QuickTake:

Lane County officials support a bill that would give county assessors more funding for property tax collection efforts. Oregon county officials say additional resources are needed so they can collect more revenue.

Lane County officials — and other counties across Oregon — want lawmakers to pass a bill that would provide more funding for county property tax collection work.

House Bill 3518 would increase the portion of recording fees that pay for the work that counties do in assessing and collecting property taxes from $10 to $19 per transaction. Most of that would go directly to county assessment and taxation work and that portion of the fee would be adjusted annually for inflation. Under the bill, $10 million in state funding would go to counties.

Lane County officials say they need the resources so they can collect all of the revenues owed and distribute them to local agencies that rely on property taxes to serve residents. 

“We believe we’ve got support to move that forward,” Steve Adams, Lane County’s policy director, told the county budget committee in a work session Thursday. 

Lane County leaders say the changes would provide more resources to beef up staffing, which has trended downward even as the number of property tax accounts has increased. Staffing for Lane County assessment and taxation functions fell in 2012 from 60 to 48 positions, where it stands today. Since 2010, the county has added more than 7,000 property tax accounts. 

“Underfunded assessment and taxation functions leave tax revenue uncollected, and property records outdated,” Lane County Assessor and Tax Collector Mary Vuksich-Shafer said in submitted testimony to the Legislature’s House Committee on Revenue in March.

The tax revenue collection and distribution work is wide-reaching. In Lane County for this fiscal year, collected tax revenue is $720.9 million in tax revenue, which goes to 85 individual tax entities, including the county, cities, park districts and fire districts. 

That work also includes ensuring that businesses file personal property returns on their assets, which include furniture and other equipment. A county outreach project to potential new businesses that had not filed a personal property return led to the creation of nearly 500 accounts. 

According to the Oregon Association of Counties, the fund that pays for county assessment and taxation work has gradually covered less of that work. In 35 years, the fund has gone from covering 36% of the costs to 12%, creating a gap that county funding cannot sustain, the association said in its testimony. 

As Lane County looks to bridge a $6.5 million gap in the next fiscal year, all departments, including assessment and taxation, face reductions,  Vuksich-Shafer wrote in testimony. 

Lane County officials, from District Attorney Chris Parosa to county commissioners, also are putting their support behind the bill. It comes as local governments countywide face tight budget environments with limited ways to raise revenue to offset rising costs and the impact of inflation.

“This investment would improve fairness, increase local tax revenues, and ensure stable funding for essential public services,” East Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch said in a submitted testimony to the Legislature.

The bill is still before the House Revenue Committee.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.