There are two bills working their way through their respective legislative bodies: SB 1580 and HB 4153. Senate Bill 1580 is the governor's vehicle and was heard by the Senate Health Care, Human Services and Rural Health Policy committee last Wednesday and Friday and then referred to Ways and Means on Friday. HB 4153 was heard by House Rules on Monday where it was gutted and stuffed with the language from SB 1580. It was then referred to Ways and Means. There was a public hearing for SB 1580 at 5 PM on Tuesday evening and there will be a public hearing and possible work session for HB 4153 on Wednesday evening. There is continued pressure to pass one of these bills in order to begin the process of applying for federal waivers.

On a related note, the AOC Legislative Committee voted to authorize the Special Operations committee to make decisions regarding AOC's position as new versions of these bills come forward.

OHA Posts a CCO-related video on YouTube

Ted Hanberg was hospitalized four times last winter, but a primary care team with special expertise in coordinating treatment of congestive heart failure has allowed him to live at home and kept him out of the hospital for nearly a year. Health system transformation and Coordinated Care Organizations will bring better care and better health at lower costs to Oregon. See the OHA produced video for a closer look at how this was accomplished.  

The Curry County Board of Commissioners received the final report of the Curry County Citizens' Committee during a special meeting of the Board February 1st in the cavernous Docia Sweet Hall on the Curry County Fairgrounds in Gold Beach. County commissioners appointed the 23-member citizens' committee in late November to review the county's budgetary shortfalls in light of the pending loss of federal forest payments. 

The citizens' committee met five times starting November 30, 2011. The last meeting, on the morning of February 1, 2012 finalized the committee's report and recommendations to the board of commissioners. Among the 19 recommendations were a county wide sales tax, a transient lodging tax, a modest and temporary property tax increase, consolidating 9-1-1 functions in the county, increases in permit and license fees and returning services to the state. The final report and recommendations were taken under advisement by the commissioners who stated publically that the citizens' committee had done a good job in a short period of time.  The commissioners will now review the recommendations one by one and decide how best to proceed. 

Members of the citizens' committee stated publically that some of them had entered into the exercise fully expecting to find millions of dollars of wasted taxpayer money, only to find that there wasn't any and that the commissioners had already trimmed the budget. Many of the members of the committee were also grateful for the opportunity to learn more about county government services and functions. 

Oregon Consensus, part of the Mark Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University, facilitated the citizens' committee process. AOC staff Mike McArthur, Mike Eliason and Eric Schmidt provided the committee with technical advice.   

After months of hard work, led by the House Revenue Co-Chairs Phil Barnhart and Vicki Berger, HB 4039 was sent to the floor this week for approval. Faced with a senior property tax deferral program that was broke, the Legislature last session imposed corrections to qualifications and borrowed money to fund the program, which is administered in part by county assessment and taxation offices. One correction was to disqualify any property owner with a reverse mortgage, which risked recoupment by the State of property taxes paid on the property. This was met with a furor. HB 4039 grants a two-year phase out of reverse mortgages, easing the shock to some participants, while still permitting the program to function.

The Joint Legislative Task Force on County Payments met for a third time Wednesday, February 8th. The task force heard testimony from AOC Executive Director Mike McArthur and Lane County Intergovernmental Relations Manager Alex Cuyler on the use of road fund reserves currently authorized under state law only for Douglas and Lane counties and only for road patrol functions. Josephine County Commissioner Simon Hare and Curry County Commissioner David Itzen participated by telephone, urging the task force to consider legislation that would allow more counties the option. Members of the task force seemed receptive, with co-chairs Arnie Roblan and Bruce Hanna outlining a process for some form of legislation to be drafted and sent to the Rules Committee in the House for consideration.

The task force also heard from AOC Policy Manager Gil Riddell and John Phillips of the Oregon Department of Revenue (DOR) concerning CAFFA (County Assessment Function Funding Assistance) payments. Mr. Phillips reminded the task force of HB 3532 from the 2007 session which permits a county reliant on federal forest payments to adjust its A&T budget downward by no more than 10 percent and not lose its grant funding.  Mr. Riddell added it would not address the situation where a county, at the beginning of a year, is not able to qualify for a grant but would address the situation during the course of a year where a county is unable to continue at that level of funding. The task force is set to redraft HB 3532. Jim Bucholz of DOR presented a new idea that if a county defaults on the A&T function DOR would perform duties at the county level having access to non-dedicated state revenues as well as that county's funding that would have come as an A&T grant if the county had not defaulted. The task force will consider the proposal.

Finally, the task force heard from Sarah Gates, the Operational Performance Manager in the office of the Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Administrative Services about the Fiscal Control Board process that was established under SB 77 from the 2009 session. The task force will gather more information on this process as they move forward.

On Monday, AOC and LOC testified jointly in support of the overall purpose of HB 4040 which is to encourage business investment and increase resources to local governments and state agencies to advance economic development efforts. We urged the Governor and Legislature to make appointments to the Oregon Growth Board with at least one of the appointees having local government and economic development experience. We also said HB 4040 should allow the Oregon Growth Board, through a written agreement, to contract with local governments and local economic development entities to manage resources to achieve the goals of the bill. AOC and LOC also encouraged the Treasurer's Office and Oregon Business Development Department to outline clearly the roles and responsibilities of each agency and board/commission in order to minimize conflicts and emphasize cooperation and collaboration.

Banks, credit unions, investors and business entrepreneurs testified in favor of the bill.  Amendments have been introduced to delete the section on which funds would be included under the Oregon Growth Board and include representation from credit unions on the Board. Some members of the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee want the Oregon Growth Board to report back during the 2013 session before deciding which funds should be included and provide more details on the operation of the Oregon Growth Board.

This morning, the House Committee on Transportation and Economic Development Committee passed out HB 4040 along with the -9 amendments. These amendments revise the composition of the Oregon Growth Board to include members with experience in banking, credit unions, investment management and small business.  The committee members removed a provision for the Oregon Business Development Department's infrastructure and business loan funds to be included under the new board. Instead, the board will need to submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2013 that includes recommendations for: (1)  implementation and administration of the Act, (2) policies and procedures for investment and management of the Oregon Growth Fund, (3) duties and powers of the board, and (4) legislation to further economic development. Next stop for the bill is Ways and Means.