Board Supports Effort to Bring in Federal Funding

The Lane County Board of Commissioners narrowly moved forward today with regards to continuing the County’s membership in the Association of Oregon and California Land Grant Counties, commonly referred to as the Association of O&C Counties.

“Today’s action will allow us to begin working with a network of counties nationwide to secure much-needed federal funding,” said Commissioner Faye Stewart. “This collaborative effort has helped secure millions in federal funding for local services and schools.”

Over the past three years, the County invested about $1 million in lobbying services, staff salaries, and a variety of association memberships and other financial support. That effort returned $156 million to the general, road, and school fund.

During last year’s budget development process, the Lane County Budget Committee recommended to not include $37,704 in the Fiscal Year 2008-09 budget for membership dues in the Association.

The Board voted 3-2 today, with Commissioners Rob Handy and Pete Sorenson dissenting, to pay for 2009 and 2010 membership dues. The Board also allocated an additional $39,000 to be used during 2010 to support the Association’s federal lobbying work with regards to the reauthorization of federal “safety-net” legislation. Funding for this action came from the return of $226,000 that Lane County and 15 other members in the Association pooled in 1999 to create an endowment fund for the Association.

Today’s action further directed Commissioner Stewart, Lane County’s representative on the Board of Directors of the Association, to work on several issues in anticipation of the organization’s annual meeting to be held in Eugene in December. Specifically, the order directs that Stewart work toward: Increasing the number of directors of the Association; increasing the transparency of the organization and improving public access to their records; and ensuring that the Association continues to focus on issues related to the “decoupling” of Oregon county economic sustainability from timber-derived revenues.

Commissioner Bill Fleenor, who helped develop a task force that met five times since August and developed the recommendations for the Board’s consideration today, acknowledged the “balancing act” that the Board is attempting.

“We cannot ignore the enormous role that both federal safety net funds, and timber receipts before them, play in sustaining Lane County’s livability, but we also know that congressional representatives that view this issue from afar may wonder why federal payments are justified when so much timber value is embodied in federal lands in Oregon,” said Commissioner Fleenor.

The Association exists in order to fulfill the promises of the 1937 O&C Act, which provides that revenues from the BLM managed lands in western Oregon support county general and road, and local school funds.