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Rep.
Richardson's Newsletter
May 8, 2009 Oregon Prepares for Final Budget Phase
Next Friday, May 15, 2009, will be an important day here in the Legislature. It is the day the long awaited May 2009 Revenue Forecast will be released. The May Revenue Forecast will set the level of funding available for Oregon’s 2009-11 biennial budget. Once the Legislature has “the number” the Ways & Means Co-Chairs will release their budget, and the political fireworks will begin.
Since this is the final newsletter before budget discussions begin in earnest, it is an opportunity to clarify some key issues relating to balancing the Oregon State Budget. Oregon state spending has increased more than 40% in the past decade.
As stated in a previous newsletter, the cost of running the State of Oregon is determined in a two-year (biennial) balanced budget. Such a balanced budget is constitutionally required, and expenditures must be balanced with anticipated revenues. The cost of government increases every biennium as a result of inflation, expanded use of government programs and services, increases in salaries and benefits for state workers, etc. For purposes of comparison, the General Fund & Lottery (GF&L) budget for 2005-07 was $12.425 billion; the legislature approved GF&L budget for 2007-09 was $15.131 billion (a 22% spending increase in just two years). Such an increase of spending was based on an overly-optimistic revenue forecast that has failed to materialize. Therefore, the $15,131 billion figure has now been reduced by nearly $900 million. In preparing for the current session of the Legislature, the Governor presented last December the 2009-11 Governor’s Recommended Budget (GRB). Unfortunately, the GRB was referred to by the Governor as a “policy budget,” and he chose not to balance his GRB to actual forecasted revenue levels. In fact, the GRB included vastly expanded health care coverage programs that would be impossible to implement without multiple substantial tax increases. Therefore the GRB was not of much value to this session’s legislature, and was replaced for legislative consideration by what is known as the Essential Benefit Level (EBL) budget. The EBL for 2009-11 supposedly represents the amount of funding needed to maintain the current service level of state government for the next two years. It totals $16.749 billion and represents an 11% spending increase over the current 2007-09 budget. Unfortunately, in some ways, the EBL is no more reliable than the Governor’s Recommended Budget. For instance, the Department of Human Services pays Oregon’s largest hospitals at a rate that is 80% of cost level, yet in the EBL the figure used is 100% of the cost level. The difference between the actual amount of hospital payments and the rate placed in the EBL inflates the EBL by $48 million in GF&L and $146.5 million in total funds. These EBL expenditure figures are pulled out of thin air, so when I say they inflate the EBL, you know what I mean. In any event, there is no need to use creatively crafted figures from either the GRB or the EBL. With next Friday’s May Forecast, we will have a revised budget for the current biennium, and we will know what will be spent between now and the June 30, 2009 end of the current biennium. Therefore, it will be time for reasonable and responsible budgeting. We should set aside the political posturing and create a rational, sustainable and economical budget based on real numbers in the real world. Sincerely,
Representative Krieger grew up in Seaside, Oregon, where he attended Seaside High School, then studied for two years at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls. He then attended the Oregon Police Academy. After finishing his police training, Representative Krieger received a position in the Oregon State Police’s Game Enforcement Division, enforcing fish and wildlife law. He was stationed in the Gold Beach area and has lived there ever since. Representative Krieger worked for the Oregon State Police for almost 28 years.
Notwithstanding his career with the State Police, the catalyst for Rep. Krieger’s involvement in state politics was his tree farm. Representative Krieger and his wife Colleen own a tree farm and cattle ranch between Port Orford and Gold Beach. In the early nineties, he and his wife received much recognition for the tree farm. They won both the Oregon and National Tree Farmer of the Year Awards. Because of this success, Governor Barbara Roberts asked Wayne to sit on the Oregon Board of Forestry. He also served on the Governor’s Water Enhancement Board, the Landslide Task Force, and the national Forest Industries Council on Taxation.
In 2000, Representative Krieger agreed to run for state representative and won, and has served in the Oregon House ever since. He is currently serving on three committees. Representative Krieger is vice-chair of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Communities Committee and sits on the Consumer Protection and the Judiciary Committees.
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