8A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2016
Budget: Lawmakers have yet to
propose other forms of revenue
Continued from Page 1A
“I present this budget as a
short-term solution,” Brown
said. “It is the starting place
for a broader conversation
about how best to align our
resources with our shared val-
ues and vision to move Oregon
forward.”
She unveiled her two-year
budget proposal at an event
in her ceremonial office at the
Capitol.
Brown proposed funding
to maintain existing services at
the K-12 level, while boosting
allocations for two college tui-
tion assistance programs — the
Oregon Opportunity Grant and
Oregon Promise.
Despite Brown’s claim that
the plan would maintain K-12
funding, the Oregon School
Boards Association issued a
statement saying the proposal
falls short by about $500 mil-
lion “of what schools are tell-
ing us they need just to main-
tain current services.”
The budget for higher edu-
cation will remain flat despite
increases in costs for existing
services, which could mean col-
leges and universities will have
to consider program cuts or tui-
tion hikes. Brown’s budget plan
also preserves the number of
clients who receive subsidies
for health insurance under the
federal Affordable Care Act.
Proposed cuts are less
severe than the 10 to 15 percent
across-the-board
reductions
Brown had predicted before
the November election. State
agencies face cuts averaging
4.2 percent, but the cuts vary
according to the agency.
Education at the K-12 level
faces no cuts, while health care
could sustain 16 to 25 percent
reductions in general fund rev-
enue, said George Naughton,
chief financial officer at the
state Department of Adminis-
trative Services.
Agencies are charged with
finding specific reductions,
such as attrition of nonessen-
tial positions and reduction in
travel, Brown said.
Other cost-cutting measures
call for closing the state psychi-
atric hospital in Junction City
and the North Coast Youth Cor-
rectional Facility in Warrenton,
slashing funding to a program
that helps people with devel-
opmental disabilities and elim-
inating a program for families
with children who have special
needs.
Brown moderated the cuts
by proposing several increases
in targeted taxes and assess-
ments and closing two tax loop-
holes. Those measures would
bring in about $897 million in
new revenue.
The tobacco tax would
increase by 85 cents per pack
under her plan, and a liquor
surcharge would climb from 50
cents to $1 a bottle. The plan
also involves increasing assess-
ments on hospitals and insurers
to the tune of $530 million.
Not enough tax revenue
State Republican House
Leader Mike McLane of Pow-
ell Butte said the state contin-
ues on “an unsustainable fiscal
path.”
“Despite record revenues
and despite what has been
described as a roaring state
economy, we are being told we
don’t have enough tax revenue
to cover the tab,” McLane said.
He said lawmakers need to
reduce spending before asking
for more taxes.
Much of the state’s shortfall
stems from reductions in fed-
eral funds for the Affordable
Care Act and the unfunded lia-
bility of the Public Employees
Retirement System.
And the business commu-
nity has signaled it wants PERS
reforms before accepting any
new business taxes.
An Oregon Supreme Court
ruling in 2015 scuttled many
of the pension reforms law-
makers had sought to make in
the past, and lawmakers will be
curtailed by that ruling in any
future attempts at reform.
The governor had endorsed
a corporate sales tax measure
in November that would have
boosted state revenue by $6
billion every two years. With
Measure 97’s defeat, Brown
has backed away and taken a
hands-off approach to reve-
nue reform and proposing any
additional taxes on business.
Lawmakers on the Legisla-
ture’s revenue committees are
discussing potential revenue
packages.
Brown’s proposal “will
definitely prompt debate,” said
Senate President Peter Court-
ney, D-Salem, in a statement.
“Oregon faces enormous bud-
get challenges for the next two
years. Meeting those challenges
will require us all to work
together. The process doesn’t
end today. It is just beginning.”
The next step is for the
Legislature’s Joint Ways and
Means Committee to propose
a budget early next year. Com-
mittee members will seek pub-
lic input on those proposals.
Lawmakers have yet to
make any concrete propos-
als for other forms of revenue.
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton,
chairman of the Senate reve-
nue committee, said lawmakers
are discussing reviving a pro-
posal for a commercial activity
tax that he and Rep. Mark John-
son, R-Hood River, tried to
pass this year as an alternative
to Measure 97. The tax would
have less of an impact on cor-
porations but also would raise
significantly less revenue than
Measure 97.
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
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Youth prison: Potential closure 3.49
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Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
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Continued from Page 1A
treatment, gang prevention and
parole violators.
“We met with North Coast
staff, including school staff,
earlier this week, and we are
committed to doing all we
can to support them,” Oregon
Youth Authority Director Fari-
borz Pakseresht said in a state-
ment. “It is too soon to tell all of
the impacts this proposal could
have, but given the current bud-
get climate, it is hard to imag-
ine a scenario where we could
avoid closing North Coast.
“We are working with our
labor partners to help every
affected employee at North
Coast who wants to stay with
OYA find a job. We also are
connecting with other agen-
cies to identify employment
options in the Warrenton area
for OYA staff who are unable to
relocate.”
The Youth Authority pro-
vides the equivalent of 45 full-
time positions at the facility,
with an annual payroll of about
$2.5 million. The Northwest
Regional Education Service
District employs two teach-
ers and five educational assis-
tants at the facility’s South Jetty
High School, an option for the
incarcerated to earn diplomas,
take the General Educational
Development exam and learn
trades.
Heartbreaking
Sapper, the superinten-
dent of the North Coast facil-
ity since last year, helped open
it at Camp Rilea in 1997, and
at the current location near the
Clatsop County Animal Shelter
in 1998.
He said up to half the pop-
ulation at any given time is
gang-affiliated. The facility
helps wean inmates off drugs
and out of the gang lifestyle.
South Jetty High School has
been lauded as a success, with
one of the highest graduation
rates of any youth correctional
facility in the state. Sapper said
30 incarcerated students earned
their diplomas last year, with
another 15 completed so far
this year. The Warrenton-Ham-
mond School District had oper-
ated the school throughout
most of the North Coast facil-
ity’s history, but ended the con-
tract earlier this year.
Brown’s proposed bud-
get would increase the Youth
Authority’s funding over the
next biennium from $398 mil-
lion to nearly $416 million. The
North Coast facility had a bud-
get of $9.7 million over the past
two-year cycle.
The governor’s budget calls
for an increase in the agency’s
staff from 1,022 to 1,041. But
the expansion would largely
be among part time workers,
with a proposed decrease in
the overall number of budgeted
staff hours equivalent to nearly
20 full-time positions.
First closure
The budget cuts, and the
potential closure of the North
Coast correctional facility,
are tied to the failure of Mea-
sure 97, a controversial corpo-
rate tax that voters rejected in
November. State economists
estimated the tax would have
created $3 billion a year in new
revenue.
The facility previously
closed amid budget cuts in
2003 after the failure of Mea-
sure 28, which would have cre-
ated a 1 percent increase in the
state income tax to help bridge
the state’s shortfalls.
At the time, the facility
housed 75 youth offenders from
surrounding counties, incarcer-
ated on charges from sexual
harassment to homicide. The
closure cost 100 positions and
$3.5 million in local payroll.
Many of the youth offenders
were transfered to MacLaren
Youth Correctional Facility in
Woodburn, with some sent to
smaller facilities or released.
The North Coast facil-
ity reopened one housing unit
in 2003 and a second in 2004,
albeit with a smaller population
and a specialization on serving
offenders with substance-abuse
problems.
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