A8
State
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
What’s next for the
Oregon budget
Owyhee Canyonlands? hangs on May
revenue forecast
Ore.
Idaho
R.
Idaho
Ore.
Last year, conservation-
ists made a big push to
convince President Obama
to create a national mon-
ument in a vast area in
Southeast Oregon known
as the Owyhee.
It’s a vast, rugged sage-
brush steppe landscape
with red rock canyons and
unusual geology. But the
proposal faced fierce re-
sistance from ranchers and
other locals in Malheur
County. At the end of his
term, the Owyhee was left
off of Obama’s list of new
and expanded monuments.
But the specter of a
monument
designation
may trigger groups on op-
posite sides to get together
and start a collaborative
plan for the Owyhee. Tim
Davis, with the grassroots
conservation group called
Friends of the Owyhee,
said he believes it’s pos-
sible to work with groups
that opposed the monu-
ment.
“If it was a collabora-
tive effort I think they’d be
willing to sit down at the
table and work it out,” he
said. “There are areas that
both sides can agree on for
protection. Jordan Craters,
for example. It’s a big lava
field. Why not start there?”
This wouldn’t be the
first time that a potential
presidential
designation
has spurred monument
opponents to come to the
table. On the Idaho side of
the Owyhee, the possibili-
ty of a national monument
designation by President
Bill Clinton kick-started a
decades-long collaborative
process between conserva-
tionists, off-road vehicle
groups, ranchers and the
government. The effort led
to new wilderness and wild
and scenic river designa-
that dialogue to ensure
that the people who
know and love this place
Ore.
BAKER
have their voices heard,”
Fenty said.
26
Although there’s no
official
collaborative
Proposed national Ontario
52
process
in
the
works yet,
conservation area
groups
that
opposed
the
Nyssa
30
monument have hinted
e
that they’d be willing to
have such conversations.
78
“We’re still kind of
in awe that we made it
past the national monu-
ment designation,” said
Jordan
Malheur County rancher
Valley
Elias Eiguren, a spokes-
Burns
man for the Owyhee
Junction
Basin Stewardship Co-
95
alition. But with the
threat of a monument be-
hind them, he and other
ranchers have been busy
Ore. McDermitt
with calving season.
Nev.
N
95
“Spring work is hit-
20 miles
ting
us in the face,” Eig-
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
uren said. “We’re trying
to just hold together at
tions in 2009.
this point and really decide
A similar process led to where we need to go from
the Steens Mountain Coop- here.”
erative Management and
Eiguren said he’s yet
Protection Area in south- to see a federal desig-
east Oregon in 2000. And nation that improved a
more recently, the possibil- landscape. He’d like to
ity of an Obama designa- focus on what he sees as
tion in Central Idaho led to the biggest threats to the
the hastening of a Repub- Owyhee: invasive weeds
lican-championed wilder- and major wildfires. But
ness area for the Boulder he wouldn’t necessarily
White Clouds mountains.
try to block a wilderness
But there’s no exact for- designation, depending
mula for getting diverse on the circumstances. He
groups together in the said that any collabora-
wake of such proposals.
tive process would need
“Each place is unique,” to start with assuranc-
said Brent Fenty, executive es from environmental
director of the Oregon Nat- groups that litigation is
ural Desert Association. off the table.
ONDA has been talking
“I don’t know that
about wilderness designa- a wilderness designa-
tions for the Owyhee for tion wouldn’t necessarily
more than a decade, and change what is out there
Fenty said his group plans already so I wouldn’t nec-
to hold town hall meetings essarily understand the
across the state to further purpose of that,” he said.
the conversation.
“But if somebody had to
“That’s what we’re fo- have that, there’s always
cused on — continuing that possibility.”
Area in
detail
Ow
By Amanda Peacher
Oregon Public Broadcasting
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
While lawmakers are
now likely negotiating
the state’s budget behind
closed doors, Oregonians
may have a better idea of
what to expect once state
economists present the
quarterly revenue forecast
in mid-May.
Legislators are required
to pass a balanced budget,
but face an approximately
$1.6 billion shortfall be-
tween what the state ex-
pects to bring through the
general fund and lottery
funds, and what it would
take to maintain existing
services.
Between those two
funds, available revenue
is expected to be about
$20.99 billion, according
to the most recent quarter-
ly revenue forecast, which
was issued in February.
According to Sen. Rich-
ard Devlin, D-Tualatin, one
of the co-chairs of the Joint
Ways and Means Commit-
tee, which writes the state’s
budget, the forecast that
comes out May 16 gives
budget writers “the most
accurate picture” of what’s
to come, once most income
tax returns have been fi led.
The state’s general fund
is largely sourced from in-
come taxes; the deadline to
fi le is April 18.
With both budget cuts
and new taxes still in the
realm of possibility — and
with both options imbued
with political consequenc-
es — Oregon lawmakers
could turn to a strategy
they’ve tapped in the past:
establishing a bicameral
“super committee” to ham-
mer out big-ticket policy
items.
Such super committees,
though not common, have
emerged in prior legislative
sessions. They can form
when legislators think it
could “help break down
some of the institutional
barriers” between the Ore-
gon House and Senate, said
Jim Moore, professor of po-
litical science and director
of the Tom McCall Center
for Policy Innovation at Pa-
cifi c University.
Such a mega-committee
could include party leader-
ship from both sides of the
aisle from each chamber,
and possibly members of
key policy committees —
such as healthcare or edu-
cation — Moore said.
But if the legislative ses-
sion starts Feb. 1, why isn’t
there more public informa-
tion about what the budget
will actually be until three
months later?
“When you come out
with a budget, you’re, in
effect, making promises,”
Moore said. If not all of
them can be kept, lawmak-
ers “just don’t want to go
that far.”
Oregon passes its bud-
get in increments, with the
biggest components of the
budget typically coming
first.
Once the most signif-
icant pieces of the budget
are passed — such as ed-
ucation, public safety and
human service programs
— budgets for smaller
agencies and programs fall
into place, Moore said.
This session, lawmak-
ers are also trying to craft
a transportation funding
package. Health care costs
are another significant
challenge for the state as
the federal government
gradually tapers its support
to states for the Medicaid
expansion.
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Attention Grant County Veterans:
Did you know Grant County Veterans
Services Officer is available to assist
YOU in applying for all VA benefits
you may be entitled to?
See your Grant County Veteran Services
Officer today for more information,
located at Grant County Court House.
Jeff Wilcox
Attend a Rocky Mountain
Elk Foundation Dinner
and Benefit Auction
Where fun and fund-raising combine for a
memorable evening.
Date:
Time:
Saturday, April 22
4:00—Doors open
5:30—Dinner
7:30—Auction
Place:
Pavilion—
Grant County
Fairgrounds
195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day, Oregon
Ticket Information:
Gale Wall (541) 575-2661
05506
05172
A great time for a great cause.
Proceeds benefit elk and other wildlife.
L EGISLATIVE
B RIEFCASE
Bills would relax
Oregon land
use rules
Multiple bills aim to relax
restrictions on building homes
and businesses in Oregon’s
rural areas, but they face short
lives unless lawmakers soon
take action.
Exemptions to Oregon’s
statewide land use planning
system would give local
governments more fl exibili-
ty under the fi ve bills, which
received a hearing April 6
from the Senate Environment
Committee.
• Senate Bill 432 would
allow local governments to
create land use plans with-
out complying with state-
wide goals as long as they’re
in counties with fewer than
50,000 people and haven’t
grown since the previous fed-
eral census.
• Senate Bill 602 would
allow local governments to
waive land use requirements
to create a fi ve-year supply
of “shovel ready employment
sites.”
• Senate Bill 608 would
allow local governments to
expedite the growth of urban
growth boundaries if they
meet certain criteria for pop-
ulation growth.
• Senate Bill 612 would al-
low local governments expe-
riencing unemployment and
poverty to take an exception
from a land use goal if it cre-
ates at least fi ve jobs paying
four times the federal poverty
rate.
• Senate Bill 618 would
allow local governments to
waive a land use goal in the
event of a “land use emergen-
cy.”
As deadline
looms, no clear
PERS plan has
emerged
With a legislative deadline
less than two weeks away, it’s
not yet clear what legislators
may propose this session to
reduce the costs of the state’s
public pension system.
The chair of the senate
committee vetting proposals
that would affect the Pub-
lic Employees Retirement
System said Wednesday that
there is no specifi c policy pro-
posal edging out others.
“Right now, I would say
that all of them are up for
discussion at this point,” Sen.
Kathleen Taylor, D-Portland,
said. “That’s the climate that
we’re in, we’re still talking
about all of the different pro-
posals.”
Committees vetting policy,
such as the Senate Workforce
Committee, have to schedule
work sessions on bills by Fri-
day. April 18 is the last day
bills can move out of commit-
tee in the chamber where they
are proposed.
As of Wednesday evening,
some proposals that have tak-
en center stage in the public
process in the fi rst two months
of the legislative session —
such as capping the salary
amount used in calculating
benefi ts to $100,000, or cal-
culating an employee’s fi nal
average salary over fi ve rather
than three years — were not
scheduled for a work session,
according to the state’s legis-
lative information system.
New hurdle
proposed for
solar projects
on high-value
farmland
Solar power facilities on
high-value farmland in Ore-
gon would have to clear a new
hurdle under a bill being con-
sidered by state lawmakers.
Commercial developers
would fi rst have to demon-
strate that alternative sites
aren’t available under House
Bill 3050, a requirement that
currently applies to solar fa-
cilities larger than 12 acres.
Proponents of the bill say
the new test would discourage
conversion of the state’s most
productive land.
Critics of the bill countered
that the new requirement is
overly broad and ignores ex-
isting rules that protect farm-
land.