Madilynne Clark: House Water Resources bills assess double what's needed

By MADILYNNE CLARK

Of the Cascade Policy Institute

House Bills 2808 and 2165 seek to address the Oregon Water Resources Department budget shortfall of $875,000, but through different methods. Instead of choosing which one offers the best path toward good governance, the Legislature is saying, “both.”

HB 2808 would increase the permitting and licensing fees for wells. HB 2165 would provide an $830,000 increase in funding to OWRD from the general fund.

Initially proposed as a one-or-the-other approach, the current recommendation from the committee is that both bills are needed, with no downsizing.

The solution addressed by these bills is critical to the one-in-four Oregonians relying on domestic wells. But well owners, not taxpayers, should pay for increased employment costs at OWRD.

Permit fees are a means of ensuring the agency can meet its fiscal responsibility to process applications, versus relying on a one-time bailout from the general fund that has no statutory requirements for processing applications.

When fees are required by law, project beneficiaries should pay the price, not taxpayers. Fee increases should be permitted only when agencies can show increasing employment costs, increasing demand for processors and lack of any agency rulemaking impediment creating obstacles to processing.

In the case of Water Resources, funding increases are needed. But they should come from landowners wanting a new well, not unsuspecting taxpayers already paying their own monthly water bills.