The Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) Legislative Committee approved seven policy priorities for the 2023 Oregon State Legislative Session. While the AOC Legislative Affairs Team will engage on scores of bills during the session, these priorities reflect the most pressing issues impacting county services, budgets, and functions statewide. 

Organized by portfolio AOC’s 2023 legislative priorities are:

Community Development

  • Systemic solutions to statewide housing shortages – advocate for state investments that boost local government permit processing staff and capacity, and a fast-track process for limited Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) expansions that significantly increase affordable and workforce housing in all communities experiencing shortages of buildable land.

Health & Human Services

  • End liability risk shift to counties and local system providers for mandated populations (aid and assist, civil commitment, and guilty except for insanity).

Governance & Revenue

  • Support adequate funding of county assessment and taxation services.

Natural Resources

  • Enhance county role across the natural resources – protect and enhance county funding and flexibility to support management policies and locally focused policy making processes for wildfire resiliency efforts, place-based planning efforts and drought resiliency, as well as sound land management.

Public Safety

  • Increase state investments in district attorney salaries and address the widening pay gap between elected district attorneys.
  • Strengthen tools the justice system can use to fight illegal drug sales and motivate people cited for possessing illegal substances to comply with legal obligations and seek addiction treatment.

Transportation

  • Advocate for fair and sustainable funding to effectively and efficiently manage counties large and diverse road systems by preserving the State Fund Exchange Program and creating the statutory authority for counties to charge cost-recovery fees for permits issued to utilities for work in the county road right of way.

AOC’s policy steering committees and Legislative Committee will begin meeting on a monthly basis in January to consider positions on legislative concepts and guide the work of the legislative affairs team. AOC Day (second Monday of each month) will be held in-person, in AOC’s new building at 1212 Court Street NE this year. Three of the steering committee meetings will be held virtually the previous Friday and two will be held on Monday morning. The legislative affairs team and AOC leadership look forward to bringing commissioners, judges, and chairs back to Salem after two years of a primarily remote process.

Under the leadership of AOC President and Klamath County Commissioner Derrick DeGroot, the 2023 Legislative Session will see AOC focusing on relationship building and solutions-oriented advocacy in order to achieve the association’s legislative priorities and strategic, long-term goals of: 1) Increasing AOC’s partnerships and role in developing and informing state-county relationships and policies and, 2) Increasing the effectiveness of AOC’s legislative advocacy. 

Contributed by: Mallorie Roberts | Legislative Director