Oregonian spanks Oregon's congressional delegation

Apparently, our congressional delegation, mostly Democrats, have been asleep. While designing the big stimulus package, they lost touch with the need to provide stability to Oregon’s state government and the programs it funds. In an editorial titled “On schools, Oregon can’t just take a flier,” the Oregonian editorial board gives Oregon’s congressional delegation a good spanking, saying (here):

Interviewing members of the Oregon delegation last week after the partisan House vote on the stimulus, we didn't sense any urgency. They talked about politics, the process and some objectionable spending in the stimulus. But not one spoke to the imploding state budget, and none seemed in all that great of a hurry to head off school and prison closures and deep cuts to human services.

Sad and disappointing. Several weeks ago I wrote a BlueOregon comment on the house version of the stimulus package. Apparently, Oregon’s congressional delegation did not see it. I said:

I am for a big stimulus and soon. But this bill has gone through so fast that we, or at least I, do not even know its impact in Oregon. If we have to cut state funding so that teachers, professors, health care workers or police are laid off while we build roads, bridges and buildings, this bill will have been a mistake - as in pork for special interests rather than a carefully crafted bill. School district in Oregon should not have to be cutting back the remainder of this academic year. If so, we Democrats have failed.

I’ll admit I’m biased for stability in school funding in Oregon. I consider it a high priority. Not just because stability is good in itself, and it is. But because without it, the discussion does not easily move on to consider the strategic and transformational program I propose: more Mandarin (and other world language) and study abroad programs.

Here the full Oregonian editorial:

On schools, Oregon can't just take a flier

by The Editorial Board

Tuesday February 03, 2009, 4:12 PM

The list of possible school and prison cuts should propel Oregon's congressional delegation to action

That flier handed around the state Capitol on Monday describing a potential budget apocalypse, with Oregon schools closing their doors in May, and state prisons flinging theirs open about the same time, wasn't a scare tactic.

It was a cry for help.

The flier was a message meant first and foremost for Oregon's congressional delegation, the only seven people in a position to come quickly to the aid of this state. Otherwise, there isn't time, with four months left in the biennium, for the Legislature and Gov. Ted Kulongoski to close an $800 million hole in the budget.

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Reps. Kurt Schrader, David Wu, Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer and Greg Walden ought to find copies of these fliers on their windshields every morning until Congress approves a stimulus bill to help the states with their cratering budgets.

Interviewing members of the Oregon delegation last week after the partisan House vote on the stimulus, we didn't sense any urgency. They talked about politics, the process and some objectionable spending in the stimulus. But not one spoke to the imploding state budget, and none seemed in all that great of a hurry to head off school and prison closures and deep cuts to human services.

If Congress dallies, pushing passage of the stimulus and distribution of funds into March or April, it will leave the states with little time and few budget options. Oregon will be down to just two choices: Take those deep cuts outlined in the flier, including the school closures, or dig into its reserve funds knowing full well the money may be needed even more next year.

The bloggers and those boldly anonymous people who comment on Internet sites can hoot all they want about government scare tactics, but Oregon's budget crisis is real. The last time pundits shrugged off the prospects of deep cuts to human services and schools, at least one man died without his state-funded medicine, and schoolhouse doors clanged shut.

And this budget crisis is much worse than the last one. If Oregon has to balance its budget with no help from Congress, it would have to cut about 25 percent of what remains in each agency's budget. That's more than $300 million for schools, $200 million for human services and more than $100 million for public safety.

If necessary, we would argue for tapping some education reserves to ensure a full, or nearly full, school year. But the lawmakers, including Senate President Peter Courtney, who want to avoid that if at all possible, are right: Those reserves will be critically important over the next two years.

So it falls to Congress. With federal aid, Oregon can stagger through June 30 and into the next two-year budget, when there is more opportunity and flexibility to cut spending and services, and raise some targeted new revenues. But time is growing short. Oregon needs strong leadership from its delegation to Congress, and it needs it now.