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--> --> Pesticide tracking funds delayed By Charles E. Beggs The Associated Press SALEM - Concerned about the state's bleak budget outlook, legislators moved Thursday to delay spending $265,000 on a new pesticide use reporting program that's supposed to start Jan. 1. A Legislative Emergency Board subcommittee said the state Agriculture Department's money request should be deferred to the panel's Jan. 31 meeting. The final decision is up to the full board, which handles budget requests between legislative sessions. Lawmakers plan to hold a special session by February to deal with a budget shortfall that could reach $600 million because of declining tax revenue. The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Ben Westlund, R-Bend, said a funding delay for the pesticide reporting system doesn't mean the reporting law passed in 1999 won't be implemented. "This is going to happen," he said, noting that the law gives the department until January 2003 to publish a summary of the reporting on pesticide use. But environmentalists are uneasy about any delay. "It doesn't seem to me to be a budgetary issue since this is such a small amount," said Laura Weiss of the Oregon Environmental Council. The 2001 Legislature allocated $1.4 million to the E-Board to fund the new program. The agency wants $265,000 of that money now to hire a consultant to develop the electronic system that farmers, commercial applicators and cities will use to report to the chemicals they use to kill insects or weeds, along with where, when and in what amounts they use them. Lawmakers are reluctant to part with any reserve funds because of the looming budget problems. "The prudent thing is to delay all requests until we have a little less foggy crystal ball," said Sen. Rick Metsger, D-Welches. Legislators will get an updated revenue forecast on Nov. 30. On a related topic, another subcommittee authorized spending $500,000 in Lottery revenue to study relationships between toxins in the Willamette River and fish deformities. Researchers at Oregon State University will do the study for the state Watershed Enhancement Board. Another subcommittee agreed, if grudgingly, to pay $93,500 in attorney's fees for an ethics investigation of three legislators that ended up being dropped by a judge. The state's ethics panel looked into whether Rep. Lane Shetterly, R-Dallas, Sen. Tom Hartung, R-Portland, and former Sen. Neil Bryant, R-Bend, broke any laws by accepting free airfare for their wives to accompany them to conferences in Palm Springs, Calif., and Hawaii. A Marion County judge in September dismissed the case, saying the commission failed to show any wrongdoing by the three lawmakers. Oregon law says the state must pay reasonable attorney's fees for public officials who prevail in lawsuits filed by the Government Standards and Practices Commission. The E-Board subcommittee voted to pay the $93,500 from the state's emergency fund instead of taking it from the commission's budget, but they complained about having to do so while facing fiscal problems. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing