Budget season has begun at the Capitol and Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) is at the table working to ensure adequate funding for a number of health and human services provided and administered through the counties. On March 14, Commissioners Sonya Fischer (Clackamas County), Claire Hall (Lincoln County), Xanthippe Augerot (Benton County) and Association of Community Mental Health Programs (AOCMHP) Executive Director Cherryl Ramirez testified on SB 5525, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) budget. Commissioners highlighted the need for resources to perform best practices and provide services to county residents in the most cost-effective ways, including the need for supportive housing across the state through integrative practices with criminal justice, behavioral health funding for crisis intervention, and upstream investments in health.

(To watch Commissioners Fischer, Hall, and Augerot testify, click on the play button above.)

AOC’s written testimony calls out priority areas of:

  1. Funding public health modernization;
  2. Strengthening the OHA and Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) partnership to better integrate behavioral health and housing;
  3. Funding a behavioral health justice reinvestment initiative; and
  4. Funding specific public health and behavioral health Policy Option Packages (POP) contained in the Governor’s recommended budget.

To review AOC’s written testimony, click here.

Public hearings on this budget began in early March. The budget is anticipated to move from the Ways and Means Subcommittee in early May.

Contributed by: Megan Chuinard | Public Affairs Associate