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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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They're (Almost) Back!
Oregon Legislature is getting in gear, health transformation moving forward
January 18, 2012 |
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Legislative Work Days Under Way | |
The Oregon Legislature is in town for three legislative work days in preparation for the upcoming February legislative session. There is a lot going on. If you would like to see what's happening, check out the legislative committee agenda Web page.
If you want to watch or listen to a hearing, go to the audio visual page.
Watch for the next edition of Oregon Trails for a report on what transpired at the Capitol. |
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| Health Transformation Information | |
Harney County Q&A with Oregon Health Authority
Last fall Harney County presented a number of questions about CCOs to the Oregon Health Authority. These questions ranged from governance questions to accountability. OHA has responded to these questions and the responses are now available on the AOC website.
One more way to provide feedback
As the Legislature gets up to speed on all that has happened with CCOs over the past eight months, there is another opportunity to provide feedback. AOC would like to encourage you to reach out to your legislative representatives and let them know your thoughts and ideas around the Implementation Proposal. There are still questions about the role of counties in the governance and about the outcome metrics for CCOs. The Legislature will be debating this issue in the next few weeks and now is a perfect time to make your voice heard. If you have any questions, feel free to contact AOC Staff, Mark Nystrom.
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| Focus on Fiscal Crises | |
The Government Efficiency Task Force (GETF) and the Joint Legislative Task Force on County Payments both meet this week. The GETF, chaired by Representative Nancy Nathanson, will have its first meeting on Thursday, January 19, 1 - 3 pm in room 350 of the Capitol. Representative Nathanson hopes to build on the successes of the first task force she chaired two years ago. The new task force has been charged to study and make recommendations in the following areas:
- Elections;
- Human services;
- Natural resources;
- Education; and
- Criminal justice.
Commissioners Janet Carlson and Mary Stern are representing AOC on the GETF.
The Joint Legislative Task Force on County Payments will meet on Friday, January 20 at 11:15 am in room 343 of the Capitol. This will be the second meeting of the task force. The task force will focus this meeting on reviewing the 2009 Governor's task force report and discussing forest management and potential federal legislation. Testimony is by invitation only. Members of the joint task force are:
Sen. Joanne Verger, Co-Chair
Rep. Bruce L Hanna, Co-Chair
Rep. Arnie Roblan, Co-Chair
Sen. Ted Ferrioli
Sen. Fred Girod
Sen. Betsy Johnson
Sen. Jeff Kruse
Sen. Floyd Prozanski
Rep. Phil Barnhart
Rep. Mike McLane
Sen. Peter Courtney, Alternate
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| House and Senate Transportation and Economic Development Committees | |
During the February Session, the House and Senate Transportation and Economic Development committees will be unveiling bills dealing with:
- Increasing lottery bonds by $10 million for Connect Oregon, $10 million for the Special Public Works Fund, $10 million for Community College construction and $20 million for the Oregon Growth Account
- Reallocation of unused transportation funding
- Expanding the number, size and terms of Enterprise Zones
- Treasurer Wheeler's Oregon Investment Act
- Government Camp rest stops and additional funding for Oregon Travel Experience to manage additional rest stops
- Exempting industrial site in Redmond from the Transportation Planning Rule
- Central Assessment
This just in...At the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee today, ODOT announced that it will keep the Government Camp rest stop open using existing resources. As a result a bill to keep the rest stop open was not needed.
The Columbia River Crossing Oversight Committee will meet on Thursday to hear a status report on funding.
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| Baney Presidency in Full Swing |
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AOC President Tammy Baney meets with high-level officials in Washington, DC |
President Baney and Executive Director Mike McArthur traveled to Washington DC last week for the annual County Association Presidents and Executives briefing. They spent the first day visiting the offices of Oregon's congressional delegation discussing the latest on county payments, health transformation and federal transportation legislation. They also visited the US Forest Service, consulted with Marc Kelley of the SRS reauthorization campaign and met with representatives of FEMA.
NACo provided updates on numerous federal issues including the budget and super committee. The group was hosted by the White House staff led by Deputy Director David Agnew at the Eisenhower Executive Office building where they heard from and interacted with Acting Undersecretary for Policy, Department of Transportation, Polly Trottenberg; Acting Deputy Secretary, HUD, Estelle Richmond; Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Howard Koh and Deputy Secretary USDA, Kathleen Merrigan.
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President Baney and Mike McArthur at the National Press Club |
Dinner was held at the National Press Club and the featured speaker was Ezra Klien, Washington Post/Bloomberg News Service. They also heard from Michael Bird of the National Council of State Legislatures.
This was a great opportunity to meet county leaders from other states, to build and renew relationships and learn from others.
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| Wind Energy and Your Health | |
The State Health Division reported out last week their 128-page health impact assessment on wind energy development. This analysis, including initial public meetings in rural Oregon, has taken at least a year of meetings and report-writing. The process for developing the report included a steering committee representing affected counties, AOC, industry, small facility developers and interested citizens. The steering committee made comments on the draft report but was not allowed to comment on the final version. Completing the process includes a public comment period which ends March 30, 2012. This assessment will be of particular interest to the Energy Facility Siting Council, county commissioners and planners where wind development has or will occur. Please don't hesitate to send comments.
The "Key Findings and Recommendations" (pages 3-15) provide a good overview of discussion and recommendations related to sound, visual impacts, air pollution, economic effects and community conflict. Essentially, the report finds the biggest concerns around noise issues, but acknowledges that Oregon has acceptable DEQ standards which are used for development of any of the projects. There is a minor reference in the sound section about lack of a systematic process for receiving complaints about noise where projects are sited by counties. The rest of the positive and negative recommendations are not new issues and are well within those that are known and handled by the state's EFSC and counties.
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Early Learning Update |
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Commissioner Janet Carlson prepares to testify |
Commissioner Janet Carlson testified before the Senate Heath Care, Human Services and Rural Health Policy Committee on Wednesday. Commissioner Carlson highlighted some of the 25 recommendations from the AOC Early Learning Task Force Report such as the roles of counties in governance and service delivery. Commissioner Carlson told the committee that it is AOC 's recommendation that the sunset date for the Local Commissions on Children and Families be extended to a later date in order to provide time for a smooth transition to the Early Learning Accountability Hubs. Commissioner Carlson testified that this would allow communities to transition without an interruption in services.
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| Oregon County Assessors and Tax Collectors Hold Successful Winter Conference | |
Assessors held its Winter Conference last week in Clackamas, and were joined by the Oregon Association of County Tax Collectors. These associations hold two meetings a year for training, internal business, and networking.
Among the presentations,
- Jim Bucholz, the Department of Revenue Property Tax Division Administrator, noting the budget shortfalls locally and at the State, urged county assessment and taxation operations to be collaborative across county boundaries and share work load.
- Tax Court Judge Henry Breithaupt noted that 90 percent of the Magistrate Division cases are not appealed to his court. He remarked that the changes made to the Senior Property Tax Deferral Program last legislative session have resulted in 125 proceedings in Tax Court. (Further change may come to the program at the 2012 session).
- Doug Adair, Department of Justice attorney, reported that among other cases, the Tax Court in December decided the City of Seattle v. DOR case in favor of DOR. The case resulted from a property tax exemption that was repealed at the urging of AOC for out-of-state municipal corporations operating as utilities that enter into agreements with Bonneville Power Administration to transmit power. The court found that the 2009 legislation that repealed the exemption complied with applicable law, that there was no violation of the Commerce Clause or other federal law to impose the tax.
Finally, Lane County assessment and taxation staff received an award from their Board of Commissioners for their advanced expertise in the use of complex database and software programs to manage hundreds of thousands of tax accounts each year to create the annual tax statement. This expertise allowed the assessors of Lake, Gilliam, Wheeler, and Crook Counties to hire Lane County to provide technical support for their A&T systems.
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| Curry County Citizens' Committee Ready to Report | |
Late last November, the Curry County Board of Commissioners appointed a 24- member Citizens' Committee to explore options to address the county's pending fiscal crisis. The Citizens' Committee held four day-long meetings in addition to breaking into three work groups to look at various suggestions and recommendations for the commissioners to consider. On February 1st the Citizens' Committee will present its final report to the Board of Commissioners. A preliminary look at the recommendations was reported in the Brookings newspaper.
Oregon Consensus moderated the process and kept the group moving forward. AOC staff have attended all of the meetings, offering technical advice and perspective on many of the issues with which the committee has been grappling. One AOC staffer has attended every single meeting and now knows the route to Gold Beach with his eyes closed. Which is the way he drives anyway.
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Legislative Committee Meets on Monday | |
The AOC Legislative Committee meets on Monday, January 23 at noon at the Local Government Center in Salem. The extra meeting this month is in response to the legislative session. There will also be two meetings in February - the 6th and 20th.
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From Windy, Rainy Salem... | |
...stay warm. Stay dry. Stay safe.
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Laura Cleland & Eric Schmidt
Association of Oregon Counties
503-585-8351
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