DOR successfully completed reporting on nine budget notes from the 2017 session, which were a

legislative effort to seek improvements to the agency’s operations; however, the Legislature noted
continued interest in monitoring agency performance and outcomes. Lastly, DOR undertook a number of
organization changes to improve the tracking and transparency of the agency’s financial activities
including establishing a Corporate Tax Division and a Collections Division, among other changes.

Secretary of State
The Secretary of State’s total funds budget of $83.4 million is a 3.4% increase from the 2017-19
legislatively approved budget and a 6.5% increase over the 2019-21 current service level. The increase
over the current service level is largely due to the continuation of motor voter payments which were
included in the 2017-19 budget as one-time payments but are continued into the 2019-21 biennium
budget and to the addition of funding for pre-paid postage for election ballots. The adopted budget
includes $14.2 million General Fund, a slight 1.4% reduction from the previous biennium, and also
consists of $63.9 million Other Funds, $5.4 million Federal Funds, and 224 positions (223.42 FTE). The
number of positions is a 3.2% increase over the 2017-19 biennium approved level.

The budget includes the following agency-specific adjustments affecting General Fund support levels:
• $1,668,783 General Fund to pay postage costs for ballots returned by mail in all Oregon elections
during the biennium held on or after January 1, 2020; this funding is associated with the passage of
SB 861 and includes a special purpose appropriation to the Emergency Board of $1,146,094 in case
costs are higher than initially projected due to enhanced ballot return by mail.
• $879,248 General Fund for county costs associated with expanded voter registration rolls generated
by the Motor Voter program. Funding is essentially unchanged from the prior-biennium level; this
expenditure represents the third of a four-biennium phase-in.
• $336,696 General Fund for the establishment of two new limited duration Compliance Specialist 2
positions (1.75 FTE) to manually accept, review, and maintain lists of campaign finance filings,
answer questions, conduct investigations, oversee civil penalties and case hearings, and fulfill public
records requests associated with campaign finance changes in HB 2983.
• $197,841 General Fund for the establishment of a new Operations and Policy Analyst 2 position to
work with counties on the Oregon Centralized Voter Registration system and organize enhancement
requests by operating a call center help desk.
• A $75,000 General Fund reduction by eliminating the Oregon Motor Voter return letters and
replacing them with a postcard that does not have a return envelope option.
• $20,000 General Fund to enhance the Secretary’s ability to travel both in-state and out-of-state on
official business.

Principal Other Funds adjustments in the Secretary of State budget include:

• $727,933 Other Funds to add five Public Service Representative 4 positions for the Corporation
Division call center and for the Office of Small Business Assistance.
• $502,044 Other Funds to continue a limited duration Training and Development Specialist 2 position
as permanent and to add a new Principal Executive Manager C position as a Service Desk Manager
for the Network Operations Security Center.
• $500,000 Other Funds for phase three of the Archives Building compact shelving project.
• $500,000 Other Funds for increased merchant fees due to growing use of credit cards to pay for
report filing and business registration fees.
• $271,528 Other Funds to finalize the migration of business information systems to the Cloud.

2019-21 Budget Highlights

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