Rural policy office to close
Monday, March 24, 2008 10:19 AM PDT
SALEM (AP) — The state’s Office of Rural Policy will close four years after Gov. Ted Kulongoski inked it into existence.
When Kulongoski signed the order creating the office in 2004, he said it would help the state understand ‘‘the unique needs and issues’’ of rural Oregon. But some lawmakers openly questioned whether the office did much of anything.
Last year, the governor’s office asked for $400,000 to support the office, but the 2007 Legislature authorized only enough money to keep it running through March. With the economy now starting to sputter, the office will be cut.
Supporters said the office coordinates the formulation of policy and serves as a clearinghouse for information about issues that are of interest to rural Oregon.
The office is also a liaison between Salem and elected officials in rural communities.Those supporters say the office was never given a chance to succeed.
‘‘The office of rural policy in my opinion was set up for failure,’’ said Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day.
Ferrioli lays the blame on Kulongoski, saying he did not fight to keep the office open. But director Jim Azumano, the office’s only full-time employee, said such blame is misplaced: ‘‘He put it in his budget; he asked for the money.’’
Azumano recently released his office’s first, and final, report on rural Oregon, where the economic picture is not a pretty one. Timber-based economies are hurting because of a downturn in new home construction, and a federal payments program that delivers millions of dollars to 33 Oregon counties might not be renewed.
The Office of Rural Policy wouldn’t solve those problems, but rural leaders say they will miss having Azumano as an emissary. Rural politicians often complain how new state laws that might make sense in the Willamette Valley don’t work for them.
‘‘The biggest loss is to lose that voice in the governor’s office at the policy level to say, ’Wait a minute, what does this mean for rural Oregon?’’’ said Mike McArthur, a former Sherman County executive who now heads the Association of Oregon Counties.
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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com
