Oregon counties get big present

By JULIA SILVERMAN - Associated Press
Monday, June 25, 2007 10:34 AM PDT

SALEM — It looks like an early Christmas for Oregon’s 36 counties this year.

They are by far the biggest recipients of legislative largesse in what’s commonly referred to as the ‘‘Christmas tree bill,’’ the catchall spending measure that heralds the last days of a legislative session.

Action on the bill was pending in both houses Saturday.

The counties will divide $56.2 million in a one-time distribution from the state highway trust fund, intended in part to make up for potential federal cuts to a program that compensates counties for timber revenue lost because of endangered species regulations.

Counties that once depended heavily on the timber revenues have had to cut back public safety, library and judicial programs. The money won’t be divvied up on a per-capita basis.

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Timber rich Douglas County will get $7.3 million, and neighboring Lane County is slated for $9.8 million.

But even counties not usually timber-reliant, like Multnomah County, will get something, and each county will get at least $400,000. But the counties must account for how they spend it to the 2009 Legislature. The payout still leaves about $170 million unspent, said Rep. Mary Nolan, co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means committee, which puts together the state’s budget.

Most of that is slated for a rainy day fund, leaving only about $25 million unspent, Nolan said.

The final spending bill is sprinkled with other projects, $1 million here, $200,000 there, symbolic of the frantic horse-trading that often characterizes the end of a session.

Inclusion of a legislator’s pet project in the final appropriation bill can influence a legislator’s decision on future close votes or help insulate those who might face re-election problems.

There was, for example, $175,000 for the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in Charleston in the district represented by Democrat Arnie Roblan, who could face stiff competition in 2008.

And it provided $50,000 for a Umatilla Basin Study in the district of Rep. Bob Jenson, R-Pendleton, a moderate who can sometimes votes with Democrats.

Other funding included $2.8 million for the Oregon Historical Society, $1 million for the state arts commission and $1.8 million for the secretary of state’s office to pay for a special election next November to vote on changes to Oregon’s property rights law and on raising the cigarette tax to pay for an expansion of children’s health insurance.