Committee advances HB 5041, approves Oregon Youth Authority budget and performance targets

Committee co-chairs on May 27, 2025 advanced House Bill 5041, the Oregon Youth Authority’s primary budget bill, approving the Legislative Fiscal Office recommendation and moving the measure to the Ways and Means full committee with a due-pass recommendation.

The Legislative Fiscal Office (LFO) reported the bill provides $518,812,257 in total funds for the Oregon Youth Authority, including $464,733,871 from the general fund, and funds 1,006 positions (977.01 full‑time equivalents). LFO said the package represents a 0.3% increase over current service level and “includes 2 reductions, 1 investment and 1 net 0 package,” noting the office would walk the committee through the specific adjustments.

The budget package funds operations across the agency’s divisions and contains several discrete changes. LFO told the committee that a net‑zero package converts supplies funding into five positions for vocational educational services and creates a position to support Project Pooch, a nonprofit dog‑training program for youth. LFO also reported a mandated‑caseload adjustment that produced a net decrease of $534,146 in general fund for the facilities division while producing a net positive caseload impact of $1,008,254 for the 2025–27 biennium. A program‑support package would add $2,244,166 for six positions to staff the agency’s professional standards office; LFO said that package includes $2,177,289 in general fund and $66,877 in federal funds. LFO said a $180,580 general fund reduction was applied to capital improvement line items to help balance the budget.

LFO also presented proposed key performance measure (KPM) targets for OYA. The office flagged two deliberate changes: lowering the runaways goal in community programs from 255 to 150, and setting the field youth‑to‑youth injuries target to 0 after several years of zero incidents. LFO cautioned the committee about apparent outlier values in some measures and said such drops often reflect data issues rather than sudden performance changes: "when you see an outlier number or all of a sudden a number kind of drops off a cliff, it tends to lead us to think that there was probably a problem," the LFO analyst said.

Jana McClellan, interim agency director for the Oregon Youth Authority, told the committee she was not sure why the agency did not have a KPM for youth‑on‑staff injuries and said adding such a measure could be appropriate during a broader performance‑measure refresh. "I don't have an answer as to why there might not be one," McClellan said.

Members spoke at length about leadership and operational concerns at the agency. One senator on the committee said, "we have serious concerns with OYA," and urged continued oversight; a co‑chair added, "This is one agency where it's not just an inconvenience when it doesn't work right. It actually can hurt kids." Committee discussion and the budget note emphasize tracking investigative backlogs and case processing times.

The subcommittee approved a budget note requiring the Oregon Youth Authority to report to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means during the 2026 legislative session (and again in September and in the 2027 session) on progress addressing reported cases and "prison **** elimination act" investigations, including statistics on any case backlogs, the time from report to investigation, the number of open cases and their status, and the impact of 2025 legislative investments on case resolution. The exact phrase used in the budget note in the transcript was "prison **** elimination act investigations."

Formal actions recorded during the work session were adopted by voice vote or without objection. The subcommittee accepted the LFO recommendation on House Bill 5041, approved the proposed KPMs and targets, adopted the dash‑1 amendment reflecting LFO totals ($464,733,871 general fund; $8,360,503 other funds; $45,717,833 federal funds; 1,006 positions; 977.01 FTE), and moved HB 5041 as amended to the Ways and Means full committee with a due‑pass recommendation.

The committee closed the work session after assigning floor carriers for the bill and scheduling upcoming work sessions for the Military Department and the Oregon State Police.