Back To Basics Will Solve Budget Crunch

By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
Published in the Central Oregonian, November 2002

With the November general election over, one thing is clear: Oregon voters are in no mood for additional taxes, and the outlook for the income tax measures to be voted on in January is grim. Among legislators gearing up for a January session, the talk has turned increasingly to the question of how best to proceed with budget cuts, which appear increasingly inevitable.

Exactly how the newly elected governor and the legislature are supposed to undertake this task, they don’t seem to know. Everyone seems to agree that preserving funding for schools is a priority, but beyond that, we’ve heard no concrete ideas.

The problem is enormous. If the income tax measures fail, the Legislature will need to identify an additional $482 million in cuts in the state’s budget. That’s on top of the $560 million cut during the last five special sessions. I suppose it could be done easily enough if all the legislators would agree among themselves that none of them are going to run for re-election. But let’s face it: That’s not going to happen. So they need a roadmap to figure out where to go next.

Such a roadmap may well be provided by a report issued this past summer by the National Association of State Budget Officers. The annual report examines how much 49 states (Alaska isn’t included for some reason) spend each year. You can find it yourself on the web at http://www.nasbo.org/. The current report reflects a categorized breakdown of expenditures by state in fiscal year 2001, listing the percentage of each state’s expenditures for education, higher education, public assistance, Medicaid, corrections, transportation and “other.”

In the Oregon column, the source of this state’s budget problem appears pretty quickly.

We make our best showing in the rankings in funding for public assistance (what we used to call welfare, before that term was deemed demeaning). Oregon ranks 17th in the nation in this category. In funding for corrections and higher education, the state ranks about the middle of the pack at 20th and 23rd respectively. Those are the “good” numbers, and then the bottom drops out.

In funding for Medicaid, Oregon ranks 42nd. In funding for elementary and secondary education, Oregon ranks 47th. In transportation, nobody underspends us. Oregon ranks dead last: 49 of 49 reporting states.

These aren’t good measures by any standards, but fortunately, there is one category in which Oregon shines. We Oregonians can take pride in the fact that we rank first in the nation in the one remaining category. Oregon outspends all other states in the category, “Other.”

This category is a catch-all. It includes programs such as pension payments, health benefits for state employees, public health, mental health, environmental programs, parks and recreation, housing, and general aid to local governments. I suspect the reason these kind of expenditures are lumped together is because most people agree that these are not the core functions of state government. Admittedly, we want lots of things from government other than educating our kids, helping the needy, keeping criminals off the streets and maintaining the state’s road network. But these programs generally aren’t considered optional—except maybe in Oregon.

Could the root of our budget problem be that Oregon simply wants too much from its government and that we can’t bring ourselves to cut the fat in order to fund the essentials? Maybe the answer to our budget crisis is to recognize that if we are going to get back on track it will only be when we finally decide to get “back to basics.”

Here’s my suggestion when the legislature convenes in January. The Governor, the Senate and the House leadership need to take a step back and ask themselves: What are the priorities of Oregon (or any state)? Don’t talk about budget numbers just yet. Turn off the cell phones and pagers that allow special interest lobbyists to influence your common sense. Just talk about whether keeping the schools open, the jails operating, the needy fed and the roads clear is more important than funding for just over 48 percent of state programs that fall into the “other” category. I think you’ll find agreement.

Once that’s done, put the rest of the list in priority order. When that’s finished, start cutting from the bottom.

When you’ve lived beyond your means for as long as Oregon has, it’s hard to adjust your lifestyle to fit your income. But the bills have come due. Like any family faced with financial crisis, we have to decide what our priorities are.

These are the rules individual Oregonians must live by. The state should do no less.