Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Sweet Home City Council approved a resolution on Dec. 11 authorizing the OSU Extension Service to form a taxing district in Linn County and impose a property tax of 7 cents per $1,000 of valuation on Sweet Home.
The tax would become what’s called a permanent rate, which takes precedence over temporary local option levies when reducing property taxes to limits imposed by Measure 5, passed by voters in 1990. Local option levies are used to fund Sweet Home Police Department, the Sweet Home Public Library and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. When taxes are reduced by Measure Five, it is called “compression.”
The proposed tax would cost property owners $7 per year on a $100,000 home or $14 on a $200,000 home.
The Extension Service asked the county assessor to calculate the likely impact to Sweet Home’s local option levies, City Manager Craig Martin said. The service reported to him that the total annual compression effect under current property values would be $447 for the library levy and $4,634 for the police levy.
The current library levy is projected to raise a total of $673,000 and the police levy $6.95 million over the four-year lives of the levies.
The proposed district is scheduled to appear before city and county voters on next November’s ballot.
Funding for the Extension Service has traditionally come from a variety of sources. Extension agents and OSU faculty members are funded by state and federal dollars. Support for office space, secretaries and supplies have been provided traditionally by county general fund dollars. A variety of grants support special projects.
Linn County has traditionally received a significant amount of its operating dollars through revenue-sharing agreements with federally managed timberlands, according to the Extension Service’s feasibility study. Timber harvest levels on those lands have declined by more than 90 percent since the late 1980s, reducing payments to the county.
“This loss of funding was offset for a period of time by the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act of 2000,” the study said. “The act expired in 2006, leaving Linn County with the immediate prospect of a nearly 40 percent reduction in its county general fund income.”
A one-year extension of the act will merely forestall the inevitable, the study said, and Linn County will have to scale back expenditures, meaning a new source of operating funds must be secured if the Extension Service is to remain viable in Linn County.
In 2007, the Extension budget was reduced by 23 percent, $57,000. The proposed district would provide revenues of $360,000 the first year and $411,000 by the third year. Salaries would cost about $225,000 the first year and $234,000 the third year, with a total budget of $376,000 and $397,000 the first and third years.
“We’ve got a lot of people using our programs, but we don’t do a very good job marketing ourselves,” Robin Galloway of the Extension office in Albany told the council. Once cities pass their resolutions allowing the district to go onto the ballot, the Extension Service will need to complete a petition drive.
At that point, she said, the Extension will do a lot of advertising and marketing.
“Hopefully, we’ll get more people using our services,” she said.
As it is, the service is used by numerous groups throughout the county. Several persons, representing a cross-section of Extension programs appeared before the council in support of the district proposal.
Sudi Lamb told the council about the impact of the Extension’s 4-H programs on local young people. Milt Moran of Cascade Timber Consulting explained that 4-H popped up on almost every one of the 12 applications he saw during a job fair recently and that three of those applicants wanted to be doctors or nurses.
The Extension also works closely with small woodland owners, Moran said. Agents assist with the economics of the business, helping owners decide whether they can afford to operate, helping them find niche markets and even providing fire school.
Bud Baumgartner explained the Extension’s Master Woodland Manager and Master Watershed Steward programs, places where woodland owners can get information and advice about trees and forest management or stream restoration and fisheries education.
The Extension’s history in Linn County started in agriculture. In the early 1900s, the emphasis of the Extension’s education was to improve farming practices. Early work was to provide information about food preservation and canning to homemakers.
Agriculture is still a significant part of the program, and the Extension Service is responsible for supporting farmers growing grass seed, other specialty seed crops, livestock, vegetables, nursery crops and many products made by small-acreage farmers working in niche markets.
Linn County is one of the state’s largest agricultural counties, with a combined farm gate value of more than $282 million last year.
More than 200 adults volunteer to lead youth clubs throughout the county. Linn County has 120 master gardeners, many working at the Extension office to staff a daily clinic for gardening questions. The Extension office trains and supports a total of nearly 1,100 volunteers who volunteer more than 60,000 hours of service annually.
Programs of the Extension include 4-H, Master Gardeners, Master Woodland Managers, Master Watershed Stewards, Family Food Education Volunteer Program, small farms programs, Family Community Leadership, grass seed certification, livestock and forage programs and others.
The council voted 5-0 to approve the resolution. Voting yes were Jim Bean, Jim Gourley, Eric Markell, Scott McKee Jr. and Mayor Craig Fentiman. Rich Rowley was absent. The seventh council seat is vacant.