Oct 30, 2025 | AOC Advocacy
The Moderate-Income Revolving Loan Program (MIRL), established by Senate Bill 1537 (2024), capitalizes a 75-million-dollar investment to support local efforts in increasing production of both rental and homeownership housing for households earning up to 120% of area median income. According to the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department (OHCS), MIRL funding can be used to fill a gap in eligible project financing, allowing OHCS to issue loans to cities and counties (referred to as sponsoring jurisdictions), who then award the funding as a grant to housing project developers.
The loan is repaid to OHCS in lieu of property taxes on project improvements to replenish the revolving loan for funding future MIRL projects. MIRL funding is allocated on a first-come first-serve basis. A maximum of $50 million is available in the first two years with 20% of that being allocated to rural communities.
OHCS staff presented an overview of the program at the AOC Transportation and Community Development Steering Committee meeting in October (View slides).
The Association of Oregon Counties (AOC), the League of Oregon Cities (LOC), the Oregon Homebuilders Association, and OHCS are holding a joint webinar about the program.
Webinar: Making MIRL Work For Your Community
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 5
Time: 3-4:30 p.m.
Click here to join the webinar
More information and additional resources are available on the MIRL Webpage, or you can schedule a 1:1 Technical Assistance meeting with the MIRL Team from OHCS.
Contributed by: Branden Pursinger | Legislative Affairs Manager
Oct 1, 2025 | AOC Advocacy
The Legislature is meeting in Salem this week for Interim Legislative Days committee hearings. As always, your AOC Legislative Affairs Department actively participates in and monitors hearings, and will use the opportunity to connect with legislators, particularly around AOC Policy Priorities while they are in Salem.
The Legislature will convene for additional sets of Legislative Days meetings before the 2026 regular session — Nov. 17-19, 2025, and Jan. 13-15, 2026.
Below are links and highlights from the hearings with particular relevance to county governance, services, and budgets.
Joint Interim Committee on Transportation
- Oregon Department of Transportation presentations
Senate Interim Committee on Labor and Business
- Oregon Employment Department presentation
- Report on unemployment data
- Around 7,500 jobs added in the month of August 2025, but a net loss of over 15,000 jobs from January to August 2025
- Unemployment rates are rising
House Interim Committee on Emergency Management and Veterans
- AOC, Oregon State Sheriffs Association, and the League of Oregon Cities presentation on Local Emergency Management and Federal Funds
- Uncertainty around federal grant funds continues. Several programs have had funding notices issued, but are subject to court cases regarding terms and conditions related to immigration enforcement.
House and Senate Interim Committee on Judiciary
- Oregon Crime Statistics Update from the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC)
- CJC provided an update on the statewide picture of crime through the end of 2024.
- Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, Oregon State Sheriffs Association, and Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police update on Law Enforcement Identification
- Presentation on local law enforcement practices that present a uniform appearance and promote public trust
- Lane County and Seattle Drug Deflection
Senate Interim Committee on Veterans, Emergency Management, Federal and World Affairs
- Oregon Emergency Management (OEM) Update
- Informational update about past disasters and federal funding. OEM’s message that uncertainty around federal funding impacts emergency preparedness is well-aligned with AOC.
House Interim Committee on Rules
- Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) Presentations
- OGEC advisory opinion No. 25-126A (food and beverages for public officials and employees)
- If a local government does not adopt an official compensation package that includes meals for public officials, then accepting food and beverage violates ORS 244.040(1)
- FAQ on serial meeting communications
- Key takeaways:
- A quorum of a governing body does not have to be engaged in the same form of communication at the same time for it to be considered a prohibited serial communication
- Prohibited serial communications can occur during a public meeting through electronic messages or even hand-written notes
- A quorum of governing body members should not attend town halls or community events to discuss matters within the governing body’s jurisdiction. If a quorum is present, then the governing body would need to hold the gathering as a public meeting
- AOC staff will be engaging in a legislative workgroup with local government partners in the fall of 2025 to address the food and beverage opinion and serial meeting communications issues.
Senate Interim Committee on Housing and Development
- Department of Land Conservation and Development presentations
House Interim Committee on Housing and Homelessness
- Housing Accountability and Production Office (HAPO) update
- The HAPO is tasked with ensuring local land use codes and decisions meet state law, provide technical assistance and funding to local governments to update their land use codes, and research areas where barriers still exist to develop ways to help local governments, such as model codes and permit-ready plans.
Senate Interim Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire
- Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon State Fire Marshal presentation on the 2025 wildfire season
- The AOC Natural Resources Steering Committee will hear this presentation on Oct. 10.
Senate Interim Committee on Finance and Revenue
- The Legislative Revenue Office overview of the impact of Federal House Resolution 1 (H.R.1) on the state’s General Fund, as well as the most relevant tax breaks to individual and business tax filers
- Panels of advocates in support and opposition of Oregon disconnecting from the federal tax code gave presentations to the committee.
House Interim Committee on Early Childhood and Human Services
- Impacts of federal level changes on nutrition assistance and early learning programs
- Oregon Head Start programs experienced frozen funding and award delays throughout 2025. The regional office serving the Pacific Northwest was eliminated, resulting in loss of direct contacts at the federal agency and of technical and administrative support.
- About 310,000 adults will need to be reviewed for work requirements or exceptions for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility; about 3,000 individuals will lose benefits, including refugees, asylees, and other conditionally allowed individuals. SNAP benefits won’t rise with food prices, making it harder for people to afford groceries. About 29,000 households will see an average monthly benefit decrease of $58.
Joint Interim Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Services
- Work session: retroactive approval of Oregon Health Authority application to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for supplemental Community Mental Health Services Block Grant funding of $302,198. Approved, referred to Full Ways and Means.
House Interim Committee on Health Care
Senate Interim Committee on Human Services
- Stabilization and Crisis Unit (SACU) Transformation Planning
- SB 1557 (Delivery of mandatory services to kids with complex needs) implementation report
House Interim Committee on Behavioral Health
- Oregon Health Authority Behavioral Health Division
- Department of Consumer and Business Services, Division of Financial Regulation
- Care Oregon
- Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs
Senate Interim Committee on Early Childhood and Behavioral Health
Oct 1, 2025 | AOC Advocacy, Health & Human Services
In case you missed it: Sept. 26 Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) on Health and Human Services (Meeting recording and chat transcript)
Rural health
Oregon’s Office of Rural Health (ORH) was established by the Legislature in 1979 and moved from the state public health department to OHSU in 1989. It collects data and provides reports, technical assistance and coordination of rural health activities, as well as recruitment support for rural communities’ health care and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). ORH defines ‘rural’ as any geographic area in Oregon ten or more miles from the centroid of a population center of 40,000 people or more, and ‘frontier’ as any county with six or fewer people per square mile.
Director Robert Duehmig’s slides provide several maps illustrating the locations of these areas, details and links on their available workforce recruitment and retention programs, and examples of the technical assistance and tailored reporting available to rural communities. This technical assistance may be particularly useful to volunteer-staffed EMS to train them on billing practices to maximize service reimbursements.
ORH staff will return to LGAC early next year to provide an update on the implementation of their integrated mobile health program funded by a new Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant.
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Policy Director Steph Jarem gave an update on Oregon’s Rural Health Transformation plan development in response to the application released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Sept. 15. A public forum will be held the week of Oct. 6 to gather additional input. The application is due Nov. 5 and award decisions are expected by Dec. 31 for a five-year grant. OHA expects to release its RFP in mid-February with local award decisions slated for early May. Director Jarem’s slides provide helpful details on federal eligibility requirements, allowable and not allowable use of funds, and Oregon’s four priority areas. The ‘ruralness’ score estimates for the program are posted on the Sheps Center website.
Wildfire season recap
While there is still some fire activity, the season is quickly winding down. It was a lighter than expected year with only two major events ─ the Rowena Fire in Wasco County and the Flat Fire in Deschutes and Jefferson counties. The state Office of Resilience and Emergency Management (OREM) is providing recovery coordination which includes training and support to local human services partners for safe drinking water and hygiene and providing impact assessment and disaster case management at a per household level.
The county-based disaster registry is an especially valuable tool, with the help of OREM, to populate ahead of an event to allow for very precise evacuation planning for community members at highest risk and efficient emergency response during a disaster.
Recovery coordination is ongoing for the 2025 spring floods in Harney, Douglas, Coos and Malheur counties and for communities impacted by the 2020 wildfires. Director Ed Flick’s slides include a map of resilience hub resources deployed across the state, details of the Genasys Evac tool OREM is piloting and a look ahead at two likely 2026 legislative session bills.
State response to federal policy and funding actions
Interim Deputy Public Health Director Danna Drum reported that the Women Infants and Children program is the only public health program expected to be impacted by the imminent shutdown of the federal government, with current funding likely to run out Oct. 15. Other programs can be maintained through the end of the calendar year and retroactive payment is anticipated once federal funding resumes.
The Oregon Housing and Community Services department is awaiting direction from federal agencies on the implementation of the presidential executive order on homelessness response. Counties and other federally funded Continuum of Care administrators are concerned about the likely fracturing of local homelessness response programs and coordination when federal policy mandates begin to conflict with state policy mandates for state-funded homelessness prevention and response services.
Ashley Thirstrup from the OHA director’s office shared this August Oregon Department of Administrative Services analysis which includes the following excerpt:
“H.R. 1 Medicaid program changes have varying implementation dates. Effective fall 2026, OHA anticipates $22 million in reduced funding, impacting services for certain non-citizens, which includes asylees, refugees, and victims of human trafficking. As noncitizens lose access to services under this category, these populations will likely shift to access coverage under the Healthier Oregon Program (HOP) in order to access benefits. It is not yet clear how these changes will impact Tribal populations’ ability to access Medicaid-funded health services.
“Beginning January 1, 2027, OHA will have to implement changes to meet updated requirements to access Medicaid-funded services. To comply with these changes, OHA will need to make upgrades to existing IT systems to ensure that benefits are being offered in alignment with H.R. 1 provisions. OHA noted a potential need for additional staff to manage call centers to help benefit enrollees navigate pending program and benefit application changes, and staff will be needed to begin verifying eligibility of plan holders beginning in 2027. OHA projects that upon implementing processes to verify benefit eligibility every six months, Oregon will see a reduction in Medicaid funding of $127 million in the 2025-27 biennium, $534 million in the 2027-29 biennium, and $571 million in the 2029-31 biennium. When OHA implements processes to ensure that enrollees comply with work requirements, the projected revenue lost is $344 million in the 2025-27 biennium, $2.2 billion in the 2027-29 biennium, and $2.3 billion in the 2029-31 biennium.
“While OHA manages upgrading existing IT systems to enact this work, the agency will also be working to complete work to stand up a new State Based Marketplace for individuals to secure health insurance coverage. It will be important to ensure that OHA has the capacity and clarity needed to deliver on the work required in H.R. 1, as well as projects included in the agency’s 2025-27 budget. OHA anticipates receiving approximately $175 million to support rural hospitals and health systems during the 2025-27 biennium.
“H.R. 1 will also reduce the resources OHA can draw down from Medicaid based on the Hospital Provider Tax assessed on providers and insurers. The projected reductions to revenue will be $603 million in the 2027-29 biennium, and $1.7 billion in the 2029-31 biennium. Additionally, adults that have Medicaid-funded plans through the Affordable Care Act will have to share a portion of the costs for accessing benefits and services.”
Oregon Department of Human Services Deputy Director of Self Sufficiency Programs Jessica Amaya Hoffman shared the agency’s analysis of the impacts of H.R. 1 on the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Oregon. Immediate impacts include:
“The current levels of support to community providers serving existing SNAP clients will be insufficient to meet needs once SNAP benefits are reduced or eliminated for a portion of the current caseload. The exemption of certain individuals from SNAP benefits will likely place additional pressure on the food bank system as well as other systems of social support throughout Oregon. About 310,000 adults will need to be reviewed for work requirements or exceptions for SNAP eligibility; about 3,000 individuals will lose benefits, including refugees, asylees and other conditionally allowed individuals. SNAP benefits won’t rise with food prices, making it harder for people to afford groceries. About 29,000 households will see an average monthly benefit decrease of $58.
“It should be noted that ODHS expects significant staffing cost increases to comply with the changes in H.R. 1, particularly in the Oregon Eligibility Partnership (OEP) to administer the new Medicaid-eligibility and redetermination requirements. The effective date for many of those changes is December 31, 2026. The changes will require extensive administrative infrastructure, including monthly verification systems, rulemaking, notices, and coordination across ODHS, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), and the Employment Department. Implementation of the changes will also require significant IT system changes that will carry additional costs. For example, ODHS has estimated a need for approximately 600 positions solely for the more frequent Medicaid eligibility redeterminations.
“Aside from immediate impacts to ODHS customers, the Department is in the process of forming a team to bring down the SNAP error rate. Under H.R. 1, if the SNAP error rate is below 5.99 percent, a state’s share of the cost of benefits remains at zero percent. Only eight states are below 5.99 percent, according to the most recent data reported by Federal Funds Information for States. OEP has indicated that the SNAP error rate will still be above the national average for federal fiscal year 2024, the error rate is expected to be closer to 13 percent, compared to 16 percent in 2023 and 22 percent in 2022. If Oregon can bring down the SNAP error rate, potential savings are significant. If the current error rate continues, the state will be responsible for 15 percent of SNAP benefit costs or approximately $0.5 billion per biennium.”
Contributed by: Jessica Pratt | Legislative Affairs Manager
Sep 30, 2025 | AOC Advocacy, Governance, Revenue, & Economic Development
The AOC-OJD Court Facilities Task Force, kicking off on Oct. 17, calls for courthouse project proposals that will be recommended to Chief Justice Flynn for inclusion in her recommended budget for the 2027 legislative session. If your county plans to request state assistance for a courthouse project in the next few years, please plan on attending the task force meetings.
As many of you already know, the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) and the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) have combined forces in the past to organize and prioritize courthouse improvement and replacement projects across Oregon. Although providing court facilities is a county function, the state has been active in supporting court-related improvements and replacing unsafe courthouses.
In general, the projects fall into three categories:
- Planning funds (design, architecture, etc.) to replace courthouses
- Construction funds for replacement projects (typically funded through bonds)
- Improvements needed to support court services
We will need to complete our next round of prioritizations no later than April of 2026 in order to enable OJD to build the proposals into their budget options for the next biennium.
AOC President Shafer has selected Sherman County Judge Joe Dabulskis as the task force chair, and has authorized us to set the following dates and times for three task force meetings, which will be held in person at the AOC Office’s Hood Conference Room (2nd Floor) in Salem, Oregon (with a virtual attendance option).
Location for All Task Force Meetings:
- In-Person Attendees: AOC Hood Conference Room, 2nd Floor, 1212 Court St NE, Salem
- Virtual Attendees: Google Meet virtual options will be provided closer to the meeting dates
Meeting Dates and Topics (please hold these dates):
- Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — Goal: OJD introduction and background on task force, review of past and current projects, review and approve project criteria, approve formal invitation for counties to submit new project proposals, and a Q&A period.
- Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — Goal: Counties present requested projects to the task force, initial task for review and discussion, and request follow up information from requesting counties.
- Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — Goal: Task force reviews follow up information, and discusses and prioritizes projects for recommendation to the chief justice.
Lastly, President Shafer encourages any AOC members willing to volunteer as voting members on the task force and help rank project proposals to please reach out to Justin Low. Typically, membership on the task force is limited to commissioners, judges, chairs, or officials from counties that are not requesting a courthouse replacement in the current cycle, and each county is limited to having one representative to serve on the task force. If AOC receives requests from multiple volunteers from a single county, AOC will notify those members and let that county internally decide who their representative will be.
Please see the following materials to help inform your task force engagement, and reach out if you have any questions.
List of courthouse project criteria
Task force summary document with completed and ongoing projects
Copy of the 2008 courthouse assessment ranking page
Contributed by: Justin Low | Legislative Affairs Manager
Sep 30, 2025 | AOC Advocacy
Friday, Sept. 26, marked 91 days since the Oregon Legislative Assembly concluded the 2025 regular legislative session. Although the effective date of most new laws is Jan. 1 of the year following passage, the Oregon Constitution allows laws to be enacted, if specified, as soon as the 91st day after adjournment sine die. Fifty-one bills passed during the 2025 session are effective as of Friday, Sept. 26, including the following five bills that are directly relevant to county governments.
House Bill 2089: Foreclosure Surplus Process
HB 2089 brings Oregon into compliance with the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Tyler v. Hennepin County, which held that local governments cannot retain surplus proceeds from a tax foreclosure above what the county is owed in taxes and fees. HB 2089 creates a path for counties to be made whole and receive funds owed following the sale of foreclosed property due to unpaid property taxes, and creates a process for surplus equity to be recovered by the former owner through the Oregon State Treasurer.
House Bill 2688: Prevailing Wage for Off-site Fabrication
HB 2688 applies the prevailing rate of wage to certain off-site “bespoke” work fabricated, assembled, or produced for a particular public works project on or after July 1, 2026. Friday’s effective date established the beginning of the rulemaking period between the Oregon attorney general, the Department of Administrative Services, and the Bureau of Labor and Industry, as uncertainty remains whether this law can apply to out-of-state suppliers. The Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) and the Oregon Association of County Engineers and Surveyors (OACES) will represent the county positions and be active in those discussions as the rulemaking process moves forward.
House Bill 3940: Wildfire Funding
HB 3940 delivers new and increased funding to alleviate the increasing costs of wildland firefighting by imposing a tax on oral nicotine products, changes the assessments and surcharges collected by counties on behalf of the Oregon Department of Forestry, and establishes a grant program for homeowners to install wildfire resilient materials. The budget passed by the Legislature totals $267 million for wildfire expenses in the upcoming session. Despite the law’s enactment on Friday, counties will see phased relief in the landowner rates paid for fire protection as rules, policies, and procedures are finalized.
Senate Bill 974: Expedited Land Use Review for Residential Development
SB 974 was an expansive land use permitting bill featuring a 120-day deadline for review of new developments (with extensions and pauses under certain conditions). SB 974 also creates expedited zoning changes for residential use inside an Urban Growth Boundary, prohibitions on requirements for aesthetic design standards in new neighborhoods, and exemptions for multi-family housing or small-scale infill projects. Only the aesthetic design standards provisions (Section 8 of the legislation) went into effect on Sept. 26, 2025. The remaining elements of the law will go into effect on July 1, 2026.
Senate Bill 243: “Community Safety Firearms Act” and Measure 114 Implementation
SB 243 is made of three components, the first being a ban on “bump stocks” and other rapid fire activators. Second, it gives local governments the option to enact a firearms prohibition in public buildings used for official meetings. And third, the law implements Ballot Measure 114 (2022). Only parts one and two went into effect on Sept. 26, 2025. The provisions implementing Measure 114 (2022) are slated to go into effect March 15, 2026. However, Measure 114’s constitutionality is still pending a decision by the Oregon Supreme Court and will likely be appealed to federal court regardless of the outcome.
More details about this legislation and all other bills on which AOC engaged this session are available in the AOC Legislative Summary.
Contributed by: Joe Casey | Legislative Affairs Coordinator
Sep 30, 2025 | AOC Advocacy, OACES, Transportation
Following the Legislature’s failure to pass a transportation package during the 2025 regular legislative session, Governor Kotek called a special legislative session, which started Aug. 29. House Bill 3991, the special session transportation bill, passed out of the Senate on Monday, Sept. 29, and is expected to move to the governor’s desk for signature.
The Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) was in regular conversations with the governor’s office as this special session proposal was developed to ensure that it met our adopted principles and longstanding priority to stabilize the State Highway Fund (SHF), maintain the counties’ 30% share, and included a continuation of the Small County Allotment, which supports the lowest population counties with large road miles to maintain.
HB 3991 would generate approximately $700 million a biennium in the SHF revenue (split 50/30/20), primarily through a $0.06 per gallon increase to the gas tax; a $42 increase to all registration fees, an additional $30 for electric vehicles and 40+ mpg vehicles; and a $139 increase to title fees. The proposal also includes a phased-in mandatory road user charge program for electric and hybrid vehicles beginning July 2027, updates to heavy truck and diesel taxes, and accountability measures at the Oregon Department of Transportation. A comprehensive overview of HB 3991 is available here.
Initial revenue projections show that counties will benefit from a 30% increase in state funding over four years from HB 3991. The increased SHF revenue comes with no off-the-top allocations and is the largest relative allocation share of SHF to county funding in a modern transportation package. This will allow most counties to maintain current services and operations and keep roads and bridges open and safe.
One of AOC’s top policy priorities this year was the passage of a comprehensive transportation funding package prioritizing investments in operations, maintenance, and safety; incorporating diverse and modern funding mechanisms to ensure the growth and stabilization of the SHF; maintaining the 30% county share of SHF revenues; and reducing barriers to local revenue sources. Throughout the 18+ months of legislative discussions about a 2025 transportation package, AOC, the Oregon Association of County Engineers and Surveyors (OACES), and counties have shown up strong at every turn and consistently communicated the message that counties are the state’s partner in maintaining a safe and seamless transportation system, and shared SHF revenues support this partnership.
AOC supported HB 3991 in consideration of the critical new funding it will provide to counties and the inclusion of both the 50/30/20 funding distribution and the Small County Allotment.
Contributed by: Mallorie Roberts | Legislative Affairs Director
