Wheeler Co. Court returns Oregon Leave Act to State

The Wheeler County Court will return a program designed at helping families in crisis to the state of Oregon after realizing it had a budget shortfall of $18,000.

The Wheeler County Court realized that it would be unable to facilitate the Paid Leave Oregon Act. The Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) and Paid Leave Oregon Act were merged last year.

Under the revised Paid Leave Oregon Act, a worker or self-employed person could be provided up to twelve weeks of time off a year due to the birth of a child, to do caregiving for a seriously ill family member, or other circumstances that were severe. Caregiving obligations in the law included needs for grandparents and extended family members and even people that are "like family members."

For self-employed people or those that do not have short-term disability insurance through their employer, the Oregon Family Leave Act promised financial stability during tough times. But the program has been mired in fraud and a long backlog of applications.

An avalanche of applications were made after the law took effect in September of 2023. Many people that filed claims never got a response.

Wheeler County had agreed to administer the program and saw it as a way to streamline the application process to local families and workers. But with the high costs to pay out, the county court realized that they could not pay for the high costs that were promised by the state.