The Oregon Department of Administrative Services (DAS) has begun implementation of an innovative policy to support increased revenue for public lands counties.
Under House Bill 2174 (2021), upon request of a county, DAS is required to credit forest reserve funds that would otherwise be credited to a county road program, to a separate public entity created by the county.
This policy, developed by the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) in partnership with Representative Mark Owens (R-Crane), provides flexibility for county governments to increase federal dollars from Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT) to support critical needs in rural communities by diverting the 75 percent of U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Secure Rural Schools (SRS) Title I payment to a separate public entity.
Funding credited to a public body under the new law is to be used in the same manner and subject to the same restrictions that would have applied to the funding under the previous distribution model, including, but not limited to, the statutory requirements related to a county road fund.
Counties may now submit requests to DAS by emailing DAS.Distributions@das.oregon.gov with the below information. The deadline for submission to DAS is March 1, and DAS expects disbursements from the federal government in April.
Information Needed:
- W9 – Include the TIN
- LGIP for new agency
- Memo to DAS, asking to add the LGIP account to the vendor profile
- County Ordinance declaring the road agency
- County Intergovernmental Agreement
DAS Staff Contact:
Laura Burnett
971-719-3183
DAS.Distributions@das.oregon.gov
Eligible public entities include:
- An intergovernmental entity created by agreement under ORS 190.003 to 190.130,
- A county road district formed under ORS 371.055 to 371.110, or
- A service district for roads established under ORS Chapter 451.
Jefferson County and Klamath County have passed local ordinances in accordance with HB 2174. These counties have offered to share their county ordinances and intergovernmental agreements (see links below) to serve as a reference for other countries exploring the new law.
Additional resources and information on road district formation are available in the AOC County Road Manual (Chapter 3: Road Revenue, 3.150 County Service District, 3.170 Intergovernmental Transportation Agreements, and Chapter 12: Districting for Road Purpose).
As an important note, SRS payments and PILT payments fall at different times on the calendar, and SRS payments must be allocated to a road district before increases in PILT can be realized. Once a road district is set up, and DAS is notified, they will set up a new vendor profile for the new district, as the payee, changing the payout from the county to the new district. DAS accounting staff will ensure the apportionment among counties of money received from federal government forest reserves is amended in the distribution formula pursuant to ORS 293.560 and ORS 294.060.
Contributed by: Jordan Cole | AOC County Road Program analyst