Raw numbers tell state budget story
For lawmakers it is a day-to-day funding juggling act
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:24 AM PDT
ONTARIO — As usual, it all comes down to numbers.
Numbers linked to dollars.
How much the Oregon Legislature is short regarding its effort to balance the current state budget depends on which figures a person uses as a starting point.
The final judgment also depends on whether an interested individual views those numbers through the prism of the “essential budget level” or the legislative adopted budget.
In other words, it is a budget potpourri — pick the number you like best and go with it.
“The numbers are quite different,” Oregon House of Representatives District 60 lawmaker Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, said Friday morning.
No matter what number a person chooses, though, the bottom line is the same, Bentz said.
“There is going to be a shortfall in the budget,” he said.
Facing the Legislature up front is the need to balance the budget for the current biennium. Having already reduced the current budget by more than $850 million, the Ways and Means Committee still needs to find another $351 million in savings.
The Ways and Means Committee budget projects a deficit of about $4 billion, which Bentz said was based on 2008 numbers. A Republican proposal is based on the legislatively-adopted budget approved in 2007 for the current biennium and while there will be cuts, there will be none in education.
In other budget news, a proposal to increase revenue in transportation will only offer partial relief to owners to farm trucks.
The transportation bill proposed will raise the gas tax by 6 cents per gallon, Bentz. The increase will cost the average motorist about $36 dollars more a year, he said.
Bentz was unsuccessful in an effort to stop an increase in registration fees on farm trucks. The transportation bill proposed an increase of $16 for registering a vehicle. Bentz pushed for an exemption for farm trucks because they are only used for three or four months a year. What was achieved was that farm truck owners will see an $8 increase in registration fees.
“It was a real battle,” Bentz said.
Also, in the bill is more funding for transportation projects including funds for Ontario, to make improvements on Washington Street, Malheur County, to upgrade Lytle Boulevard, and funds for Nyssa and Vale projects.
