By YachatsNews and Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Lincoln County School District and three others hit hard by September 2020 wildfires could get $25 million from Oregon lawmakers currently meeting in a special session.
The state distributes property taxes to public schools based on attendance. That means that when enrollment drops, so does the funding — even if the reason for the loss of students is a natural disaster.
Oregon lawmakers are advancing legislation – House Bill 4026 — that would temporarily tie funding for districts hit by wildfires to what their enrollment numbers were before the fires. The estimated cost of the wildfire relief is $25 million.
The Lincoln County School lost 94 students who moved out of the district after the Echo Mountain fire of Sepember 2020 swept through the community of Otis, destroying nearly 300 homes.
Other eligible districts are the Santiam Canyon School District in eastern Linn and Marion Counties, which was rocked by the Beachie Creek Fire; the Phoenix-Talent School District in Jackson County, which was devastated by the Almeda Fire, and McKenzie School District in eastern Lane County, where nearly a quarter of its students lost their homes in the Holiday Farm Fire
If the bill is approved, the Lincoln County district would get an additional $846,000 a year for five years beginning this year, according to school district officials. The district’s 2021-22 general fund budget is $75 million, $39.7 million of which comes from the state through property taxes.
Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, said hundreds of students in the Phoenix-Talent School District lost their homes.
“In the meantime, the school district is making Herculean efforts to reach out and stay in touch with families, including operating buses that go far beyond their normal routes,” said Marsh. “But because school funding is predicated on attendance, the district stands to lose millions of dollars in revenue during this period of critical rebuilding.”
Rep. Dave Gomberg, D-Otis and Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City are among the eight sponsors of HB 4026, which is now in the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. The House Revenue Committee voted unanimously to send the bill to Ways and Means, the legislature’s budget committee, where it awaits further action.
A similar measure died in that committee in the 2021 session.
“We found out on the day before the end of session that the bill had simply fallen through the cracks,” said Marsh. “We panicked, but we were assured by legislative leadership that we would pick up this again in 2022.”
