State Budget On the Rocks

The state of Oregon’s finances is dismal.  The Governor has ordered across-the-board cuts and found out that it’s like using a D-8 Cat to take out a dandelion.  A very blunt instrument that has a lot of unintended consequences, like letting thousands of criminals out of jail.  A more surgical option requires the legislature to meet.

It takes me back to Oregon’s last recession, the one caused by the dotcom bubble bursting and the subsequent dive in the stock market and Oregon’s economy, from 2001 to 2003.

Remember when the Oregon Legislature convened in emergency special session five times to re-balance the state’s budget to continued decreases in revenue?  Simply said, I recall it in the context of the rings of hell described in Dante’s Inferno.  During those three dismal years, ox after ox was gored as we sought to balance the budget.  Votes got harder and harder to come by as everyone’s favorite programs felt the knife.  Wild eyed schemes that lacked a basis in law or generally accepted accounting principles abounded.  There were ten or twelve caucuses in the building at any one time.

Of those that stood in the center of the cyclone during those turbulent years, all of us but one has left the legislature.  The last man standing is Senator Peter Courtney, the mercurial master of the legislative process, and an amazing individual, who is the President of the Senate.

The Senator’s reluctance to rush to special session is understandable.  To pull 90 legislators together when they have nothing to do is asking for trouble.  Much better to come up with a plan first, make sure the votes are there to pass it, and then call the legislature in. 

Coming up with the plan is tough.  It takes a lot of sifting through a lot of detailed information to figure out what can be tolerated, what programs can be deferred, what reserves can be slimmed down, and thousands of permutations on that theme, the grunt work that makes the Senator crazy. 

Oregon’s economy is still faltering and we carry the track record of being last in and last out of recession.  Additional state revenue probably won’t be the balancer.  America is casting a very skittish eye at the federal debt and our congressmen have awakened to our discontent.  There may not be much help from the fed.

But, as Senator Courtney well knows, his only option is to balance the budget.
 

Susan always welcomes your questions or comments.  Please contact her by email at morgan@co.douglas.or.us; by mail at Douglas County Courthouse, Room 217, 1036 SE Douglas, Roseburg, 97470; or by phone at 440-4201.