September Legislative Days were held virtually September 21-23 and featured insights into potential 2023 legislative concepts, updates on interim policy and agency work, and significant investments through the Joint Legislative Emergency Board. Below are some highlights of particular interest to counties:

Governance and Revenue

Health and Human Services

  • Workforce shortages in both public and private health and human services was a consistent theme during legislative committee meetings.
  • The Senate Interim Committee on Judiciary and Ballot Measure 110 Implementation heard expert testimony on Oregon’s substance abuse and overdose numbers and received updates on Ballot Measure 110 from the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD), Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the Oversight and Accountability Council. It appears likely that during the 2023 Legislative Session, the judiciary committee will consider mechanisms to increase substance abuse treatment engagement by people cited for class E violations. 
  • The House Interim Committee On Behavioral Health heard testimony from Representative Rob Nosse (D-Portland) and Senator Kate Lieber (D-Beaverton) on priorities for the upcoming legislative session based on the interim Behavioral Health Transformation Workgroup, including:1) clarifying and improving processes for serving mandated populations (civil commitment, guilty except for insanity, and aid and assist); 2) policy and funding changes to increase residential treatment capacity; 3) ensuring continuation and growth of certified community behavioral health clinics; 4) taskforce to streamline and update ORS 430 to reduce administrative burden. The committee heard from Dr. Debra Pinals and OHA on implementation of the recent Mosman order and on the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations reported at the Oregon State Hospital. Dr. Pinals noted that duration limits on aid and assist restoration services need to be equivalent for hospital and community placements and recommends the Legislature act to make it so. Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Program (AOCMHP) Executive Director Cherryl Ramirez testified on 9-8-8 rollout and noted that expansion plans and comprehensive budgets will be completed in October upon receipt of actuarial rate determinations.
  • The House Interim Committee on Housing heard updates on homeless services and shelter investments as well as planning for and building needed housing. 
  • The House Interim Committee on Human Services heard from the Oregon Department of Human Services on its plans and legislative agenda for the next biennium.
  • The Legislative Emergency Board took the following actions related to public health and behavioral health care:
    • $881,987 General Fund allocation for OHA  to address excessive nitrate levels in well water used by households located in Lower Umatilla Basin groundwater management area. Funds will support well water quality testing; the purchase of filtration systems for home water taps; county and OHA staffing costs; and outreach and education. 
    • $9 million General Fund and increase in Other Funds expenditure limitation by $111 million to enable OHA to meet this match requirement and continue supporting core pandemic response activities, such as vaccination events, wraparound services, outbreak response, and community outreach. Much of this work will be done through local public health authorities, community-based organizations, and OHA’s Public Health Division. The level of recommended funding is expected to support Federal Emergency Management (FEMA)-eligible expenses into the early part of the 2023 Legislative Session. This incremental approach will allow the agency to provide a comprehensive understanding of its long-term strategy for funding public health services given the eventual phase-out of federal support. It will also allow for additional analysis of pandemic-related costs the agency has incurred that are not eligible for FEMA reimbursement.

Natural Resources

  • In addition to the information provided by the commissioners above, a couple of items were presented by agency staff with information to flag:
    • During the Senate Interim Committee On Natural Resources and Wildfire Recovery the Department of Forestry testified to a new timeline for the Wildfire Risk Map.  A draft map will come out on March 1, 2023, and the department will then take the map to a public comment period. Once the department has gone around the state collecting public comment, the department will finalize the map and have it be in place, between October and December, 2023.
  • The Legislative Emergency Board allocated many financial investments to counties.  Some in the natural resources area include: 
    • $881,987 to the Lower Umatilla Basin for addressing their groundwater and nitrate levels.
    • $2,000,000 to address the storm damage in Wallowa County.
    • $5,000,000 to Klamath County for addressing their dry domestic and community wells.
    • $500,000 for additional wildland fire training.
    • $2,000,000 to the city of Echo in Umatilla County in the form of a grant to address flood damage.
    • $550,000 for further emerald ash borer beetle response.
    • $510,766 for waterway access grants administered by the State Marine Board. The additional funds will be used for projects in Clackamas, Coos, Douglas, Lane, Malheur, and Wasco counties.
  • The Legislative Emergency Board accepted a report from the Oregon Department of State Lands as the first step in their financial request coming in December to address four derelict vessels in the Columbia River. These vessels are located in Clatsop County, Columbia County, and near Hayden island in Multnomah County.

Public Safety

  • Drug Addiction Policy – The Senate Interim Committee on Judiciary and Measure 110 Implementation heard a presentation from a group of experts on addiction, including Todd Korthuis, professor and head of addiction medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, and Keith Humphreys, professor and director of the Stanford Network on Addiction Policy. They pointed out that addiction is different from many other diseases, which usually cause suffering that can be relieved by treatment, so people typically seek treatment on their own accord without any outside pressure. In contrast, people with addiction experience pleasure while they continue abusing drugs, but they face suffering during addiction treatment. Therefore, people facing addiction typically do not seek treatment without pressure from family, friends, employers, and/or the legal system. 
  • The experts described the West Coast’s recent approach to addiction policy, including Oregon’s under Measure 110, as focusing on reducing harm to individual addicts. The harm reduction approach emerged in response to the widely perceived failure of the “war on drugs” and its reliance on the criminal justice system. In the eyes of many, criminalizing addiction caused additional, unnecessary harm to drug addicts. But professors Korthuis and Humphreys characterized the West Coast’s approach as focusing purely on reducing harms to individual addicts while ignoring harms that addiction causes to the larger community (such as theft and open-air drug markets). According to the presenters, while European harm reduction approaches such as that of Portugal also decriminalize drug addiction and have proven effective, those approaches do address the societal harms caused by addiction. For example, open-air drug markets are not tolerated, and societal pressure is applied in various ways to help motivate addicts to seek treatment.

Transportation and Community Development

  • Broadband – With about $1 billion in federal funds expected to become available for expanding broadband access in Oregon, many local governments have been increasingly anxious to get started planning projects, and increasingly frustrated because they lack resources to do so. AOC has been pushing hard for state leaders to equip the Oregon Broadband Office (OBO) with resources sufficient to help local governments obtain technical assistance to get started planning projects. In an exciting move, the Legislative Emergency Board approved the OBO’s request for $2.8 million and eight new permanent positions to provide technical assistance and support project planning. In a separate development, this week, the OBO published their draft rules for deploying the federal funds, including grants to fund planning work, and are seeking public comment on the draft rules for the next month. Input on the draft rules should be emailed to Broadband.Oregon@biz.Oregon.gov, with a subject of “Broadband Deployment Program Suggestion/Comment.”
  • Housing – The House Interim Committee on Housing heard a series of presentations on planning and building housing in Oregon. Presenters included Oregon State Economist Josh Lehner, a private home construction company, two affordable housing nonprofits, staff at Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), a pair of University of Oregon (UO) professors, and Morrow County Planning Director Tamra Mabbott.
    • Lehner explained how the housing affordability crisis arose because the pace of home construction significantly lagged population growth for many years. Housing that is affordable to lower- and middle-income Oregonians has become especially scarce, as the construction activity that did occur tended towards higher-end developments with higher profit margins. According to Lehner, the biggest factors that contributed to the slow pace of construction were lack of available land, challenges getting land ready for development, high construction costs, and a limited local construction workforce. Lehner predicted that if trends continue, housing scarcity will continue increasing, and the affordability crisis will continue worsening. According to Lehner’s analysis, Oregon could make up for past underproduction and get on track toward a balanced housing market within 20 years by adding 400 to 500 more workers in local governments throughout Oregon to process building permits, and adding 13,000 more construction workers. Lehner noted both would be extremely challenging to achieve because of the extremely tight labor market.
    • UO professors Dr. Rebecca Lewis and Robert Parker reported on findings from their survey research exploring perceived barriers to housing production in Oregon, which largely dovetailed with issues noted by Lehner. Construction costs and land supply were identified as the most highly ranked barriers. While there was substantial agreement among nonprofit and private builders regarding the significance of most barriers, private builders were more likely than nonprofit builders to perceive all sorts of barriers as significant. Nonprofits were less likely to see permitting costs and system development charges as significant barriers. Some geographic differences were noted, in that system development charges, wetlands, and public hearing obligations were frequently perceived as barriers in some regions but not others. 
    • DLCD Housing Planner Sean Edging presented to the committee about his agency’s work, in cooperation with the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department, carrying out legislative directions to recommend ways Oregon’s land use law should be updated to unleash more housing construction. The agencies had released draft recommendations in August, and Edging described them to the committee along with the public engagement process they undertook. AOC participated in several workgroups advising the agencies as they developed these recommendations, and the AOC Transportation and Community Development Steering Committee heard Edging give a similar presentation at its August meeting. The recommendations would change the land use system to focus more on outcomes and putting strategies in place to achieve them. They would make it easier for local governments to expand Urban Growth Boundaries (UGB) when land supply is lacking, and provide more flexibility for local governments to plan for housing types they believe are needed. 
    • Morrow County Planning Director Tamra Mabbot described her perspective on how housing production could happen faster in places like Morrow County. She noted how local governments often have extremely limited capacity when it comes to processing permits, and how this can lead to excessive construction delays. She noted the value of having additional support from the state to boost local permitting capacity. She also voiced strong support for creating a fast track process allowing small UGB expansions when they would provide for significant affordable housing development. Additionally, Mabbot highlighted the importance of funding for infrastructure and measures that help build the local construction workforce. 
  • Transportation – The Interim Joint Committee on Transportation received updates from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), including an overview of the department’s projected operations and maintenance budget shortfalls. The department noted that part of the strategy for mitigating this shortfall are cuts to the Surface Transportation Block Grant Fund Exchange Program, which would result in significant impacts to county road department budgets and projects. AOC and the Oregon Association of County Engineers and Surveyors continue to work with ODOT and the Legislature on alternatives to cutting this program.

Contributed by:  Mallorie Roberts | Legislative Director (Transportation)

Michael Burdick | Legislative Affairs Manager (Public Safety and Community Development)

Tyler Janzen | Legislative Affairs Manager (Governance and Revenue)

Jessica Pratt | Legislative Affairs Manager (Health and Human Services)

Branden Pursinger | Legislative Affairs Manager (Natural Resources)