MAY 12, 2017
FRUSTRATING WEEK
As far as
the official activities in the Senate this week there is not a whole lot to
report on. For the most part our floor sessions were taken up with House
bills that came over to us with nearly unanimous votes and passed in the Senate
with similar numbers. We are starting to see a few of the budget bills,
but for the most part these are bills where most the money comes from federal
funds or a category called “other funds.” Historically other funds are
something we spend little time on as our focus tends to be on general funds, or
tax revenue. A significant portion of other funds is made up of fees,
licenses and other ways government takes money from businesses and
citizens. The legal difference is a matter of definition and how the
Legislature has chosen to categorize various components of the funding
stream. Simply put taxes require a super-majority vote while all other
things only require a majority vote.
I have asked
for a breakdown of all components of other funds so we can truly know the full
amount of money Oregonians are paying to run state government. Over the
course of time the Legislature has forced many agencies to be to a large degree
“self-funded,” which means they need to derive most of the money they need to
operate from those who they have jurisdiction over. There are over 400
different licenses the state requires for various activities, and for some
areas multiple licenses are required. Each license requires a fee and in
some cases those fees are substantial, and they tend to be increased on a
regular basis. My point here is we need to know the full extent of the money
the state is taking and not be focused just on taxes.
It is time
we shifted our focus from budgeting based on desired spending, to one based on
outcomes and sustainability. In a previous newsletter, I talked about the
fact, with the current budget proposal we will have increased the cost of
government by 50% in just 10 years. We also need to look toward the
future. At this rate, six years from now we would need to increase taxes
by an additional 8 billion dollars. We are on a trajectory by which the
state will go broke. It is time we put some serious efforts into cost
containment and finding ways to make government more efficient.
Unfortunately, the way we are doing things currently, we are defining a 14%
increase in spending as a cut. IF the majority party’s main objective is
to continue to increase the size and scope of government, and it is clear
looking at their proposal what their intention is, I am not sure how we can
ever get to the levels of accountability the people deserve from the
Legislature.
I am
expecting tax proposals to start surfacing within the next two weeks, and it
will be interesting to see what political spin will be put on them. We
will very soon start running out of time, so things should start getting “real”
soon. I am still hopeful we can do something substantial in government
efficiencies, but my hope at this point is not very strong.
Sincerely,
Senator Jeff
Kruse
email: Sen.JeffKruse@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1701 address: 900 Court St NE, S-205, Salem, OR, 97301 website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kruse
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