Oregon Trails

An Occasional Newsletter

from

The Association of Oregon Counties

Getting Serious In Salem 

Or not 

June 17, 2013

The bill to provide some measure of flexibility to distressed county funding of property tax administration cleared its first hurdle Thursday when House Bill 3404 passed the House 57-0. The bill extends to fiscal years 2013-14 and 2014-15 the law that permits a county dependent on federal county payments to retain its grant from the County Assessment Function Funding Assistance Account, if it reduces expenditures on property tax administration by 15 percent or less and - (the big) IF - it maintains compliance with laws of equality and uniformity in the property tax system. A dependent county is defined as one receiving payment from the Secure Rural Schools Act in fiscal year 2007-08 equal to at least 10 percent of its property tax revenues for that year.

The bill that directs a study and recommendations on increasing the pace and scale of federal forest management projects that justify state and county financial support, Senate Bill 357A, is headed to the Governor's desk to become law after a 50-8 approval by the House of Representatives. This appears to be followed closely by two related budget items that are key to success of Oregon's initiative to stimulate active and productive management of the dry side national forests. 

The Ways & Means Natural Resources Subcommittee, on Thursday, sent both the budget for the Department of Forestry (ODF) and an amended Senate Bill 5521 to the full committee for approval. The ODF budget includes nearly $2.9 million of lottery funds for support of dry side collaborative groups and to pilot a new state/federal business partnership to increase management projects tiered to the Blue Mountain Restoration Strategy of the U.S. Forest Service. SB 5521 gives ODF the authority to accept a $4.7 million federal match for the business partnership. AOC supports all three items. The larger concept was not without controversy, as a frustrated Rep. Bruce Hanna (R-Roseburg) lamented that the state would have to spend its resources to get the federal government to do its job.  

The Interior Department has issued payments of $399.8 million to approximately 1,900 local governments under the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. The PILT program seeks to compensate local jurisdictions for non-taxable Federal lands and payments may be used for any governmental purpose, including important community services such as emergency response, public schools, and roads. The total of $399.8 million is the largest amount ever distributed under the PILT program, exceeding last year's payments by about $7 million.

The 2013 authorized level is $421.7 million, which was reduced by $21.5 million due to sequestration. After administrative expenses, a total of $399.8 million is allocated for payments to counties.  

You can find a national press release and tables with state and county amounts here. 

A full list of funding by state and county is available at http://www.doi.gov/pilt.  

Information provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior. 

The Ways and Means Subcommittee on Transportation and Economic Development recommended approval of the Oregon Business Development Department which included funding for a number of projects and programs:

1. $19.5 million to fund seven Oregon InC initiatives

• Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) $6.1 million
• Oregon Translational Research and Development Institute (OTRADI) $2 million
• Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center (BEST) $6 million
• Oregon Wave Energy Trust (OWET) $2 million
• Drive Oregon  $1.5 million
• Unmanned Aerial Systems Center of Excellence $0.9 million
• Oregon Story Board  $0.9 million

2. Earmarked Project Funding

• $8.25 million for "Innovation Infrastructure" projects
• Information Technology Infrastructure Upgrades (Oregon Research Collaboratory),  $2.3 million
• Oregon Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network (Oregon RAIN), $3.75 million
• Oregon Metals Initiative, $2.2 million
• $1.75 million for art and museum projects (available Spring 2015)
• Confluence Project Celilo Park Site, $1.5 million
• High Desert Museum, $250,000
• Dredging of South Coast ports, $3.0 million
• WISE (Water for Irrigation, Streams and Economy) water management            project for the Bear Creek and Little Butte Creek watersheds in Jackson        County, $1.5 million

3. Infrastructure Funds 

• $30 million for Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Bonds
• $24.45 million for recapitalization of the Special Public Works Fund
• $10 million for Regional Solutions Projects (not available until Spring 2015)

4. Small Business Development Centers, $635,000

5. Strategic Reserve, $16 million

6. Arts programs for underserved students, $500,000

7. Industry Competitiveness, $1.0 million for export promotion and assistance

Regional Solutions will receiv $10 million when bonds will be sold in the Spring of 2015.  Specific projects related to Regional Solutions were also funded (see "Earmarked Project Funding" above). Each region did not receive funding. Instead, the budget provided a nominal $1 pending completion of a budget note to draft a bill to establish the Regional Solutions program in statute for consideration in the 2014 Legislative Session.

The Blue Heron site will receive funding from other legislation, however, appropriation authority was not included in the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department budget. Since the bonds will not be sold until late in the 2013-15 biennium, appropriation authority will not be granted until the 2015-17 budget.  

After intense discussions with legislators and the Governor's office, an agreement was reached last week and supported by AOC to transfer $1.6 million from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) budget to the County Opportunity Grant Fund to help county parks. This funding would be coupled with a budget note to address funding equity and efficiencies that could be achieved with OPRD. However, Ways and Means Co-chair Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) refused to approve the agreement put forth by Sen. Chris Edwards (D-Eugene). Despite strong appeals by Senators Edwards, Betsy Johnson (D-Scapoose) and Arnie Roblan (D-Coos Bay), Sen. Devlin would not agree to transfer $1.6 million from the OPRD budget to the County Opportunity Grant program.  He did agree to a budget note.   

It is worth noting that the Governor had supplemented OPRD's budget with $3.8 million of non-Ballot Measure 76 lottery money to fund the State Fair transfer. We learned that the LFO recommendation reversed this revenue switch in the Governor's budget and used the money to fund budgets outside of OPRD. It also eliminated the Governor's budgeted amount of $2 million for facilities. In other words, the co-chairs had already dipped into the OPRD budget to fund priorities outside of OPRD.

In addition, the co-chairs received bad news last week when the Oregon Liquor Control Commission rejected a surcharge increase on liquor.  

Sen. Chuck Thomsen (R-Hood River) and Rep. Bruce Hanna (R-Roseburg) voiced strong concerns over the OPRD budget, the demise of the agreement, and the lack of funding for county parks. Sen. Edwards said he was "beyond frustrated" that the co-chairs did not agree to provide $1.6 million for the county parks.

The OPRD budget included the Governor's budget campground fee increase. It was voted out of the sub-committee and included the budget note. Sen. Thomsen and Rep. Hanna voted no.

The Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education held work sessions on HB 2013A (Early Learning Hubs) and HB 3231A (Youth Development Council - YDC) and HB 3234A (Early Learning Division) last Tuesday and Wednesday. During the work session Duke Shepard from the Governor's office, put on the record that the funding for Healthy Start and "flexible funds" previously managed by the county commissions on children and families (CCF) would continue to be sent to the counties. He also mentioned that the intention was to continue to have the counties manage the Youth Investment and Juvenile Crime Prevention funds.

On Thursday the Subcommittee on Education held a work session on the Department of Education budget (SB 5518). The bill included the following budget information for the Early Learning Council (ELC):

• $4.280 million for ELC Hub funding in 2013-2015.
• $720,000 in one time payments to counties for service continuity funding in year one.
• $4 million for the Early Learning Kindergarten Readiness and Partnership Innovation fund.
• $1.7 million put into a holding account to be spent after the YDC returns to the Legislature with a report outlining a funding allocation plan.
• $6.4 million other funds for Youth Investment Funds.
• $9.7 million total funds for Juvenile Crime Prevention. 
• The phrase "the program funding which is distributed to counties and other local entities will remain in the new proposed YDC."

Bottom line: Funds previously administered by the CCF will continue to be administered by counties for the next 12 months. Over the next few months the ELC will put out an RFP for the first seven hubs that should be operational around January 1, 2014. The second set of nine hubs will be introduced after June 30, 2014. The YDC will work on metrics and outcomes and report back to the 2014 Legislature. 

The Extension Citizens Advisory Network (ECAN) is a statewide advisory and advocacy group that works with the office of the director of the OSU Extension Service, based at Oregon State University. The network represents every county through appointments of citizens recommended by OSU field faculty. In addition, AOC appoints two of its members to represent the west and east sides of Oregon, as separated by the Cascades range.

The network meets two times a year in person and throughout the year by conference call. The appointments named by AOC serve a four-year term. Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell has served as the west side AOC appointee for the last several years. Commissioner Mike Weimer from Gilliam County serves as the east side AOC appointee. 

AOC President Mary Stern is seeking a county commissioner from the western half of the state to be named to the network for a new four-year term. If you are interested in serving, please contact Cara Fischer, 503.585.8351 for more information. 

County Representative on the Public Transportation Advisory Committee Needed!