April 15, 2011:NWLP
4/12/11
10:17 AM
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Oregon budget shortfall
Labor scrambles to find ways to lessen state budget cuts
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
SALEM — Cuts are coming.
Teachers, jail beds, and aid to the eld-
erly are on the chopping block as the
Oregon Legislature haggles over the
state budget at a time of sagging rev-
enue and surging need.
Could the Legislature stop or slow
the cuts by raising revenue — taxes on
high-income individuals, corporations,
vacation homes, estates?
In a mock budget exercise on March
29, members of the non-profit public
affairs group Portland City Club tried
to balance the state budget. They con-
cluded it was common sense to enact
various revenue increases rather than
cut funds to health, public safety, and
education.
The union-supported public interest
group Our Oregon makes a similar ex-
ercise available at a new web site, ore-
gonbudgetpriorities.com. The site lets
you balance Oregon’s budget — with
41 spending cut options and 17 revenue
increase options — and watch your
progress as you whittle down the budget
shortfall. Participants overwhelmingly
opt for the revenue increases, said Our
Oregon spokesperson Scott Moore.
But constitutional roadblocks make
that harder to do in the state Legislature.
A constitutional amendment — which
itself passed in May 1996 with 55 per-
cent of the vote — requires a 60 percent
super-majority in the state senate and
state house to pass any tax increases.
[Spending cuts and
tax cuts, on the other
hand, can pass with
a simple majority.]
Politics make
any attempt to pass
a tax increase harder
still. Democrats oc-
cupy the governor’s
office and control
the Oregon Senate,
but the Oregon
House is divided 30-
30 between Democ-
rats and Republi-
cans. Not only is the
Republican House leadership not sup-
portive of revenue increases, but they’re
calling for capital gains tax cuts, and
proposing to set aside over $400 million
in reserves.
Three of the largest public employee
unions — Oregon Education Associa-
tion, Service Employees International
Union (SEIU), and American Federa-
tion of State, County and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME) — are criticiz-
ing the Republican leaders for that
“How can they
be reluctant to
tax the wealthy
when they’re
cutting the wages
of working-class
and middle-class
people?”
Local Motion
March 2010
A list of Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces deciding
whether to be union-represented – as reported by the National
Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board.
Voting in union elections
Date Workplace (Location) Union
Yes
No
6
1
3/1 West Valley Fire District (Willamina) IAFF
Unionizing by majority sign-up
Date Workplace (Location) Union
Number of workers in unit
3/21 City of Enterprise (Enterprise) Laborers Local 121
3/28 Philomath Rural Fire Protection Dist. (Philomath) Philomath FD Emp. Assn.
7
6
Requesting a union election
Workplace (Location) Union
Number of workers in unit
RAB Communications cable installer (Portland) IBEW Local 89
Sunrise Dental (Portland, Camas,Vancouver, Battleground) UFCW Local 555
LaPine Sewer District (LaPine) Teamsters Local 962
LaPine Water District (LaPine) Teamsters Local 962
DECERT
L EGEND
: workers will be union-represented
DECERT
: workers will be on their own
: unionized workers vote whether to go non-union
APRIL 15, 2011
stance in a television ad campaign.
And SEIU and AFSCME are plan-
ning a rally in Salem just after the Leg-
islature receives its final revenue fore-
cast of the session in May.
“How can they be re-
luctant to tax the wealthy
when they’re cutting the
wages of working-class
and middle- class peo-
ple? That’s bullshit,” said
Oregon AFSCME Exec-
utive Director KenAllen.
State workers are being
asked to accept a 15 to
23 percent cut in com-
pensation: In contract
bargaining, the state is
proposing that employ-
ees take a pay freeze, in-
crease their contribution
to health care costs, pay 6 percent of
their salary toward pensions, and have
their hours cut via periodic furloughs.
To lessen the harm of budget cuts,
SEIU Local 503 asked its members to
suggest ways their agencies could save
money.About 1,600 workers responded
(about one in 10 of the state workers the
union represents), and the union sum-
marized this feedback in a report re-
leased March 22. The report identifies
$333.5 million in potential savings.
Some of SEIU members’ suggestions:
• Thin the ranks of managers. The
state has a manager for every 5.7 work-
ers; decreasing this to a ratio of 1 to 7.7
could save $7 million in the next 15
months.
• Get serious about contractor waste.
SEIU found that for some services, the
state pays more to a contractor than it
would cost to do the work with its own
employees. Oregon spends 20 percent
more for contracted nursing and 68.9
percent more for contracted informa-
tion technology than it would if it did
the work in-house, according to the
union. Over $100 million could be
saved by cutting service and supply
contracts by just 10 percent.
• Increase staff — and focus more
on dollars and cents — at state depart-
ments that bring in revenue, like the
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at the De-
partment of Justice, and the Oregon
Department of Revenue.
But even implementing every one of
SEIU’s suggestions wouldn’t be
enough to stave off cuts.
To lessen cuts, some lawmakers are
taking a look at reducing or eliminating
tax giveaways.
“We are spending more on tax
breaks than we are on education, public
safety and health care combined,” said
State Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-Port-
land). Smith has been pushing a pack-
age of bills that would rein in tax breaks
in a variety of ways.
Under a law passed last session, all
tax credits expire unless the Legislature
votes to renew them. Twelve tax breaks
would expire in the next two years. The
biggest are the business energy tax
credit (estimated to cost $240 million
68
9
5
3
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
in the 2011-2013 biennium), two En-
terprise Zone tax break programs ($62
million) and a residential alternative en-
ergy tax credit ($14 million.)
“We’re asking legislators to stop
making the hole deeper,” said Oregon
AFSCME Political Coordinator Joe
Baessler. “Let these sunset. We don’t
want the budget totally balanced on our
members’ backs.”
“If we’re talking about a 40 percent
cut to long-term care for seniors,” sug-
gests Our Oregon spokesperson Moore,
“shouldn’t we be talking about a 40 per-
cent cut to tax expenditures that benefit
large corporations and the wealthy?”
As for requiring corporations and the
wealthy to pay a bigger share, voters did
that with Measures 66 and 67 in January
2010, but some of those increases are
due to expire soon.
Allen said if a supermajority of law-
makers can’t be found to add revenue to
the mix of shared sacrifice, a citizen ini-
tiative might be the next logical step.
“We don’t need a three-fifths major-
ity,” Allen said. “We need 150,000 sig-
natures on a ballot measure.”
There could be public support for
that, shows a poll commissioned by
SEIU. The union says a March 3-8 poll
of 600 registered voters by Greenburg
Quinlan Rosner Research found support
for “a balanced approach that includes
some revenue enhancement to offset the
worst of the proposed cuts to education,
senior care, and public safety.”
“The trend holds up across the board
even across party lines,” said Moore.
“People hate cuts to the things they care
about. They will feel those very person-
ally.”
William Carr of Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 gets a youngster set up with
a fishing pole at Klineline Kids Fish-in April 9 at Salmon Creek Park in
Vancouver.
Union sponsors, volunteers help
keep kids’ fishing event going
Nearly two dozen union members
volunteered throughout the day helping
1,700 kids ages 5 to 14 bait hooks, cast,
and reel in fish at Klineline Kids Fish-
in April 9 at Salmon Creek Park in Van-
couver.
For a $5 registration fee, each child
received a Zebco rod and reel and a T-
shirt with sponsor logos. Two days be-
fore the event, Klineline Pond was
closed to the public and stocked with
several thousand trout. About 550 fish
weighed 5 to 10 pounds.
Biggest and smallest catches in two
age brackets throughout the day won
bikes, tackle boxes and other prizes.
State budget cuts nearly quashed
this year’s fish-in. A $160,000 grant
that the Washington Department of
Fish & Wildlife has received in past
years to organize fish-ins throughout
the state was cut. So a call went out for
sponsors and volunteers to keep alive
the event at Klineline — which costs
roughly $35,000 to put on.
“People stepped up this year,” Wil
Morrison of the Washington Depart-
ment of Fish & Wildlife told the Labor
Press. “It’s phenomenal, absolutely
phenomenal.”
A dozen union organizations kicked
in cash, with twice that volunteering to
help kids fish and set up gear days be-
fore the event.
Unions involved were Sheet Metal
Workers Local 16; Painters District
Council 5; Painters Local 10; Interna-
tional Longshore and Warehouse
Union Local 4; International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers Local 48;
Laborers Locals 296 and 320; South-
west Washington Central Labor Coun-
cil; Fire Fighters Local 1805; Labor’s
Community Service Agency; American
Federation of Teachers-Portland Com-
munity College Faculty Local 3922;
and Graphic Communications Confer-
ence-Teamsters Local 296M.
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