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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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A Lot of Bills
Tension - what tension?
April 16, 2013
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Salem - The Oregon Legislature has some self-imposed deadlines, designed to keep the legislative process moving forward in a timely fashion. For instance, the deadline for a bill getting a work session is April 18th, which makes certain this will be one very busy week at the Oregon Legislature. If a bill doesn't get a work session this week, it is in the words of the ubiquitous legislative pundit, toast. So a lot of bills, good and bad, will be toasted by Thursday afternoon and the survivors will be making their way through the legislative process. That doesn't mean the surviving bills will actually become law, but they are in better shape than a bill that hasn't had a work session.
Whether those surviving bills will be buttered or battered remains to be seen. What we do know is that the flurry of activity this week will be replicated in the weeks to come as the Legislature careens toward adjournment sometime in late June or early July.
As of Monday, 2,617 bills have been introduced. 38 of them have been passed by both chambers and have been signed by the Governor. There have been no vetoes, so far. We'll know after this Thursday how many of the remaining 2,579 bills will still be in play. Several bills have already been assigned to the trash bin of history, but it will take a while to get an accurate accounting of which bills are still alive and those that are not. Basically, your AOC advocates are very busy this session and will be until the final hours.
Welcome to your tax week edition of Oregon Trails.
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| Court Fees | |
Linn County Justice Court Judge Jad Lemhouse testified in front of the House Committee on Judiciary last Wednesday, urging members to pass HB 2857. The bill will help county justice courts and city municipal courts retain more money from traffic fines, reducing the priority payment established under HB 2712 (2011) from $60 to $45.
"This is a court survival bill," said Lemhouse. Lemhouse was joined by Judge Carl Myers, the municipal court judge in Keizer and Jefferson, who represents the Oregon Justices of the Peace Association. AOC public safety policy manager Patrick Sieng and Jim McCauley from Washington County also joined the panel of those testifying in favor of the bill.
AOC introduced HB 2857 through the committee to fix the unintended consequences brought by HB 2712, passed in the 2011 session. "HB 2712 was a well intentioned bill. It streamlined court fees and assessments and provided judges more discretion," said Sieng. "But the bill had unintended consequences and many courts are in danger of closing this year."
AOC also introduced an amendment to the bill which would restore over $1 million in funding for liquor enforcement to counties. Before HB 2712, any cases processed in court under the Liquor Control Act would result in money being sent to counties for district attorneys to use. HB 2712 repealed that statute and a replacement allocation was not included in the bill.
SB 180, a similar bill, has a hearing in the Senate Committee on Judiciary on Wednesday. HB 2857 also has a work session scheduled in the House committee again on Wednesday.
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| PERS Moves Forward | |
Late last week, the Senate sponsored PERS reform bill, SB 822, made it through the Senate on a party line vote, much to no one's surprise. The Speaker of the House was the subject of a weekend news story and basically threw down the gauntlet, saying the Senate bill is just fine thank you. Needless to say, those with another letter behind their legislative names disagreed and the discussion over that contentious issue is far from over. The PERS bill has had a first reading in the House and is now on its way through that Chamber.
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| Buy America Reemerges | |
HB 3473 which would require all public improvement and public works contracts over $50,000 to use American-made steel, iron and manufactured goods, received a public hearing in the House Business and Labor Committee last Wednesday, April 10. The bill is similar to HB 2402 which was heard earlier in the session in the House Consumer Protection and Government Efficiency Committee. Several public and private employer associations, including AOC, raised numerous concerns in Wednesday's hearing about the added cost, potential for project delays and difficulties in enforcement. The path for the bill is unclear, and there are several amendments being developed by various parties. The bill is scheduled for a work session Wednesday morning and may be moved to the Rules Committee, though much remains unclear.
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AOC Addresses Predator Control
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AOC testified to the Joint Ways & Means Natural Resources Subcommittee in support of the Governor's recommendation to fund animal damage control activities of the USDA Wildlife Services at $800,000 in the 2013-15 biennium. The funding is carried in the budgets of the Departments of Fish & Wildlife and Agriculture. It is close to state spending on this service in the current biennium. AOC pointed out that counties, in spite of severe fiscal challenges and the fact that it is the state that has jurisdiction over wildlife, continue to backfill the program in the state. Contrast the county contribution of $2.4 million in 2011-13 to the Governor's proposal. Nevertheless, the Governor's recommendation maintains the greatly improved state contribution begun in 2011-13. AOC continues to meet with stakeholders discussing a more sustainable way to provide resources for this service long-term.
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| Public Health Regionalization | |
HB 2348 originally called for the formation of eight state-wide public health regional entities. AOC has worked with Representative Mitch Greenlick's (D-Portland) office to "gut and stuff" the bill to create a task force that will look at the future of public health in Oregon. Commissioner Linda Modrell, Benton County, also met with Representative Greenlick to clarify the language of the bill. This resulted in the dash-2 amendments which added another public health official to the task force, moved the due date of the task force report to October 2014, softened the language around regionalization and gives the task force the option of proposing either administrative or legislative actions (the previous version required legislative actions).
HB 2348-2 had a work session on Friday, April 12th and was moved to the floor with a do pass recommendation by the House Health Care committee.
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| Early Learning and Youth Development Council Updates | |
HB 2013, the Early Learning Council bill, and HB 2392, the Youth Development Council bill, have both been scheduled for work sessions on Wednesday, April 17th in the Human Services and Housing committee. HB 2013 amendments are still in the works and the policy work may have to be pushed past this week.
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| Prevailing Wage and Enterprise Zones | |
HB 2675, which would require paying prevailing wages in enterprise zones, and HB 2677, which would require prevailing wages for projects over $5 million receiving tax credits or abatements, are not moving forward after the deadline passed without work sessions being scheduled.
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| County Population Forecast | |
Josh Lehner of the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis recently posted a blog regarding the county population forecast that includes recently finalized long-term county outlooks. You may find this information interesting.
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| AOC Endorses Doherty, Pope | |
AOC sent letters of endorsement for two of our own this week. One went to members of the Oregon Senate urging them to confirm the Governor's appointment of Umatilla County Commissioner Dennis Doherty to the Water Resources Commission. Commissioner Doherty, who will leave his seat at the end of May, is the ideal nominee for WRC. He has been deeply engaged in water-related challenges locally and statewide. A leader in the Umatilla Basin Aquifer Recovery Project, Commissioner Doherty also served on the Policy Advisory Group to Oregon's landmark Integrated Water Resources Strategy. As chair of the AOC Water Policy Committee, he shaped the AOC Water Policy Principles, with their emphasis on science, collaboration, balance, the larger and longer view, and taking responsibility to develop solutions.
The second letter from AOC was sent to Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Department of Agriculture, endorsing the nomination by the National Association of Counties of Polk County Commissioner Craig Pope to the National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee. Commissioner Pope is AOC Treasurer and an active member of the Rural Action Caucus of NACo, making him the ideal contact for the advisory committee with those governments that provide local resources for animal damage control and other critical on-the-ground services. Commissioner Pope's background as farmer and businessman, and experience with wildlife management issues, will make him immediately valuable to the advisory committee.
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| Community Partners Grant Opportunities | |
Three grants are available through the Oregon Procurement Information Network (ORPIN) that local governments are eligible for:
- Outreach and enrollment grant (RFP released, due May 9): Building from the Healthy Kids program, community organizations will outreach to underserved populations to help them enroll in Medicaid or Cover Oregon; this grant will fulfill the navigator requirement in the Affordable Care Act; staff of the community partners will receive training from Cover Oregon on the various insurance plans and will be encouraged to work with local agents.
- Provider Outreach and Enrollment grant (RFP is expected to be released in June): this grant targets solely service providers.
- Public Education and Outreach (RFP is expected to be released in July): Public health departments have an opportunity to apply to this grant.
The grants will be in the $50,000 - $150,000 range and 100 grantees are estimated to be awarded. Although all community based organizations, local governments and health departments are eligible to apply for all three grants, they will not be awarded all of them. You may want to strategize on which is the best fit for your county. For more information go to ORPIN, choose 3516-13. Please contact AOC staff Mark Nystrom for more information.
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| May Governance Forum | |
The May 10th Governance Forum is planned to focus on the role of the county in Community Mental Health Care. The meeting will reflect on the past few years and the development of Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) and look forward to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the rulings of the U.S. Department of Justice and other major changes to mental health care.
The Governance Forum was set up years ago to have policy level discussion between commissioners/judges and department leaders at the Oregon Health Authority/Department of Human Services. We urge you to come in person (10 am - noon), but if you cannot, we will have both phone and video connections. For more information please contact AOC staff Mark Nystrom.
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| ODFW Completes Statewide Trout Fishing Map Projects | |
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife this week rolled out another interactive fishing map designed to help anglers find fishing locations all across Oregon. For those interested, please see the ODFW news release.
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| Where's Parker This Week? | |
Former Clackamas County Counsel Scott Parker, semi-retired and working Of Counsel for AOC, waits anxiously for every edition of Oregon Trails to see if his name is in it. And it is, spelled correctly, for once. John Gray is next.
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Please feel free to submit your story ideas, announcements, recipes, photos and job changes to your Oregon Trails staff for inclusion in the next riveting edition.
See you next week - your Oregon Trails staff,
Laura Cleland & Eric Schmidt
Association of Oregon Counties
503-585-8351
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