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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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Half Way Home
Tax Day Edition
April 15, 2011 |
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What will the Governor do? | |
This week marks the half way point to the Legislature's June 30th deadline for adjournment. Under the voter-approved measure on annual sessions, the Legislature has to be done by June 30th in odd numbered years, or get a two-thirds vote in each chamber to extend the session by five days.
The K-12 budget is the largest item in the state budget. With the education budget out of the way (more on that below the photo), at least temporarily, this Legislature can now focus on the rest of the budget and whatever policy items remain alive. They have much to do and not much time to do it.
Both the House and the Senate passed a $5.7 billion K-12 budget bill this week. The vote was unanimous in the Senate, and a 32-28 nail-biter in the House. Each party had to contribute 16 votes to the effort, which was accomplished, allowing representatives of both parties to vote no and complain about how little education is getting.
Both parties crowed about their committment to education and passing the education budget early, which provides some certainty to school districts trying to budget for next year. Still, the education community isn't pleased and plans to revisit the budget before the Legislature leaves June 30th. As this edition of Oregon Trails goes to electronic press, it is not known if the Governor will sign the education budget.
The above photo was taken in March. There's been one day of real blue sky in Salem since December and that was the one day. |
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Counties Collect More Money for Schools | |
Last Biennium counties assessed and collected property taxes in the amount of $3.2 billion for K-12 and ESDs. Next biennium the Legislative Revenue Office projects $3.3 billion will be collected or about $140 million increase. This is in addition to the $5.7 billion the Legislature approved this week. Counties fund this collection work with local property taxes dedicated to counties.
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SRS on Legislature's Agenda |
The Oregon House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee adopted HJM 25 on Monday. The joint memorial urges Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act.
AOC 1st VP and Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Baney and past AOC President and Columbia County Commissioner Tony Hyde testified in favor of the adoption of the joint memorial. Lake County Commissioner Dan Shoun offered his support. AOC Executive Director Mike McArthur introduced the panel and the Committee acted quickly to adopt the joint memorial, which is now headed to the House floor where we trust it will meet a similar greeting and action.
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| | Mike McArthur, Tony Hyde and Tammy Baney offer AOC support for HJM 25 |
Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C., legislative efforts move forward, constrained by the budget battles. Congress will be taking a two-week break beginning today. If one of our U.S. Senators or Congressmen holds a town hall in your county over the next couple of weeks, make sure they know how much counties appreciate their efforts on our behalf and how important reauthorization is to Oregon counties and schools! If you need some talking points, please contact Eric or Laura at AOC. We can also fill you in on some of the inside baseball taking place in D.C.
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Farmland Activities | |
On Thursday, April 14 the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee heard SB 960 which contains the AOC Farmland Activities Task Force proposal to clarify county authority to permit events and activities on land zoned for Exclusive Farm Use. The bill also addresses uses and activities at wineries. The Committee is expected to continue discussion of SB 960 next Tuesday, April 19th, 2011.
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Early Learning Design Team | |
The Early Learning Design Team met on Monday night. The Team invited Sean Kolmer from the governor's office to discuss the lessons learned from the Health Transformation Team's efforts. A few interesting comments came from the discussions that followed. It was mentioned several times that the Early Learning Council needed to be flexible to meet the needs of local communities. The group also discussed how it was not necessary to re-invent the wheel, we need to build on the existing structures that we have now.
Duke Shepard from the governor's office, provided a timeline for the Early Learning Council (ELC). Right now there is legislation working its way through the Senate that would create the ELC (SB 909-3). The Early Learning Design Team will complete its work by July 1st and from there the newly formed ELC will take over the effort. By February 2012 the ELC should have enough structure for the Legislature to transfer the necessary funds for operation starting July 1, 2012.
For more questions, contact Mark Nystrom.
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Commission on Children and Families | |
The House Human Services Committee adopted the "dash 1" amendments to HB 3256 regarding the State Commission on Children and Families (OCCF). Rep. Kotek testified that the amendments address the concerns of Rep. Thompson that the contracts with the counties should be performance based and focus more on abuse and neglect. The competitive grant requirement that was originally part of HB 3256 was replaced.
There was support for local commissions expressed in the comments by Rep. Thompson and Rep. Gilliam. The committee adopted the amendment and voted to send the bill to the floor with the referral to Ways and Means. Rep. Kotek testified that the bill puts sideboards on the state commission, if the state commission exists after the session. Rep. Thompson said the amendment also makes it clear that the state and local commissions are separate entities.
Rep. Clem's HB 3570 has "dash 5" amendments and was carried over to a future date.
HB 3102 relates to CASA funding and is waiting for the fiscal impact statement. The "dash 4" amendments say they are not sure what is wanted and the Department of Administrative Services holds the money while an interim task force decides what to do. The "dash 5" amendments put a permanent structure for CASA in the judicial department.
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Joint Health Care Transformation Committee |
Deschutes County Commissioner and AOC 1st VP Tammy Baney testified Wednesday night at the Joint Special Committee on Health Care Transformation. During her testimony, Commissioner Baney talked about a willingness of counties to work with the Legislature and the Oregon Health Authority to help improve the health care system, a need for statutory language that defined the relationship between counties and the proposed community care organizations, and the concern for the funding streams of community mental health and public health.
Commissioner Baney was able to add her expertise from the Central Oregon integration process. Several legislators thanked Commissioner Baney for all her work and asked a number of questions on governance.
Gina Nikkel from AOCMHP and Kathleen O'Leary from CLHO also testified. They re-enforced Commissioner Baney's testimony and went into depth on community mental health and community public health issues.
The bill for the Health Care Transformation is expected to be released Thursday, April 14th at 5 pm. It will be available online under Joint Special Committee on Health Care Transformation.
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On the Road Again | |
Like Willie Nelson, the co-co-chairs of the powerful Oregon Legislature's Ways and Means Committee are taking the committee on the road over the next three weeks to hear from taxpayers about their thoughts concerning the state budget. The public hearings begin next Tuesday, April 19th at 5:00 pm at the PCC Sylvania campus in Portland. The full schedule includes stops in Bend, Medford, Newport and video conferencing hookups to Pendleton and Coos Bay. The public hearings offer you an opportunity to engage the budget writers with your concerns about the shared services counties provide and how they are funded.
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Governor Announces 10-year Energy Plan | |
At the Future Energy Conference this week, Governor Kitzhaber announced that he's beginning work on a 10-year energy plan for Oregon that should do the following:
1. Maximize opportunities to leverage energy efficiency gains and develop our own energy resources, while importing fewer resources;
2. Include strategic investments to expand both clean technology manufacturing and the potential for small business to access the supply chain in Oregon; and
3. Address structural issues in state bureaucracy -- aligning and streamlining Oregon's energy policy and permitting apparatus to better serve our clean energy objectives.
He also highlighted a regional collaborative on energy efficiency to "breathe new life into the effort to address climate change" that will include at least Washington state.
Governor Kitzhaber said that he is "committed to maximizing our own energy resources by working this session to begin a new and efficient incentive package for community scale renewable energy projects, expanding Oregon's feed-in tariff pilot project and promoting community-scale biomass energy projects."
Watch the governor's speech once you've finished reading the newsletter.
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NACo Volunteers Needed | |
Ready to showcase Oregon to the nation? The National Association of Counties Annual Conference will be held in Multnomah County starting July 15th. Volunteers are needed to help guide the estimated 3000 county visitors around Portland and Oregon. Please consider using some of your spare time to help make their visit to our state and region a memorable one.
Becoming a volunteer is easy. Just register. Volunteers will get training and a t-shirt among other things for their time. If you have questions, please contact Theresa Sullivan at Multnomah County. Her phone number is 503-988-3655.
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RIP Nikki | |
Long time Coos County Commissioner Nikki Whitty lost her brave battle with cancer this week. Her passing leaves a huge hole in the AOC family. Nikki was an active and productive participant in AOC activities as a member of the Board of Directors, Legislative Committee, various steering committees and several task forces and commissions over the years. She will, of course, be greatly missed by her family and Coos County, but AOC will miss her gentle presence and sage advice. The Coos Bay World has more about Nikki and her exceptional record of public service.
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Many thanks to the few contributors, Mike McArthur, Mark Nystrom, Ann Hanus, Art Schlack and Buffalo Bob.
Have a great weekend.
Laura Cleland
Association of Oregon Counties
503-585-8351
Eric Schmidt
Laura's Assistant |
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