Today, the Oregon Senate Republicans released their "Back to Basics" Budget Plan, which is their alternative budget ahead of the state's May 15 revenue forecast (which will set the general fund budget funding levels for the next two years). Although light on details (though this does include numbers!), their budget shows their priorities quite clearly.
Cross-Posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/...
The Oregon Senate Republicans are legislatively in a very weak position, holding only 12 of the 30 seats in the chamber. With 18 seats, the Oregon Senate Democrats have the required 3/5 majority to pass tax increases (as do the House Democrats, with a 36-24 edge). Nonetheless, in an attempt to get some political points, the Oregon Senate Republicans have released their own budget ideas.
Before I do so, it is important to set the context. The State Legislature is making the assumption that we will have somewhere between $14-15B to spend in the general fund in the next two years. In order to maintain current service levels (known as the "Essential Budget Level (or EBL)"), the state would need about $16.5-$17B. This is actually a lower budget hole than we had in the last recession (when it was about $2.5B, or nearly 30% of the state's general fund budget at the time, we are at 15% down now).
So, going from the 15% reduction off the EBL (so remember that this does NOT restore the same funding level we had in the current 2007-2009 biennium but merely adds back some of the cuts), the Oregon Senate Republicans propose the following major changes:
Funding Increases: Their main increase is K-12, Community Colleges and Higher Education (increased by about $900M). These are good but more than a little misleading since a lot of this increase is in federal stimulus funds directed specifically to education.
The other increases are Natural Resources (Increased by $500M) and Economic/Community Development (Increased by $600M). I'm not entirely clear on how they would spend this money or what is would be directed to.
Funding Decreases:
Human Services (Down by $460M). This is where they get most of their decreases, which they claim come from finding efficiencies (whatever that means in their terms) and rescinding some pay increases the governor put in place last year (which were criticized at the time, particularly the ones for management). However, this is really an even bigger cut than it looks because many human services programs are funded based on federal matching, so the more the state spends, the more they get from the feds. The effect is thus doubled in many cases.
Public Safety (Down by $13M). Doesn't sound like a lot, does it? Well, it really is because we are trying to increase the size of the state police force and decreasing this further doesn't help. In addition, this limits the extent to which the state may be able to prevent cuts in local DA offices (Multnomah County, which is Portland, is looking at possibly losing as many 18 prosecutors).
So how do they fund it?:
Federal Stimulus Funds and the State's Rainy Day Fund are both used, as the Democrats do as well. The Oregon Senate Republicans reject all new taxes (there is a shock). What they do to get extra money is raid the Public Employee Retirement Fund and the Risk Assessment Account (which is designed to provide a contingency fund if the state gets sued). These will leave the state vulnerable to suits and will hurt public employees, which may well be their point. In any case, this shows what Republicans really value, trying to claim they are increasing education funding at the expense of the poor and of the interests of public employees.
Let me know what you think.