Hillboro) proposed an amendment to limit the credit to 80 percent of the taxes at issue, reasoning that without the danger of interest payments the appraiser will have incentive to increase the appraisal and elongate the appeal. AOC had argued that the size of the disputed taxes themselves (as large value appeals), and the fact that the disputed amount is not collected and distributed to local districts, is incentive enough for an appraiser to not be unprofessional.
Of the eight committee members, five voted no on the amendment (Representatives Cliff Bentz, Jules Bailey, Sara Gelser, Tobias Read, and Phil Barnhart), causing its defeat. Our thanks to these five members! The committee then voted unanimously to send the bill to the House floor.
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Prevailing Wages in Enterprise Zones | |
HB 2624, sponsored by Rep. Schaufler (D-Happy Valley), would require prevailing wages in Enterprise Zones. The bill narrowly passed the House Business and Labor Committee on Wednesday March 30. Rep. Kennemer (R-Clackamas) joined the Democratic legislators to vote in favor of the bill while the Republican legislators voiced their disapproval. The Committee also approved the -1 amendment which would require a fee of $5,000 to pay for Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) costs of administering prevailing wage requirements. AOC, LOC, OEDA, Clackamas County and the cities of Hillsboro and Medford testified in opposition to the bill during the public hearing on March 16. The bill has a subsequent referral to House Revenue where it will face significant opposition.
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Local Transient Lodging Tax Bill Gets Hearing |
The Senate Finance and Revenue committee held a public hearing on SB 307 Wednesday afternoon. The bill expands the ability of local governments to utilize more of their Transient Lodging Tax revenues for services that "have a substantial purpose of supporting tourism or accommodating tourist activities." The bill would partially restore some of the local control ceded in 2003 when a 1 percent state transient lodging tax was instituted and all new local transient lodging tax revenue was largely dedicated to the promotion of tourism. AOC's position is that the decision on how to allocate locally-raised revenue is best left in the hands of the elected governing body, which has to balance the best interests of the community as a whole. AOC therefore supports SB 307, as well as several other lodging tax bills introduced this session, including a bill introduced by Tillamook County (SB 542) that would expand use of lodging tax revenue to roads leading to tourist destinations.
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Joint Special Committee on Health Care Transformation | |
A special joint committee has been put together to address the health care transformation work. The Co-Chairs are Sen. Monnes Anderson, Rep. Greenlick and Rep Freeman. Other members include Senators Morse, Shields, Kruse and Bates and Representatives Kotek and Thompson. This committee will be meeting on Wednesday's starting next week at the Capitol at either 5 or 6 pm.
You can sign up to receive agendas if you want to follow the acivities of the committee.
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Public Health | |
Commissioners Bill Hall and Linda Modrell testified in support of local public health at the Human Services subcommittee of Ways and Means. The two commissioners were well received and legislators asked them questions about the viability of finding alternative ways of funding local public health. AOC will be keeping a close eye on further developments. |
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Commission on Children and Families | |
The Early Learning Design team will be holding their second meeting on April 4th at the IKE Box in Salem. The group will be meeting Monday nights every other week through mid-May and then start meeting weekly through the end of session. Please contact Mark Nystrom with any questions.
The Co-Chairs' budget singled out the line-items the Governor proposed to move to the Education Department for the Early Learning Council and moved them back to their existing funding streams under the State Commission. Hearings on bills sponsored by Representatives Kotek (HB 3256) and Clem (HB 3570) make fundamental changes to the State Commission. Hearings will be held on both bills on April 6. While there are some questions regarding the funding stream for local commissions, it appears as if the basic structure of local commissions will remain. |
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The Pacific Program is Reenergized and Ready to Roll! | |
Many in the AOC family have attended the Pacific Program in the past and have found
the catalytic leadership training to be invaluable. The Luke Center Board of Directors has worked hard to refresh the program so that catalytic leadership continues to grow the capacity and effectiveness of leaders throughout the state.
Applications for the 2011 program are due by June 30. Information on the refreshed program and application information can be found at the Luke Center Website.
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| NACo Webinars Address Counties Concerns | |
The National Association of Counties (NACo) offers a new series of webinars in April. Register now for these free sessions:
April 7 Road Safety - Using Safe Road Maps to Reduce Crashes and Fatalities
April 14 Coastal Counties - Tools for Resiliency
April 20 County Outreach to Veterans and Military Families
April 21 Prevention and Wellness in Health Reform
April 28 Green Infrastructure - Northwest Area
NACo also has on-line recordings from webinars offered during the past six months. There are 24 topics ranging from community engagement and green government to healthcare reform. You can find more information about the individual programs and registration on the NACo Webinar Webpage.
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| Have a Great Weekend! | |
Thanks for involving AOC in a part of your busy day by digesting Oregon Trails.
Contributors this week, Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Wheezer, Froggy, Butch, Woim, Darla, Stymie, Waldo and Pete the Pup.
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Laura Cleland
Association of Oregon Counties
503-585-8351
Eric Schmidt
Laura's Assistant |
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