STATE
6A — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2021
State, local governments in Oregon receive $4.3 billion from feds
By HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian/OregonLive
SALEM — Oregon
cities and counties and the
state government are set to
receive a combined
$4.3 billion from the
$1.9 trillion aid package
Congress passed earlier this
month.
The largest chunk,
$2.6 billion, will go to the
state to spend on Oregon’s
response to the pandemic or
other uses. Budget analysts
are working to pin down the
level of fl exibility the state
has to spend the funds.
Oregon will also receive
$155 million for the state
government to spend on
capital projects, and county,
city and other local gov-
ernments are slated to
receive a total of $1.5 bil-
lion, according to infor-
mation from U.S. Senate
Democrats.
That is on top of the $1.1
billion the federal relief
law will send to Oregon
schools.
Spending options
As for how the state gov-
ernment could spend its
share, a spokesperson for
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.,
said the options include
paying for the government’s
response to the pandemic
and providing premium pay
to essential workers.
“Off setting lost revenues
to provide essential govern-
ment services” is another
option, Hank Stern wrote
in an email, as is paying for
water, sewer and broadband
infrastructure.
Oregon’s tax revenues
have continued to exceed
economists’ expectations
during the pandemic and
ensuing recession, so much
so that they are on track to
trigger the state’s one-of-
a-kind “kicker” tax rebate,
which would send some of
the windfall back to tax-
payers as credits when they
fi le taxes in 2022.
Economists and state
budget analysts have pre-
dicted a more challenging
fi scal picture for the
2021-23 biennium, which
begins July 1.
Lawmakers must pass
that budget by the end of
June.
Even before the Legisla-
ture approved $800 million
in additional spending in a
December special session,
analysts expected state rev-
enues would be approxi-
mately $800 million short
of what would be needed to
maintain the current level
of services. Staff at the
Legislative Fiscal Offi ce
expect the cost of providing
a status quo level of ser-
vices to rise from $24 bil-
lion in the current two-year
budget, to $25.6 million in
2021-23.
As improving revenue
forecasts erase some of the
state’s anticipated shortfall,
that could leave more of the
federal aid up-for-grabs as
lawmakers draft the next
budget. Interim Legisla-
tive Fiscal Offi cer Laurie
Byerly said states are still
waiting for guidance from
the Department of Treasury
so it is unclear the degree
of fl exibility the state will
have to spend the funds.
Oregon governments
also received $1.8 billion for
a variety of specifi c uses,
including to distribute for
rental assistance and $499
million for schools, through
Congress’ December relief
bill and $2.45 billion from
the CARES Act earlier in
2020.
Unlike the cash pay-
ments that can land in
people’s bank accounts
fairly quickly, federal aid
that fl ows to governments
can take months to make
its way to specifi c pro-
grams or recipients.
Oregon lawmakers consider new
approach to cutt ing wildfi re risk
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon
would emphasize reducing
fuels in high-risk forests
near communities and key
environmental resources as
part of broader legislation
aimed at mitigating wildfi re
hazards.
A crucial aspect of the
proposal involves steering
forest treatments toward
where they’re most needed,
regardless of property
ownership.
“We are taking an all-
lands approach here,” said
Dylan Kruse, government
aff airs director for the Sus-
tainable Northwest nonprofi t
organization. “Immediately,
we’re going where there’s
the most urgent need.”
Though the Oregon
Department of Forestry
would take charge of the
planning and implemen-
tation, the agency would
rely on help from Oregon
State University and other
entities.
The targeted approach
would likewise rely on state
money while “leveraging”
funds from the federal
government.
At its core, the legisla-
tion is aimed at selecting
where and how to conduct
forest projects that would
be most eff ective, Kruse
said.
“We know we can’t treat
all the forest acreage we
want to in this state, so we
have to narrow down and
prioritize where we get the
best return on investment,”
Kruse said during a recent
legislative hearing.
The U.S. Forest Service
has developed a “quanti-
tative wildfi re risk assess-
ment” that indicates about
5.6 million acres in Oregon
need fuels treatments, he
said.
Under the legislation,
projects would begin in
the four highest risk cate-
gories, with an eye toward
protecting human life,
property and critical infra-
structure, as well as water-
shed health and habitat
restoration.
For projects to be under-
taken on federal lands, they
would have to undergo
analysis under the National
Environmental Policy Act
and exclude roadless areas,
riparian reserves and other
sensitive sites.
The ODF already
engages in “shared steward-
ship” projects with the U.S.
Forest Service and other
agencies, so the proposed
legislation would accel-
erate this approach, said
Jeff Burns, the department’s
partnership and planning
director.
In February, the
agency requested collab-
orative project proposals
from across the state
and received 93 applica-
tions for roughly $20 mil-
lion, he said. The ODF is
funding 37 of those pro-
posals with $4 million from
the state’s emergency board
— enough to treat 7,000
acres — but has another 56
“shelf-ready” projects as a
result.
Under the most recent
version of Senate Bill 248,
one of the bills being con-
sidered, ODF would receive
$20 million to implement
new projects in the 2021-
2023 biennium.
The current proposal
would serve as a type of
“pilot project” that lays
the groundwork for future
treatments and partner-
ships, said Kruse.
Of the 5.6 million acres
identifi ed as requiring man-
agement by the Forest Ser-
vice, about 65% are on fed-
eral lands, 25% are owned
by small woodland owners,
6% belong to state, local
and tribal governments,
and only 4% are on indus-
trial timber properties, said
Kyle Williams, forest pro-
duction director for the
Oregon Forest & Industries
Council, a timber group.
“Our federal lands are
struggling. They’re over-
stocked, overgrown and
underutilized,” Williams
said.
Reducing wildfi re
danger is just one compo-
nent of the broader leg-
islation under review by
lawmakers, who also plan
to address transmission
system plans, defensible
residential spaces, smoke
monitoring, emergency
response and other factors.
Offi cials: A dam in Oregon
could fail in a large earthquake
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers
has determined that a large
earthquake — which is
expected to occur again
in the Pacifi c Northwest
sooner or later — could
cause the spillway gates of
a dam in Oregon to buckle,
resulting “in a potentially
catastrophic fl ood.”
The Corps recently
announced it will try to
minimize the danger by
reducing the maximum
height of the lake by fi ve
feet starting in April. Hun-
dreds of thousands of
people, including those in
the state capital, live down-
stream from the Detroit
Dam, whose construc-
tion in the 1950s created
the narrow, nine-mile long
Detroit Lake.
The move comes as
Oregon and the wider
Pacifi c Northwest are
coming to grips with “the
big one” that experts say
is coming. Earthquakes in
the Cascadia subduction
zone, which extends from
the ocean off Northern Cal-
ifornia to Canada’s Van-
couver Island, have an
average magnitude of
Andrew Selsky/Associated Press, File
Lawmakers convene at the Oregon Senate in Salem on June 20, 2019. Republican boycotts of Oregon’s Legis-
lature have become so frequent that Democrats want to sanction boycotters with $500 daily fi nes and even
disqualify them from holding offi ce. Democrats hold the majority in the state House and Senate.
Democrats seek to end GOP
boycott s of Legislature
This is third year in a row Republicans have used walkouts
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — Walkouts
by Republicans in Ore-
gon’s Legislature have
become so frequent, with
GOP lawmakers torpe-
doing progressive legisla-
tion, that Democrats want
to sanction boycotters
with $500 daily fi nes and
even disqualify them from
holding offi ce.
The issue has become
acrimonious, with Demo-
crats saying the boycotts
harm the democratic func-
tioning of the state. Oregon
is particularly vulnerable
to boycotts because, while
46 of the other statehouses
in America require only
a simple majority for a
quorum, the northwestern
state requires two-thirds of
lawmakers to be present.
Democrats have most
of the seats in the Oregon
Legislature, but lack the
two-thirds majority to con-
duct business if Republi-
cans stay away.
On Thursday, March
18, the Senate Committee
on Rules held an emo-
tional public hearing on
four measures that seek
to deprive Republicans of
the leverage from quorum
rules that critics say they
have weaponized.
“I’m looking forward
to engaging in a debate
about how we can continue
to address this fl aw in our
democracy,” said Senate
Majority Leader Rob
Wagner, the committee
chairman.
This is the third
straight year in which
Republicans have used
walkouts. They have
also sometimes insisted
that bills be read in full,
causing bills to stack up
after they leave commit-
tees, and delaying fl oor
votes on them.
The Legislature’s 2020
session ended early, and
acrimoniously, because of
a Republican boycott over
a climate change measure.
House Speaker Tina Kotek
said then that Republi-
cans violated their consti-
tutional duty of voting on
bills, adding: “We have
been held hostage by a
small group of elected
representatives.”
The previous year, a
GOP senator indicated he’d
resist with gunfi re if state
troopers were sent to bring
him back to the Capitol.
This year, Republicans
have already been absent
from a Senate fl oor ses-
sion. GOP lawmakers have
also insisted on bills being
read in full, leading Kotek
to schedule night sessions
in the House.
The day of this year’s
walkout, the Senate
Republican caucus asked
the governor to immedi-
ately reopen schools for
full, in-person instruc-
tion. Republican Senators
had felt their demands for
eased COVID-19 restric-
tions went unheard.
At Thursday’s hearing,
held remotely via Zoom
because the Capitol is
closed to the public, ordi-
nary Oregonians got on
their computers and phones
to vent their anger at GOP
lawmakers who boycott.
They said they’d be fi red if
they missed work.
Enjoy Life
more,
Terry Richard/The Oregonian via AP, File
This Aug. 14, 2010, fi le photo shows Kane’s Marina on Detroit Lake Reser-
voir in Detroit. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined a large
earthquake, which is expected to occur again in the Pacifi c Northwest
sooner or later, could cause the spillway gates of the dam in Oregon to
buckle, resulting “in a potentially catastrophic fl ood.”
around 9, making them
among the world’s biggest.
A quake in that zone has
a 37% probability of hap-
pening off Oregon’s coast in
the next 50 years, according
to Chris Goldfi nger, an
Oregon State University
professor and geologist.
Just last week, an earth-
quake early warning system
was launched in Oregon.
Operated by the U.S. Geo-
logical Survey, the state
joined California in the
system that sends alerts to
smart phones. Washington
state is expected to join the
ShakeAlert system, which
operates on an array of
seismic sensors, in May.
Lawmakers are also
trying to prepare the state
for a major earthquake.
In the Oregon Legisla-
ture, House Bill 3083 man-
dates that contracts for
public works must adhere
to seismic safety standards
and seismic rehabilitation
standards in constructing or
renovating public buildings
or critical infrastructure
in earthquake-prone areas.
Turning 65, paying too
much or want to
compare your options?
Stress Less
at
GRANDE
Ronde
Retirement & Assisted Living
An Independent
Insurance Agency
1809 Gekeler Ln.
La Grande
541-963-4700
PROTECTING our
Residents during this
Pandemic
Get Trusted, Friendly,
Expert, Medicare
Insurance Help
admin@kereed.net
Nicole Cathey
10106 N. ‘C’ • Island City
541-975-1364
Toll Free 1-866-282-1925 www.reedinsurance.net
Kevin Reed