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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2021
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Bills would rewrite state’s land use law
Tracy Loew
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon’s 50-year-old land use law
should be revised to include environ-
mental justice goals, a group of legisla-
tors, environmental groups and local
chapters of the NAACP said Thursday.
The groups are backing legislation
that would require the state to address
environmental justice for disadvan-
taged communities, as well as climate
change adaptation and mitigation, in
land use planning.
“This is an actual catastrophe for the
Black community and for communities
of color,” said Eric Richardson, presi-
dent of the Eugene/Springfield NAACP.
“For generations we have been made in-
visible. Those things that are unsavory
for the general community have been
put on our doorstep.”
Historically, underserved communi-
ties are often those most impacted by
climate change and by pollution.
One of the most visible examples is
the Flint, Michigan water crisis. Twelve
people died and more than 80 became ill
after public officials ignored problems
with lead in the public water supply.
House Bill 2488, which backers are
calling the “Equity and Climate in Land
Use” bill, asks the state Department of
Land Conservation and Development to
update statewide land-use planning
goals to make equitable planning deci-
sions for vulnerable and disadvantaged
communities, and to establish measur-
able climate targets associated with
land use.
Oregon has not adopted climate miti-
gation criteria in its land-use policy. The
bill’s passage would establish carbon
dioxide and climate equity interim stan-
dards in land use decisions by 2023.
The new goals will also apply to local
governments’ land-use decisions.
Local governments also would be re-
quired to map environmental justice
communities and quantify the cumula-
tive health risks and other inequities
those communities have experienced,
the bill’s backers said.
For example, in Marion County,
critics of the Covanta garbage incinera-
tor have noted that its particulate mat-
ter emissions impact a disadvantaged
community, and have called for testing
of soil and people.
Covanta officials say the plant’s
emissions meet all state and federal
standards.
“Our communities have been ignored
for far too long,” Sen. James Manning
Jr., D-Eugene, said in a news conference
about the proposed legislation. “We
have an opportunity right now to do
something for not this generation, not
the next generation, for five generations
yet to come.”
Lawmakers also will introduce iden-
tical joint resolutions in the House and
Senate calling on the Legislature to
adopt a vision and set of principles for
achieving environmental justice in Ore-
gon, including the right of all people to
clean air and water.
“Oregon needs a holistic reimagining
of who deserves to have a say in the fu-
ture of our communities. This legisla-
tion will put our state on the path to
achieve this,” Rep. Karin Power, D-Mil-
waukie, said. “It’s time for us to really
reshape and chart a new, more inclusive
path to local land use decision making
and government decision making.”
Tracy Loew is a reporter at the
Statesman Journal. She can be reached
at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-
399-6779 or on Twitter at @Tracy_Loew
.
Relief money to Oregon colleges won’t cure budget woes
State estimates $224M
coming from fund
Jordyn Brown
Register-Guard
USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon’s colleges and universities
will get a needed boost from the newest
federal COVID-19 relief and omnibus bill
signed Dec. 27 by President Donald
Trump.
The funds from the Consolidated Ap-
propriations Act’s $22.7 billion dedicat-
ed to higher education across the U.S.
comes at a time when low enrollment
and other budget problems are cause for
concern for Oregon’s higher education
institutions.
Oregon’s Higher Education Coordi-
nating Commission estimates $224 mil-
lion will come to the state from the
Higher Education Emergency Relief
Fund, anticipating $102 million to public
universities, $97 million for community
colleges and $28 million for private in-
stitutions.
But it’s not enough to fix the looming
budget concerns of many colleges and
universities, HECC Executive Director
Ben Cannon said.
Nearly all of the state’s colleges and
universities have seen declines in en-
rollment, which poses problems as
many still rely on tuition for the bulk of
revenue. The institutions also have lost
revenue from areas such as housing and
dining, athletic and parking revenues,
he said.
Public universities alone are project-
ing $327 million in lost revenues since
March and through June 2021, Cannon
said. This is on top of the approximately
$82 million in direct costs public univer-
sities estimate to have incurred related
to the pandemic.
“So it certainly helps to fill those
gaps. It doesn’t fully come close to ful-
filling them, but it is a very important in-
vestment by Congress in colleges and
universities at a really critical time,” he
said.
The distribution of the relief will be a
bit different than that of the $2.2 trillion
CARES act signed by Trump in March.
The formula for these latest relief
funds has been “modified to equally
weight full-time equivalent student
counts and student headcounts,” ac-
cording to Kyle Thomas, HECC director
of Legislative and Policy Affairs.
The change will mean more re-
sources for community colleges than
before, because more of their students
are enrolled part-time, he stated. Fall
enrollment fell at every community col-
The Lane Community College campus is closed to the general public for now with most students taking classes online.
CHRIS PIETSCH/THE REGISTER-GUARD
lege in the state over the previous year, a
HECC report showed.
Chemeketa Community College —
which has campuses in Salem,
McMinnville, Brooks, Dallas and Wood-
burn, and serves more than 10,000 full-
time students — is expected to receive
about $12.4 million in new federal relief
funds.
Marie Hulett, executive director of
institutional advancement for the col-
lege, said allocation figures are based on
calculations from the Association of
Public & Land-Grant Universities, not
the U.S. Department of Education.
Of the money headed to Chemeketa,
a minimum of $2.8 million is allocated
for student aid, and the remainder, or
about $9.5 million, is allocated to insti-
tutional aid. The U.S Department of
Education will soon define how the lat-
ter can be used, but they are one-time
grants.
In October, Chemeketa's enrollment
was down about 13% compared to the
same time in 2019, only partially im-
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pacted by COVID-19.
"These funds will not be able to ad-
dress the impact of lower enrollment in
prior terms," Hullett said, "though we
are hopeful this money will allow us to
engage more students and returning
students in future terms."
No budget increase will feel like a
cut
Institutions will be required to use at
least as many dollars for direct emer-
gency student aid as they were before
under the CARES Act, Thomas stated,
“however, because institutional alloca-
tions are larger in this funding round,
less than 50% of total funds are required
to be spent in such a manner.”
The new relief funds also include $4
billion for a Governor’s Emergency
Fund, which will distribute money to
governors to use as they see fit for their
state’s needs.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown did not in-
clude a funding increase for higher edu-
cation in her proposed budget for 2021-
2023, though she did provide increases
for K-12 schools.
It’s important to still think of the
emergency fund and Gov. Brown’s pro-
posed budget separately, Cannon said,
because the relief funds are to be used
for emergency grants to students and
shoring up budgets primarily this year,
whereas Brown’s budget impacts the
following year, too.
However, both play into colleges’ fi-
nancial outlooks for the 2021-2022
school year.
If Brown’s proposed budget is ap-
proved, it will keep the funding levels for
higher education the same as they were
this biennium. However, colleges will
feel this more as a decrease in funding
the first year of the new biennium, ac-
cording to Jamie Moffitt, University of
Oregon’s vice president for finance and
administration and chief financial offi-
cer.
At the last UO Board of Trustees
meeting Dec. 3, Moffitt explained that
just 49% of state funding is given the
first year of the biennium, and 51% is
given the following year.
“What that means that if the biennial
budget stays steady, we actually see a
cut, because you end up going from the
year — which is this year — where we
got 51% of the funding, to the first year of
the biennium when you’re back to 49%
of the funding,” Moffitt said.
“The bottom line is if the governor’s
(proposed budget) goes through, then
the legislatively approved budget for the
UO represents about a $3 million cut for
next year.”
This is on top of ongoing costs the UO
expects to see because of COVID-19 im-
pacts on operations.
“The University of Oregon greatly ap-
preciates the Oregon delegation that
worked to secure funds, which will pro-
vide support for immediate basic and
critical needs as our students, faculty
and staff — and the university — face
ongoing hardships,” UO spokesperson
Kay Jarvis said in a statement.
Groups representing higher educa-
tion across the country requested $120
billion, she said, so this is far less than
the $22.7 billion granted.
“The relief funds are a fraction of
what is needed to help the university
and students manage the current crisis
and begin to recover,” she said.
“We have experienced increased ex-
penses associated with providing the
technology and infrastructure neces-
sary for remote and online instruction,
and made significant investments in
COVID-19 testing, health care, risk re-
duction strategies, and on-campus pro-
grams,” Jarvis said.
“At the same time that costs are in-
creasing, we have experienced signifi-
cant reductions in tuition, housing and
dining, and other auxiliary revenue due
to the pandemic.”
The UO does not yet know how much
of the relief funds it will receive.
Cannon believes public higher edu-
cation institutions will see budget
struggles if the state funding levels stay
the same. “State support will be vital for
helping secure those budgets for the up-
coming two years without major cuts to
programs, faculty staffing, etc.” he said.
Those in the HECC are going to work
with the governor’s office to come up
with a plan for spending Oregon’s por-
tion of the Governor’s Emergency Fund,
just like they did with the CARES Act
last year, and if any will go to higher
education.
“That’s an additional part that could
help to support higher ed. It could also
help to support the needs within K-12,
and it will be ultimately at the discretion
of the governor,” Cannon said.
Statesman Journal reporter Natalie
Pate contributed to this story.
Contact reporter Jordyn Brown at
jbrown@registerguard.com or 541-338-
2203, and follow her on Twitter @thejor-
dynbrown and Instagram @register-
guard.