text: Under Oregon law, since very early times, (I can't tell you the exact date, but it was early) counties have been responsible for building and maintaining courthouses.  The State of Oregon pays the salaries of the judges and the staff.  This was a system of split costs.
  
  Then Klamath County lost its courthouse in an earthquake a while back and the citizens were unwilling to rebuild a new state of the art courthouse at their expense.  Klamath County was poor and underpopulated making an expensive courthouse impossible.  So the legislature had to fund most if not all of the cost of the new courthouse.
  
  This got folks in Salem thinking about the future of courthouses in Oregon and particularly funding for new construction.  It has been debated whether the state should assume full responsibility for the cost of new courthouses but the state cannot do so right now.  Without legislative approval for cost sharing, Lane County taxpayers will be liable for the entire $200 million courthouse cost