Oregon Trails

An Occasional Newsletter

from

The Association of Oregon Counties

Bi-Coastal Week

Busy on both fronts

March 4, 2013

Thursday, February 28, 21 Oregon county commissioners and judges met with all seven of Oregon's Members of Congress. It was the day before the long-debated sequester was to take place and in the House there was a vote scheduled on the Violence Against Women Act. Needless to say, our Congressional delegation had plenty to do and plenty to say.

U.S. Rep. Greg Waden, R-OR, said the sequester could not be stopped but that the world wouldn't end. He is confident Congress will find a way to pass a continuing resolution sometime this week to keep the government working, but said spending levels will have to be reduced. Rep. Walden also addressed the issue of federal land management in depth, discussing his efforts in working with his Oregon colleagues to craft legisation to deal with the mis-management of our federal lands. He pointed out that Oregon is better situated than ever before to get something accomplished because U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-WA and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR chair the committees in each chamber responsible for hearing land management legislation. 

Funding another year of federal forest payments is going to be problematic according Rep. Walden who recognizes that some sort of bridge funding will be necessary because any land management legislation will take several years to implement and take effect.   

U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-OR, said he is deeply concerned about the impacts sequestration will have on folks back in Oregon. He too said Congress will have to deal with a continuing resolution or CR this week. He also urged Oregonians to raise a "big stink" over land management legislation. He was joined by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR, as the bells rang for a vote on the House floor. Rep. Blumenauer commented that the tone of cooperation has increased in this Congress and he thinks more will get done this year than last. Both men had to dash off to vote.

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-OR, appeared after voting and announced that the Violence Against Women Act had just passed with bi-partisan support. She noted that she recently observed her first full year as a Member of Congress. AOC was the first group to visit her last year after she won a special election to fill the 1st District seat. She commented on the difficult week in Congress and said short term solutions to long term problems are not working.

The dean of the Oregon House delegation, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, said he'd read the Governor's Task Force Report on the O&C on a plane ride from Oregon to DC and said there was "some good stuff" in the report. He plans to continue his efforts to craft an O&C proposal along with Reps. Walden and Schrader, but acknowledged a difficult legislative path ahead. He is hopful Sen. Wyden will look at the Governor's report for information and guidance to craft legislation on the Senate side. Rep. DeFazio tackled the I-5 Bridge Replacement Project saying federal money is available only if both Oregon and Washington participate financially and only if light rail is included in the project.  Since earmarks are no longer available, he said, this is about the only way to fund the project. He did say that Oregon is no longer a donor state for gas tax receipts, but is now a donee state. In terms of the sequestration, Rep. DeFazio urged Congress to consider his proposal to tax stock transactions, saying it could raise a lot of revenue and help Congress get away from the perpetual crisis mode it finds itself in. 

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR, was able to speak to the Oregon county officials between votes in the Senate. He described his efforts to modify the filibuster and his work with several other Senators on that controversial topic. While those efforts came up short this year, Sen. Merkley is confident changes can be made in the future. He explained the arcane nature of the spending bill that led to the sequestration and questioned whether or not it would have the impact on spending it is supposed to have. Rather, Sen. Merkley worries for the Oregonians who will be adversely effected and how it will change their lives. But, he said, in the end, we really don't know what is going to happen.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, met with the Oregon county officials for more than an hour and a half. Most of the time was devoted to issues surrounding timber communities, natural resource economy and federal land management legislation. With the backdrop of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing room, Sen. Wyden told the county group since he is now chair of that Committee, he will work day and night to find solutions. He was asked about a recent announcement he'd made jointly with U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT, pledging another year of federal forest payments and the impact that announcement might have on individual county efforts to pass property tax levies in May. Sen. Wyden said he and Sen. Baucus, who is chair of the Finance Committee, had to make their announcement before the sequester took effect in order to keep the federal forest payments in the next budget. He called it bridge funding and said it would probably be at last year's level. He also said there is no guarantee that his proposal will pass the Senate, let alone the House. "This is not a done deal," he said.  He said he will do everything he can to get the cut up in federal forests. 

Over and over, Sen. Wyden pledged to get something done. He acknowledged the difficult positions many Oregon counties are in right now. "This is my priority," he said. 

Back in Salem, this past Wednesday, the Oregon House Rules Committee held a hearing on House Bill 2206, which opens the discussion about what must be done when a county can no longer perform certain functions. HB 2206 provides emergency provisions for conduct of elections, and administration of property tax assessment and collection, veterans affairs, and building inspections. The committee raised several questions, particularly about elections and property tax administration. The most persistent was, who would pay for the State's work? The bill provides that any payment to the State for Assessment & Taxation services would come from the unsegregated tax collections account; in other words, from other local districts as well as the county. For elections, the bill is silent. The other question that vexed the committee was, what would be the most appropriate trigger for declaration of emergency?

AOC will discuss county fiscal distress bills in Governance Committee on March 11th. The legislative hearing on Wednesday was simply the beginning of an extended policy discussion in the legislature this session.

In spite of being in office less than 50 days, Curry County Commissioner and Board Chair David Brock Smith had the full attention of the House Rules Committee last Monday. The committee, chaired by Representative Chris Garrett, was hearing comments on House Bill 2168, which would divert proceeds from the sale of publicly foreclosed property from local taxing districts to the county. The bill was introduced by Rep. Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach, who joined Commissioner Smith at the witness table.

Commissioner Smith informed the committee of local efforts at revenue enhancement, including a public safety local option levy measure on the county ballot this spring. He explained that the bill would permit the county governing body to invest the foreclosure money where it is needed in the county, rather than current law's rigid formula of distribution based on the relative size of the local taxing districts' tax rates. The committee is aware of the fiscal distress of counties in southwestern Oregon, but came away from the hearing with a deeper appreciation of responsible local efforts by elected county officials.

There has been a great deal of action around the Early Learning Council (Early Learning Council). Representatives Kotek, Gelser, Tomei, Keny-Guyer, Lively and Vega Pederson introduced HB 2013. The bill makes changes to screening, Healthy Start, instructs the ELC to work with CCOs, and creates five "demonstration projects" among other items.

These demonstration projects are a sharp departure from the ELC's plan to roll out hubs statewide. In conversations with the ELC, the governor's office and the speaker's office it's clear there will be on-going discussions to find a compromise between five demonstration projects and a statewide roll-out. One issue that is not addressed in HB 2013 is what will happen to the services in the communities where one of the five demonstration projects is not functioning. Another issue is that the bill is silent on the integration/coordination with public health.

County commission chairs and judges also received a letter this week from the Early Learning Council that requests a verification of the funds that are currently being managed by the commissions on children and families. The purpose of this letter is to find a baseline value for what programs are being funded in each county. The state wants to make sure that they have enough information to ensure that when the commissions sunset on June 30th that programs continue to function. This is the first step in the ELC's plan to shift from the commissions to hubs. However, with the introduction of HB 2013 there is less certainty on whether every community will be creating hubs and therefore the plan has been put on hold temporarily. If you have concerns or questions about replying to this letter, please contact AOC staff Mark Nystrom.

Last week the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Services heard testimony regarding the addictions and mental health budget (AMH). Community mental health is funded through AMH so there were a number of local directors on hand to provide public testimony supporting investment in local mental health and addiction services.

Notice for Local Government Advisory Council and AOC Human Services steering committee meetings.

Next Friday, March 8th, LGAC and the AOC Human Services steering committee will be holding meetings. LGAC will be discussing the integration of the Earely Learning Council (ELC) and Coordinated Care Organizations (CCO) with Dana Hargunani from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the role of targeted case management/nurse home visiting programs in both CCOs and ELCs with Don Ross from OHA. AOC Human Services will provide the latest legislative update and hold roundtable discussions on local issues with CCOs and ELC hub development. Join the conversation at the local government building from 10 am - noon for LGAC and 12:30 to 2:30 pm for Human Services.

Last Friday, Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Baney and AOC's Ann Hanus and Jon Oshel joined with ODOT's Travis Brouwer in presenting a transportation briefing to staff from all seven of Oregon's Congressional Delegation. The purpose of the briefing was to show how well counties and ODOT work together and to lay out the most important items for Oregon's surface transportation, particularly the upcoming reauthorization of MAP-21. They thanked the congressional delegation for their good work on MAP-21, and then spent most of the time covering priorities for the new transportation bill.

They talked about the importance of increasing federal transportation revenues, so as to be able to sustain our growing needs and to assure that Oregon continues to receive its share of the funding. The importance of maintaining the flexibility of the federal funding, so as to allow Oregonians to allocate funding to the most needed transportation projects, regardless of mode or jurisdiction was also a topic of discussion. We then covered a myriad of topics including, bridge program regulations, freight mobility, mileage based user fees, project delivery streamlining, the new Federal Lands Access Program and the needed continuation of federal forest payments to county road funds.

Commissioner Baney is a member of the Oregon Transportation Commission and is serving as AOC's Immediate Past President this year. 

LaVelle Cross Gwyne passed away last week. LaVelle worked for AOC for 30 years in the front office before retiring in 1987. AOC members could always count on a kind smile and prompt service from Lavelle. She was loved by many and will be missed.