Lane County voters to decide tax levy for OSU Extension funding

A Lane County homeowner with property assessed at $243,405 would pay $12.17 a year under Measure 20-380, the five-year levy voters will decide on May 19. The proposal would replace the expiring 2.8-cent tax with a 5-cent levy per $1,000 of assessed value, a modest household cost that would help keep Oregon State University Extension services in place across the county.

What voters would be buying is not a vague county program but a specific set of day-to-day services. OSU Extension says the money would continue and expand 4-H and other youth programming, technical help for farmers and woodland owners, emergency preparedness work, and natural resources education. It would also support volunteer-based programs including Master Gardener, Master Food Preserver, Compost and Pruning Specialist, Food Pantry and Master Woodland Manager, along with Food Safety and Preservation, Home Gardening, Livestock and Forages, Nutrition Education, Open Campus and Juntos, and Well Water.

The levy matters because Extension is not a small add-on to the county budget. OSU Extension says local county funds account for about 42% of its budget, while county funds make up about 60% of the overall funding mix. State money covers about 15%, federal money about 7%, and supplemental funding from grants, gifts and fees about 18%. The service also says it recorded 15,443 volunteer hours in 2025, a sign of how much of its reach depends on trained local residents rather than staff alone.

The countywide footprint has already grown under the current funding model. Since voters approved Measure 20-319 in May 2021 with 66.8% support, Extension says programming has expanded into Florence, Elmira, Deadwood, the upper McKenzie corridor, Lowell, Oakridge and Westfir. That means the question before voters is not whether Extension exists, but whether Lane County wants to keep and broaden access to it for another five years.

Lane County commissioners approved sending the measure to voters, and ballots for the 2026 primary election were mailed May 1. Master Woodland Manager volunteers alone logged more than 3,300 hours in 2024 and reached more than 25,000 people through educational events, landowner consultations and public outreach, a reminder that the levy would help sustain services many residents only notice when they need them most.