Lane County voters to decide on levy increase for Extension Service 

Lane County voters will decide in May whether to support a levy that would provide guidance and programs to residents about how to garden, prepare nutritious food and learn about natural resources, forestry and more.

The ballot measure would support activities by the Lane County branch of the Oregon State University Extension Service. The service offers 4-H programs for youth and classes and information about gardening, agriculture and forestry.  Among other topics, participants learn about growing produce, pest management and how to make their land sustainable in cities, coastal communities and rural mountain towns. 

In Lane County, more than 450 volunteers work alongside 16 employees, including through satellite offices in Oakridge and Florence. Programs also reach rural communities such as Mapleton, Lowell and the McKenzie River valley.

“We’re very excited about the potential to expand our services even further across the county and to have an even deeper reach in the communities that we already serve,” said Richard Riggs, regional director of the OSU Extension Service.

The proposed levy for the OSU Extension Service is a five-year property tax levy of 5 cents for every $1,000 of assessed value. The amount is an increase from the current local option levy for Extension’s programs, which is 2.8 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. 

Lane County voters have a history of supporting Extension. The organization’s current levy, which 65% of county voters approved in 2021, is due to expire this year. That levy, like this proposal, was also a slight increase. Extension’s original five-year levy passed in 2016 with 70% support. It had a rate of 1.5 cents for every $1,000 of assessed value.

The new levy would cost a homeowner about $12.50 annually on a house with an assessed value of $250,000. In comparison, the current levy costs the same property about $7 annually.

The increase would help Extension increase its presence in the McKenzie River valley and open a third satellite office at the McKenzie River Discovery Center near Vida. That falls in line with how Extension has used levy funding in the past. After the 2021 levy passed, Extension opened satellite offices in Oakridge and Florence.

Those two offices each have a full-time staffer and the new levy would allow staffing to increase. Work at those locations includes a project helping the Oakridge School District develop a garden for students to learn about agriculture, nutrition and the environment.

The levy’s passage enables Extension to continue its work and grow.

“We would definitely keep all of our current services in place, and then we would be able to further expand our services,” Riggs said. “Right now in both Florence and Oakridge, we have one person in each of those offices full-time, and I think there’s enough community demand in those offices that we could at least expand to another half-time position, or even a full-time position.”

The levy increase would help the service reach more people who need help with forestry and small farms, Riggs said. The work helps people plan their forestry projects on smaller tracts of land, not industrial timber projects, and helps people plan out their land use for decades to come.

“We can help them figure out the best way to plant and what to plant,” Riggs said. “If they have woodlands already, we can help them figure out how to thin, how to manage that property, so that if they do decide to harvest it in the future, they get the best economic benefit from that. Or if they just decide they want to keep it for natural wood and natural habitat, we can help with those decisions as well.”

At its current rate, the levy is projected to generate nearly $1.5 million during this fiscal year, which ends June 30. If passed, the new levy would collect an estimated $2.4 million, or about $900,000 more in fiscal year 2027, according to preliminary estimates. That estimate could change, depending on property assessments and tax collection rates.