Two of Oregon’s largest counties have asked a court to throw out a new state formula giving more addiction recovery and treatment funding to rural areas.
Attorneys for Washington and Clackamas counties argued in a petition filed Tuesday that a state advisory council failed to provide the public with adequate opportunity for comment when it rewrote the formula guiding how it distributes a total of $427 million in grants that will be available through 2029. As a result, they argue, they were blocked from giving input.
The legal filing is the latest in the back-and-forth over how to distribute grant money from cannabis taxes set aside by Measure 110, the voter-approved drug decriminalization measure that lawmakers have scaled back while leaving the new funding stream in place.
The changes to the funding formula, which were approved by the council in July, would mean highly populated Washington and Clackamas counties receive grant amounts comparable to counties half their size. The petition contends the council, which is part of the Oregon Health Authority, did not follow the state’s rulemaking process.
Sidestepping that process denied the counties and others the chance to have their “concerns about inequities in the grant distribution formula heard and possibly addressed,” the counties argued.
The petition asks the Oregon Court of Appeals to review the council’s actions. The health authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Lund Report.
As part of the overhaul of Measure 110 earlier this year, Oregon lawmakers directed counties to set up “deflection” programs that are intended to steer people arrested for possession of drugs into treatment.
Clackamas County Chair Tootie Smith wrote to the council in August asking it to reconsider the funding formula, calling it disproportionate and “deeply alarming.” She also wrote that it would affect the county’s ability to set up its deflection program.
The oversight council voted last week to clarify its position that the funding formula is a guideline and it will make decisions in response to “new information that becomes available.” That can include funding that is available and requests by applicants.
