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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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Partisan, Shmartisan
Good News Generates Bickering
May 20, 2013
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venue Forecast Looks Good
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Salem - Last Thursday, the May revenue forecast was released by the state economist and it was pretty good news all things considered. Budget writers in the Legislature now have somewhere north of $271 million to use to balance the next biennial budget.
Earlier in the week, Governor Kitzhaber called on legislative leaders to come up with a combination of cuts to PERS and revenue generation to balance the budget. He called on the Legislature to come to an agreement by Thursday evening. Needless to say, an agreement was not reached, so the Governor issued a statement basically saying he was sorry an agreement could not be reached and called on the Legislature to balance the budget using existing revenues.
That statement hasn't been well received by some legislators. Sen. Larry George (R-Sherwood) took to the Senate floor today (Monday) taking exception to the Governor's statement. Sen. George called the Governor's release "caustic" and "partisan" among other things and pledged his and his party's dedication to continue to pursue PERS reforms and a balanced budget.
Legislative leadership is pledging continued bi-partisan work on the budget over the next few weeks, but clearly the lines have been drawn and some nerves might be just a tad raw right now. We can only hope that cooler heads will prevail and that the Legislature will be able to find common ground and leave town on time.
Forecast is calling for clouds and rain for most of the week.
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| NACo Drug Discount Program | |
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| PERS Reforms Uncertain | |
Last Wednesday Governor Kitzhaber called on the Legislature to reach agreement on additional PERS reforms, while also agreeing to $200 million in additional revenue. The option preferred by the Governor appears to be the elimination or reduction of the "money match" option for inactive members (those who are no longer employed in the public sector but have not yet filed for retirement). Elimination of the money match option for inactive PERS members would result in an additional savings of $442 million in the next rate cycle and, when combined with the savings from SB 822, would bring the total savings passed this session to approximately $900 million.
The Governor also expressed his desire to see an agreement on the framework for a deal by the close of business Thursday evening in order to provide the Ways and Means committee more direction on finalizing agency budgets. That did not occur and to date no consensus has been reached. Watch this space for any and all updates.
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| Labor Bills Get Hearing | |
Last Wednesday the Senate General Government Committee chaired by Sen. Chip Shields (D-Portland) heard testimony on two bills that would affect the collective bargaining relationship between labor and management in counties. HB 2418, sponsored by Rep. Greg Matthews (D-Gresham) would require that a public safety employee have the authority to impose "economic discipline" to be considered a supervisor for collective bargaining purposes. AOC testified in opposition to the bill on the grounds that this would either put certain mid-and potentially upper-level supervisors into the bargaining unit or require the county to grant new levels of authority to current supervisors.
HB 2448, sponsored by Rep. Margaret Doherty (D-Tigard), would require the use of binding, interest arbitration when addressing mid-term bargaining issues with bargaining units currently authorized to strike. Binding arbitration requires parties to submit their final offers to arbitrators and is currently required only for employees prohibited from going on strike, generally public safety employees. AOC also testified in opposition to this bill, on the grounds that it would slow the resolution of issues needing quick resolution and change the current balance between management's ability to implement their final offer and labor's ability to go out on strike.
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| Discussion Not Electrifying, Bill Moves Anyway |
No one was shocked when Senate Bill 261, which exempts from property taxation Bonneville Power Administration electricity transmission property constructed under a lease-purchase agreement, was moved to the floor unanimously by the House Revenue Committee on Wednesday. There was no debate on the bill, with only highly charged proponents testifying. AOC expressed its support, even though the property tax is the fundamental resource for local public services, because the need to expand the electrical transmission infrastructure is compelling. There should be no short circuit to SB 261 becoming law.
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| Clarity for Charitable Organizations | |
House Bill 2060A moved closer to becoming law with approval of the Senate Finance & Revenue Committee on Monday. The bill would allow the Attorney General to disqualify an organization as charitable for income and excise tax purposes when it fails to spend at least 30 percent of total annual functional expenses on program services. The House passed HB 2060A earlier 57-0. As amended in the House, a disqualification would extend to treatment as a charity for property tax purposes, as well, giving more guidance to county assessors.
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| Early Learning Update |
HB2013A had a hearing in front of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education on Wednesday, May 15. Speaker Kotek and Duke Shepard from the Governor's office, testified in support of the bill. Mr. Shepard outlined the governor's plan for transition funding as communities move from local commissions on children and families to early learning hubs. A copy of that plan can be found here. Some highlights of the plan:
- The Early Learning Council will continue to contract directly with the counties for Healthy Start.
- The Early Learning Council will begin to contract directly with service providers for Relief Nurseries (put process in place to sole source to Relief Nurseries)
- All Healthy Start and Relief Nursery funding that was part of county flexible funds will be combined in a funding allocation to the program.
- One year of service continuity for all Oregon Commission on Children and Families flexible funding (less the amounts directed to Healthy Start & Relief Nurseries), with the exception of the basic capacity funds.
- Children Youth and Families
- Family Preservation
- Great Start
- $10,000 per county to provide financing, contracting, and data entry on the OCCF funds. Provide minimal compensation to simply pass funds through to contractors they have already selected.
The governor's office produced a county by county spreadsheet of how this funding will be broken down. That document can be found here.
AOC would like to thank Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell, Marion County Commissioner Janet Carlson, Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Baney and Polk County Commissioner Jennifer Wheeler for taking the time to testify.
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HB 2348A had a public hearing and worksession in the Senate Health Care Committee on Tuesday. Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland), the bill's author, introduced amendments and thanked AOC and Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell in particular, for working with him in crafting the amendments. The amended bill, which will establish a task force to study future funding streams, public health relationships with CCOs and possible regionalization, received high praise from the senators and was moved to the Ways and Means Committee with a do pass recommendation. The original bill would have created eight regional public health authorities.
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Permanent Rules for BETC
| The Oregon Department of Energy filed new permanent rules for the Business Energy Tax Credit program. The rules went into effect immediately.
Although the 2011 Oregon Legislature replaced the BETC program with the new Energy Incentives Program, the Oregon Department of Energy still must carry out its obligations to BETC participants before that program officially ends July 1, 2014. - The rule amendments do three things: Provide a safe harbor date for projects subject to the July 1, 2014 sunset date to submit final applications at least 60 days before the expiration of their preliminary certification, or by May 1, 2014.
- Expand the transfer process to include all projects unable to find a pass-through partner prior to the sunset date. Project owners have 24 months from the date of the final certificate to utilize the transfer process. Prior to the program sunset, projects owners use the pass-through process to transfer a tax credit.
- Make permanent the Nov. 16, 2012, temporary rule that defines "use" as any time the tax credit offsets any portion of the applicant's tax liability, rendering the tax credit nontransferable.
The Final Rule, Redline Version of Rule and Hearing Officer Report can be found at the ODOE website. |
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NACo Steering Committee Nominations
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If you are interested in serving on a NACo steering committee, now is the time to make that known. You must go through AOC to get an appointment to a steering committee. Just fill out this form and return it to Mike McArthur. Appointments will be announced at the NACo annual meeting in July. If you are already on a steering committee, Mike intends to reappoint you unless he hears otherwise.
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| Places To Go, Things To Do, Great Opportunities |
You are invited, May 21! Converting forest residuals and MSW wood wastes to bio-jet fuel and co-products. Provide your input on the development of a western Washington and Oregon "Pilot Supply Chain Study Region." Washington State University, Vancouver campus. More information and registration.
Oregon Department of Energy - Siting Division - Special Advisory Group and Reviewing Agency Seminar - July 17th - 10:00 am - 3:00 pm at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton. More information, contact Shanda at ODOE.
2013 Roadway Lighting Day, May 21, Portland Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Summit: Connecting veteran service partners across Oregon, May 29, 2013, Salem Convention Center, 9 am - noon. Coastal Fish Habitat Conservation Funding: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with their partners have announced the availability of up to $1.7 million to support native fish habitat conservation projects. Pre-proposals are due June 3, 2013. Regards to Rural 2013 Conference, June 21-22, Oregon State University US Department of Transportation TIGER V grant program. Applications are due June 3. For more information, please contact Travis Brouwer at ODOT. Put "TIGER V" in the subject line of your email. Current Requests for Proposal and Requests for Qualifications from the Energy Trust of Oregon.
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AOC - Always Open
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Several AOC staffers are headed to Flagstaff, Arizona this week for the WIR meeting and to work on Tim Josi's campaign for NACo 2nd Vice President. Several, but not all. AOC Policy Managers are sticking around Salem to work with the Legislature. And AOC Admin staff will be at their posts to make sure any county official visiting Salem this week will get a parking permit. Eric gets to have a root canal on Tuesday. Everyone will be back at it in Oregon next week.
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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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