Courtney pushing for seismic upgrades to Oregon schools

More than 1,000 Oregon school buildings were found to have a very high or high risk of collapse during a major earthquake, but in the years since the 2007 study the state has granted money to only 25 locations for seismic upgrades.

That's a fact Sen. Peter Courtney, D-Salem, would like to change.

The Senate President plans to announce a proposed "dramatic increase in the bond funding" for grants Tuesday morning that would be used by local school districts to pay for safety upgrades to protect students and teachers during an earthquake.

Scientists say Oregon is guaranteed to have a major earthquake, called a magnitude 9 subduction zone earthquake, again — the question they can't answer is when. A subduction zone earthquake is when one tectonic plate slides underneath its neighbor.

The plates off the West Coast have shifted with enough force to shake Portland severly 23 times in the past 10,000 years. That averages to about one every 435 years with the last major quake occurring in 1700.

The 2007 Statewide Seismic Need Assessment estimated that making all the school buildings in Oregon seismically sound would cost nearly $10 billion.

Courtney's office didn't provide a specific amount he'd like to see spent, but during a meeting last week about the Capitol renovation budget Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualitan, said he'd heard a proposal for seismic upgrades to schools would be between $200 million and $300 million.

"That would be an entirely new responsibility that hasn't been done before," Devlin said. "The question is: If you open that door, how are you going to so define opening that door."

Overall infrastructure needs for Oregon's K-12 public schools could be as high as $20 billion, so using the state's bonds for these upgrades could teach schools to ask for bonds to make other upgrades.

Courtney's proposal also comes at a time when the Legislature is preparing to decide whether it wants to spend about $250 million on a three-year project to seismically upgrade the Capitol building.

If both measures passed in 2015, that would eat up a sizable chunk of the state's bonding capacity.

For these types of bonds, the Treasurer's Office usually limits the amount lawmakers can borrow to 5 percent of the general fund. In fiscal year 2013, that was about $781 million.

"I think we will have some very vivid or very intense conversations as to what we want to do," Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, told last week's budget committee. "If I was going to spend money, it would be to make sure kids have a fighting chance over on the coast."

astaver@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6610, or follow on Twitter @AnnaStaver