Have you registered for the NACo Annual Conference? If not, then you need to make sure you register by Friday, June 3 to save your county $75 on the registration fee.

Register today, for your association's Annual Conference in Multnomah County, (Portland), Oregon, July 15 -19. More than 1,300 members and your colleagues are already registered!

The conference offers great opportunities to:

• Network with your peers
• Bring solutions home to your county
• Hear from expert speakers that will inspire and educate
• Learn from more than 30 educational workshops, and
• Meet with suppliers that can provide you cost saving opportunities on services and products
• Become familiar with Social Media

Questions? Please contact the NACo Meetings Department at nacomeetings@naco.org.

We hope to see you in Multnomah County (Portland) Oregon!   

SB 960-A cleared the Senate this week on a vote of 27 to 1. The bill implements the recommendations of the AOC Farm Land Activities Task Force. The bill clarifies a county's authority to permit agri-tourism and other commercial events or activities on farm land.The bill now heads to the House where it is expected to be heard by the House Rules Committee. 

Yamhill County Commissioner and AOC 2nd Vice President Mary Stern chaired the AOC Task Force and has been a driving force in getting SB 960-A through the Senate.Sen. Chuck Thomsen (R-Hood River), a former Hood River County Commissioner, sponsored the bill and carried it on the Senate floor.Richard Whitman, the Governor's Natural Resources Advisor, has been instrumental in crafting the legislation as has Yamhill County Planning Director Mike Brandt. AOC Policy Manager Art Schlack staffed the Task Force and has been working closely with legislative staff and members. 

SB 960-A is the product of a nine month collaborative process by county elected officials, representatives of state agencies, county planners and numerous interested parties. A job well done, but not quite complete. 

GETF Bill Almost There

The Oregon Health Authority Budget passed out of the Ways and Means Human Services Subcommittee this week.  The subcommittee had previously approved the budgets for the Public Health Department and the Addictions and Mental Health Department.  There were no changes to those budgets when the overall budget was approved (see last week's newletter for details.) 

One item of discussion was the fact that the assumed savings of approximately $240 million from the Health System Transformation was in the OHA budget.  Several legislators voiced concern there would be no real savings but ultimately it was agreed that during the second half of the biennium there would need to be a large reduction in spending. 

It appears as if a slightly changed version of the Health System Transformation bill, HB 3650-A will be heard sometime next week by the Capital Construction subcommittee of Ways and Means.AOC staff has been told that the legislators involved in hearing the bill have been instructed not to touch the language concerning the counties which is good news at this point.

The Department of Human Services budget was approved by the Human Services Subcommittee of Ways and Means and moved on to the full Ways and Means Committee. The Developmental Disability program received 14 million in add-backs from cuts in the Governor's recommended budget. These include:

• Alternatives to Employment (ATE), which provides day supports and related transportation, will be continued at 90 percent of the 2009-11 level. The GRB zeroed out this program. 
• Support Service funding for 18 to 21 year olds in brokerage services was restored.
• Partial restoration of $2 million general fund dollars for the Family Support program provided by the Community Developmental Disabilities Programs (CDDP) for children up to age 18.  
• Partial restoration of the Targeted Case Management for CDDP programs and brokerages at $3 million general fund, $7.7 million total funding.
• Funding for the Home Care Commission for implementation of training - registry required under HB 3618.
• Fairview Trust - half the dollars in the Fairview Trust are to be taken in the second year of the biennium if revenue does not improve and additional funding is needed for the DHS general fund.

Senator Bates, acknowledged the challenge of the budget process andstated that the co-chairs of the subcommittee simply had to ask "how can we just manage to hold on to programs."

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding is part of the Department of Human Services Budget approved this week. This issue was discussed at last month's AOC Human Services Steering Committee and Legislative Committee. The programs that were "bought back" include:

• Restoration of the 60 month time limit ($12.6 million)
• Grandfathering of TANF clients already enrolled in Parents as Scholars ($1.13 million) (these are families pursuing a 2- to 4-year higher education degree)
• Restoration of $2 million for Family Support and Connections (child abuse prevention services)
• Restoration of $10 million to serve Tier II JOBS clients (these are TANF clients who are "near job-ready")

The Employment Related Day Care (ERDC) program was lowered to 9,000 slots, however, there was agreement that the Governor would look for other ways to ramp up funding over the biennium to serve a total of 11,000 slots. (ERDC provides child care funding for families leaving TANF for employment.)

 There were still some cuts to TANF related programs that may affect counties:

• Post-TANF payments ($50/month to help families transition successfully to new employment - $1.9 million)
• Family Pre-SSI payments (about $100/month for families that are applying for federal disability benefits - $2.3 million)
• A portion of JOBS program cuts ($15 million). Background: the JOBS program has been reduced from $115 million to $60 million (includes the $10 million restored above). Over 20,000 TANF clients will receive notices in the mail next week telling them their JOBS services will be severely reduced starting in July. Only those who are deemed "job ready" or "near job ready" (tier I and II) will receive any support and this service will be dramatically reduced. JOBS workers across the state are being laid off (45 in one office alone in Portland). Tier III clients (those with the most severe employment barriers) will no longer receive any job support services.

This is likely to affect counties due to additional lay-offs, a reduction in DHS/JOBS contracts in local communities, as well as the employment services that TANF clients will no longer receive.

The State Commission on Children and Families budget was passed by the Human Services Subcommittee on Ways and Means to the full Ways and Means Committee. Since SB 909, which would establish the Early Learning Council, and HB 3086, which would abolish the State Commission and move the funding to the Early Learning Council, had not been heard the subcommittee discussed the CCF budget. The budget passed without much discussion. It was agreed that if either SB 909 or HB 3086 passed that the budgets would be reconciled in the full Ways and Means.

Several bills of interest to counties moved toward passage this week or in several cases successfully reached the finish line.  Some highlights: 

•  HB 2425: A bill to revamp local budget law passed unanimously out of Senate General Government on Wednesday and moves to the Senate floor next week, having already passed the House 59-1. For many counties, the proposed legislation will reduce budget publication costs by as much two-thirds by eliminating the need to publish summaries of each individual fund within the county budget. It will also allow for the additional utilization of county websites in lieu of newspaper publication. In addition, the bill updates language and brings local budget law into the 21^st century. This bill is a top-tier AOC priority for the 2011 session.
•  HB 2210: Allows counties to provide a driver education program and be reimbursed by the Department of Transportation. This bill was introduced on behalf of Sherman County, though several other counties have expressed interest. This bill has passed both the House and Senate and awaits the Governor's signature.
• SB 954: Modifies the date county Treasurers need to transmit quarterly CAFFA data to the state in order to provide additional time to accumulate the necessary data. This bill has now passed both the House and Senate and is awaiting the Governor's signature.

Wednesday of this week, most legislative committees were required to take action on remaining bills, or let them die.  The two Judiciary Committees were included in that deadline.  So a number of bills passed out to the floor of the second chamber from those two committees. 

Some of the county interest bills passed out include:  HB 2663, requiring the district attorney or court to notify crime victims of certain proceedings in proceedings involving violent felonies; HB 2865, allowing local governments, by ordinance, to limit liability for agents or employees for injuries or property damage that occurs in certain publicly accessible trails or structures; HB 3142, including youth correction facility staff within the definition of "staff member" for purposes of being able to charge a person with third degree assault or aggravated harassment; HB 3153, including reserve officers within the definition of "peace officer" for purposes of charging persons with certain offenses against such officers, and for other purposes; HB 3251, prohibiting public disclosure of audio or video records of internal investigation interviews of public safety officers (with exceptions); and SB 557, requiring district attorneys to organize sexual assault teams in their counties.

Here's the "maybe":  the deadline does not apply to these committees:  Revenue Committees, Rules Committees, and the Ways and Means Committee.  Imaginative lobbyists now have fewer bills to try to stuff their issues into; and other lobbyists now have more free time to destroy what's left. 

A bill supported by AOC took another step closer to adoption this week, as HB 3623, which extends the sunset on the successful Deschutes Basin Groundwater Mitigation Program to 2029, passed out of the Ways and Means Committee. It had been held in the Natural Resources Subcommittee for one more amendment (which converts the A-engrossed bill to B-engrossed): to require the Water Resources Department to review impacts of the program on Metolius cold water springs. WRD stated this task can be accommodated with minimal expenditure impact, because they have the key data as part of their routine review of the program.

HB 3017 sailed through the Senate with a unanimous vote on Tuesday. This bill, a high priority bill for AOC, extends the sunset of the Enterprise Zone program to 2025. The next stop will be the Governor's signature. A very big thanks to Rep. Jules Bailey, Rep. Jason Conger, Rep. Betty Komp, and Senator Chris Telfer for their strong support and their efforts to achieve passage of this important job creation bill.

There was an announcement on the House floor on Thursday that a discharge petition will be circulated to pull HB 2624 (Prevailing Wage in Enterprise Zones) to the floor from the Revenue Committee where it thus far has been denied a hearing after referral from House Business & Labor. Proponents have five calendar days to collect 31 signatures of House members (all 60 members are eligible to sign) and force a vote.  This means proponents have until Tuesday, June 7 at 5:00 pm to collect the signatures. Thus far, only Representative Dave Hunt has signed the petition. 

Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR) is leading a bipartisan chorus of House members in protesting the administration's national forest planning rule, saying it will lead to more litigation that will divert limited agency resources from badly needed job creation in rural communities.

Walden and Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) organized a bipartisan letter signed by 60 members to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to tell him that his new rule fails to avoid the pitfalls that have put the Forest Service in seemingly endless litigation of the last three decades. Taken together, the signers of the letter represent 77.7 percent of the nation's 193 million acres of federal forest land.

"The proposed rule moves the agency further away from a simple, concise rule that can be understood by both agency personnel and the public and implemented with a minimum amount of contention among stakeholder groups," the lawmakers wrote. "By adding more process requirements and introducing new technical terms, you are increasing the likelihood that like previous attempts at reform, the proposed rule will be tied up in courts for years."

"We foresee limited federal dollars available for U.S. Forest Service operations being consumed by these processes to the detriment of the health of our federal forests and continuation of multiple uses of our federal resources," the lawmakers wrote. "This, in turn, will reduce the number of jobs in our already distressed rural communities and further limit the amount of American wood and fiber available to aid our economic recovery."

Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) also signed the letter.

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. 

This Week's Contributors 

For a short week, this was a long one. Our contributors were so busy, they barely had time to contribute. But they did and they are Ann "E-zone" Hanus, Mark "doc"  Nystrom, Gil "rain man" Riddell, Art "farmer" Schlack, Cara "NACo" Fischer, Laura "cleanup" Cleland, Michael "new overwhelmed Daddy" Eliason and Billy Bob Thornton.

"It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much."  Yogi Berra

Have a Great Weekend!