Jackson County Democrats

The February 20th news that Oregon’s revenue shortfall for 2009-2011 could climb over $3 billion was a stunner!  Already Rep. Peter Buckley and his colleagues are constructing a budget to take this bad news into account.  (Lest we forget, if it had been up to Democrats, the $1.1 billion sent out in late 2007 as ‘kicker’ refunds would be available in reserve now. 

As House Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Ways & Means, Peter has his work cut out for him. His committee held public hearings and began exploring budget options throughout February. After sending their recommended changes in this year’s budget to the Governor in March, they will prepare the 2009-2011 budget proposal for public review in April.  What should that proposal look like?

According to Chuck Sheketoff of the Center for Public Policy (OCPP), the silver lining in our dark cloud is that by adroit timing in the use of available funds, Oregon’s fiscal crisis can be managed to protect those Oregonians in harms way. He argues for fast and bold action!  

Sheketoff warns that Oregon’s modest reserves aren’t enough to prevent cuts in the necessary services in health care, education and public safety that would occur if we did not take immediate steps to optimize revenues we can expect.  Here is his bold plan:

Because all Oregonians, particularly the most vulnerable, need help now, deep cuts would only prolong the downward economic spiral. The forecast makes clear the state’s two reserve funds [the Rainy Day Fund and the Education Stability Fund] are too small to fix the problem next biennium, so they should be used this biennium - that is before June 30^th - until $873.2 million in available federal stimulus funds are forthcoming.  The 2009-2011 biennium is the time to raise tax income from very high-income Oregonians and large, profitable corporations. This is both fair and economically sensible; they were the big winners in the last period of economic grown, and targeted tax increases would only affect those among them that are still doing well during this economic storm.  And creating a revenue stream from available revenues preserves critical programs, even if parts of them must endure partial cutbacks in spending.  Read the attached pdf (below) of the numbers involved. Let Peter know what you think of this proposal.

Peter Buckley agrees that the dilema is when to use available one-time funds, and cautions that even using all the remaining funds in the next budget will leave the state far short of needed revenues.  That is why asking Oregonians to vote to remove the infamous "kicker" from the constitution is once again under consideration. 

*Sources:  Rep. Peter Buckley’s 2/10/newsletter; Chuck Sheketoff @Oregon Center for Public Policy