County reports foreclosure outreach success, warns of staff impacts from HB 3940

In a briefing to the Board of Commissioners, the county administrator reported that a cross-department foreclosure working group reduced the number of occupied homes at risk from 14 to 0 this year by connecting property owners with resources or alternative supports.

The administrator also described operational impacts of House Bill 3940, passed by the state, which allows certain rural fire protection districts to assess taxes on larger portions of tax lots receiving Oregon Department of Forestry coverage. Implementing the law at the county level will require manual analysis and database updates for about 13,300 accounts and an estimated minimum of 700 staff hours spread across cartography, appraisal and tax-roll administration.

Staff said they will continue to bring unfunded mandates to the board's attention and commended the assessment-and-taxation team for taking on the extra workload. No budget action to fund additional staff was taken during the session.