Oregon legislators have reduced proposed fees for water rights transactions. Nonetheless, fees will increase by 50%. (Capital Press file photo)

Lawmakers have scaled back the fee increases proposed for many Oregon water rights transactions, though they’re still likely to get considerably more expensive.

As originally proposed, House Bill 2803 would have hiked fees by 135% for water rights transactions overseen by the Oregon Water Resources Department, which agriculture organizations strongly opposed as “exorbitant” and “astronomical.”

By dedicating $1.3 million in general funds to help cover an OWRD budget shortfall, lawmakers have tamped down the proposed fee hikes to about 50% without forcing the agency to lay off any water rights administrators.

The agency was facing a budget deficit primarily due to its costs per employee rising substantially in recent years, but hopefully fee increases of a similar magnitude won’t be necessary again anytime soon, said Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane.

“The cost to provide services for the government has gone up a lot faster than the revenue stream,” Owens said during a recent legislative hearing on HB 2803.

As many common water rights transactions already involve $6,000-$7,000 in fees, the planned increase of 50% is “still really big,” he said.

The amended version of HB 2803 is being reviewed by the full budget-setting Joint Committee on Ways and Means after recently winning the approval of a key natural resources subcommittee.

Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prinveville, was the sole lawmaker to vote against the bill and other water-related proposals before the committee, saying she’s troubled by the trajectory of rising fees for agricultural water users.

“The fee increases that were proposed, that puts my farmers and ranchers out of business,” she said. “I’m questioning why my industry is getting hit so hard.”

Apart from the water rights transaction fees, the subcommittee approved raising certain fees associated with well drilling by 10% to 40% and passed a $245 million budget for OWRD’s upcoming 2025-27 biennium.

Though the $245 million budget represents a 13.7% decrease from the agency’s previous biennial budget, much of that reduction is due to the expiration of one-time funding aimed at water supply projects.

Aside from that reduction, the approved budget represents a 6% increase over what’s necessary to maintain OWRD’s current service level.

Along with proposed policy bills intended to streamline agency procedures, the budget will help OWRD make progress in reducing backlogs of water rights transactions, said Ivan Gall, the agency’s director.

“The long-term return on this investment is going to be noticeable,” he said.

The subcommittee’s co-chair, Rep. Emerson Levy, D-Bend, said she’d prefer if the agency had a stronger level of confidence about improving its efficiencies.

“I would like a different word than ‘noticeable’ — ‘significant’ would be better,” she said.

Gall responded that he’d love to vow that progress will be significant but that certain factors are outside of the OWRD’s control.

“The number of applications coming in the door is one thing we can’t anticipate,” he said.