Dare we believe that our politicians are finally waking up to the economic realities the rest of us have been facing for the last several years?
Talk out of Salem in the last year has included a lot of phraseology involving terms like “reset” and “improve the way the state does business.”
Well, it’s about time.
Gov. John Kitzhaber unveiled his proposed budget on Feb. 1 and it appears he has remembered some of his campaign promises to find ways to tighten up spending that has put our state an estimated $3.5 billion in the red and over $26 billion in debt as the legislature ponders the governor’s proposals.
Among other things, Kitzhaber said during last year’s election that he would stabilize education funding and create a single unified state budget, that he would ask state employees to make cutbacks, that the state needs to change its heavy reliance on personal income tax for revenue and that Oregon needs to move away from the biennial system of budgeting now in use.
He has delivered on some of those points in his budget, introducing a spending plan that is balanced off existing revenue sources and includes a modest reduction in the highest-in-the-nation capital gains tax. It appears the governor has realized, along with many of the rest of us who have had to tighten our household spending, that red is not a beautiful color in finance.
His 2011-13 budget recommends “fundamental shifts” in service delivery and funding priorities to balance a $14.76 billion General Fund and Lottery budget severely impacted by the recession and the loss of one-time federal revenues, he says. Shifts include funding proven job creation programs, consolidating disparate early childhood programs and restructuring health care delivery to lower costs and improve the quality of care.
Without going into the nuts and bolts, which are visible at governor.oregon.gov/Gov/priorities/budget.shtml, we say this represents an improvement to the direction Oregon has been taking for much too long.
We can’t afford governmental policies that effectively discourage economic growth or drive businesses out of state. We can’t afford public services that are funded by a tax burden borne by people who work for a living in an economy in which 13 percent of the population isn’t working, period. We also can’t afford public schools, transportation, parks and other services that often pays too much for many goods and services and have too little accountability.
Both the governor and state legislators have been pretty vocal in stating the need for change.
“We must confront hard budget and spending choices. This budget marks the first step to long-term fiscal stability and health for Oregon,” Kitzhaber said in releasing his budget.
The Republicans and Democrats have both released their own agendas for the new session, which are heavy on (surprise!) job creation, education and health care csolutions.
Both have advocated figuring out new ways to expand the state’s timber industry by using woody biomass and both have lined up behind Kitzhaber’s proposals to streamline funding for Oregon’s K-12 public schools. The governor has further proposed improving early learning to an extent that “child enters school ready and able to learn, enters first grade ready to read and leaves first grade reading.” That has also drawn support from both sides of the aisle.
We are also happy to see our local Rep. Sherrie Sprenger going to bat for our district in a number of areas (page 9). After two terms in office, Sprenger, a Republican, is gaining traction in the Legislature and we hope she can swing some votes from the other side of the aisle to make her ideas work.
We particularly like her push for timber industry-friendly policies, which we hope will provide incentives for development of woody biomass industry and “wood-first” requirements for state-funded building projects. We’re surrounded by a valuable, renewable resource that should be tapped in a responsible manner.
Sprenger and her House Republican colleagues have introduced several bills that would put more money in the pockets of Oregon families by reforming Oregon’s income tax brackets and increasing the state’s per-child tax credit. Sprenger has also proposed two bills that would reform Oregon’s land use system to promote local control, which is critical to reverse some of the travesties instituted by urban voters.
Though it runs against the grain in Salem, where our legislators tend to think they and the state’s bureaucracy can make things happen better than everyone else, we believe the state would do well to follow the lead of states like New Jersey and Indiana, which have found serious savings in privatizing state and local services.
The state should privatize or localize all or some of its corrections systems, motor vehicle registrations and emissions controls, environmental protection inspections, Oregon Department of Transportation projects, state publishing services, job placement services, child support services and state parks maintenance.
We’re not expecting miracles here, and change will be painful, but we are encouraged by the apparent realization by our government leaders that it’s time to rethink the way Oregon does business.