A6
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2019
Connor Radnovich/Statesman Journal
State lawmakers will decide how to manage revenue growth.
Windfall: Kicker would be
the largest in state history
Continued from Page A1
practically every Oregonian.
Between general and lot-
tery funds, state economists
project that Oregon has $24.8
billion to spend over the next
two years. That’s up about
$770 million from the previ-
ous forecast.
Ken Rocco, the legislative
fi scal offi cer, advises law-
makers on how much their
spending ideas would cost the
state. His offi ce concluded
the state would need to spend
about 14% more than the cur-
rent two-year, $21 billion
budget just to keep in place
services now being provided,
because of the impact of infl a-
tion, pay raises and cost hikes
in supplies and services.
That calculation doesn’t
take into account the larger
cash reserves that Rayfi eld
and his fellow co-chairs, Sen .
Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose,
and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner
Hayward, D-Beaverton, want
the state to have by the end of
2021. It also doesn’t include
any new programs or projects
that the Legislature approves
or jobs it adds.
“I think we’re probably
much closer to being able to
fund the current service level,
but that doesn’t mean that the
co-chairs, for every agency,
they’re going to do that,”
Rocco said. “They’re still
looking at making some cur-
rent service level reductions.”
Spending ideas
That hasn’t stopped key
people in the Capitol from
tossing out ideas for how
the newfound $770 million
should be spent.
Gov. Kate Brown said she
expects some of the extra
money to go toward mitigat-
ing tuition costs for commu-
nity colleges and universities,
as well as investing in foster
care and law enforcement.
“I have some key invest-
ments that I think need to be
made,” Brown said.
Brown and House Speaker
Tina Kotek, D-Portland, have
also suggested putting some
of the windfall into affordable
housing, a priority they share.
“The more we can do for
housing with the additional
resources, we should try,”
Kotek said.
But Rayfi eld and some of
his fellow Democrats in the
Legislature are leery of any
new spending that would
have to be covered in future
budgets.
“You use one-time money
for one-time purposes,” Ray-
fi eld said.
Sen. Chuck Riley, D-Hill-
sboro, who sits on the Senate
Finance and Revenue Com-
mittee, responded cautiously
to Brown’s wish list.
“Those are all good things,
and yeah, OK, sure, we can
always use money in those
places,” Riley said. “But I’m
a bit of a realist and under-
stand we’re going to have
that (economic) downturn.
We need to make sure that we
have everything covered for
that downturn.”
Riley and his committee
chairman, Sen. Mark Hass,
D-Beaverton, want to put
as much as they can into the
state’s reserves.
“In public fi nance, when
you have a temporary phe-
nomenon — a historic wind-
fall — the position is you
sock it away,” Hass said .
Oregon has run up about
$27 billion in pension debt.
Pension costs are growing as
more public employees reach
retirement age. While there’s
no way for the state to erase
its debt with a single move,
the Legislature could put
some of the overage toward
paying it down.
It’s “very likely” the bud-
get will include extra money
for the Public Employees
Retirement System fund
to help pay down the debt,
Kotek said . That would be
an appropriate use of the
windfall, Hass and Rayfi eld
agreed.
Largest in history
Brown and Kotek also
fl oated a less likely idea:
diverting money from the
personal income tax kicker
itself.
At $1.4 billion, next year’s
kicker would be the largest in
state history.
Kotek has proposed spend-
ing about half of it on trans-
portation initiatives, includ-
ing grants to replace or refi t
old diesel engines to reduce
pollution, seismic upgrades
to the Interstate 205 bridge
between Oregon City and
West Linn, and a new pro-
gram to build electric vehicle
charging stations and other
infrastructure for low-emis-
sion vehicles.
Brown hasn’t embraced
Kotek’s kicker proposal,
House Bill 3440. She said that
if the kicker were diverted, it
should be for something that
benefi ts the entire state.
‘WE’RE IN
A REALLY
INTERESTING
OPPORTUNITY,
BECAUSE THE
KICKER IS SO
LARGE.’
House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland
Brown said she’d support
using kicker money to pay
down more of the pension
debt, if the Legislature can
cobble together a plan that
has bipartisan support.
“I think that is good fi scal
sense,” said Brown.
“We’re in a really inter-
esting opportunity, because
the kicker is so large,” Kotek
said. “We haven’t had this
opportunity in the past,
where the personal income
tax kicker rightly should be
going out to taxpayers. Here,
we have an interesting situa-
tion where we can still have
a sizable set of refunds going
out and potentially spend a
good chunk of money on one-
time investments.”
Putting the kicker into the
PERS fund has been pro-
posed in the past, Kotek
noted, and although she sup-
ports the concept, she added,
“I don’t think you get votes
for that.”
The Legislature usually
leaves the kicker alone. Ore-
gon only cashes the rebate
out to taxpayers in good eco-
nomic times, when tax col-
lections over a two-year
period are at least 2% higher
Photos by Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Portland Timbers fans tossed their scarves Sunday over a section of log that will be cut by
mascot Timber Joey each time a goal is scored at Providence Park.
than economists expect.
The last time the kicker
was diverted was in 1991, at
the end of a recession, when
lawmakers decided to use
the money to help cover state
spending.
Since then, voters have
made it harder for the Legis-
lature to dip into the kicker.
They passed a constitutional
amendment in 2000 that
requires the approval of 40
state representatives and 20
senators to shift money away
from the automatic rebate.
That’s a tall order. Even if
Democrats were united, they
would need two Republicans
to agree to the plan in both the
House and the Senate — and
Republican leaders fi ercely
oppose any changes to the
kicker.
“Any attempt by Demo-
crats to take their hard-earned
kicker away from work-
ing Oregonians and squan-
der it all on growing gov-
ernment or rewarding their
campaign donors will be met
with strong opposition by
House Republicans,” House
Minority Leader Carl Wilson,
R-Grants Pass, warned .
Rayfi eld said budget writ-
ers should focus on the extra
money in the general and lot-
tery funds instead. His take
is that the Legislature “has
no control” over the kicker,
despite its record size.
“We have absolutely zero
ability to touch that, unless
you had a two-thirds vote in
the House and Senate and the
governor signing it,” Rayfi eld
noted.
Rayfi eld, Johnson, Steiner
Hayward and other mem-
bers of the Joint Ways and
Means Committee are con-
tinuing work to shape state
agency budgets for the next
two years.
Rocco said the goal is
to have the budget pieced
together within the next three
to four weeks. The Legisla-
ture must approve a balanced
budget by the end of June for
the biennium that starts in
July .
Policy bills
Budgets aside, Ways and
Means also has more than
360 policy bills to consider.
Most bills that require
the state to spend money —
whether that means hiring an
analyst, granting money to
cities and counties, or retro-
fi tting state offi ce buildings
— have to clear the Ways
and Means Committee. In
conjunction with House and
Senate leaders, the commit-
tee co-chairs will determine
which of those bills the Leg-
islature should spend money
on, Rocco said.
They also have to consider
what happens if and when
Oregon’s nearly decade long
economic expansion comes
to an end, and income tax
collections fall. That’s why
Hass, Kotek, Rayfi eld and
others refer to the unexpected
revenue as “temporary”
money — they can’t count on
seeing the same surge of cash
two years from now.
“It helps solve some
problems, but then it causes
other problems,” Rocco said
of the new revenue report.
“But we’re working through
those.”
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group,
Pamplin Media Group and
Salem Reporter.
Camp 18: Log may be christened June 1
Continued from Page A1
Meals on Wheels, Timbers
fans fi led out to a gravel lot,
where the 10-foot section of
Douglas fi r sat on a trailer.
They draped their wreaths
over the top of the log and
joined arms.
Patch Perryman, a capo
in the Timbers Army fan
club, placed his hand on the
log and recited the Timbers
Toast, an old Irish wedding
wish Serrill passed on to the
team.
After taking in the
moment, a smaller group
of fans with children in tow
made their way to a fi eld
next to the Camp 18 Log-
gers Memorial, where they
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Jim Serrill, former Portland Timbers mascot Timber Tim,
unveiled a new team scarf made in honor of two Forest
Grove girls run over while playing in a leaf pile in 2013.
planted 2-year-old Doug-
las fi r seedlings donated
by Hampton Lumber and
packed in by co-owner
Jamey Hampton.
The log-blessing cer-
emony came a little later
than usual this year, with
the Timbers on a 10-game
road trip while Providence
Park in Portland is remod-
eled and expanded. Timber
Joey will hopefully chris-
ten the log June 1 during a
home match against the Los
Angeles Galaxy.
Music store: No tenant to replace Thiel’s yet
Continued from Page A1
is home to Allstate Insur-
ance, Bridge & Tunnel
Bottleshop and Taproom
and Creations Studio and
Gallery in addition to
Thiel’s.
When he took own-
ership of the building,
Barnes said the music
store was the only busi-
ness he did not have a
lease with or a deposit on
fi le.
The per-square-foot-
age rent Holt paid was
below market value,
Barnes said, and Barnes
has a rent requirement
with his lender. Holt
decided to let go of the
space rather than rent it
at the higher rate Barnes
offered.
“We just couldn’t
come to terms with
Thiel’s Music,” Barnes
said.
Weiler said the music
business isn’t doing
that well, and the rent
increase would have been
a dramatic change. It was
expected to go up again
next year.
Barnes said Holt was
paying less than 60 cents
per square foot, and what
he was offered remained
under a dollar per square
foot.
Barnes does not have
a tenant to replace Thiel’s
yet. He hopes to remodel
the space, removing a
drop ceiling and uncov-
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Thiel’s Music closed up shop at its longtime location on
Commercial Street in Astoria.
ering boarded-up windows.
He believes the best use
would be as a coffee shop or
restaurant.
The building is in a hub
that includes a mix of retail
and dining establishments,
including a food cart pod on
Duane Street, two brewer-
ies, a cidery, a distillery and
Street 14 Cafe. The own-
ers of the neighboring J.C.
Penney building on Com-
mercial Street plan to open
a taproom and food court in
the former store.
Thiel’s was one of the
few stores in town to offer
an array of instruments and
musical supplies like reeds
and strings, noted Jennifer
Crockett, executive director
for the Liberty Theatre.
In the past, perform-
ers at the Liberty borrowed
instruments from the store,
Crockett said.
“Like a lot of retail-
ers, the rise of Amazon and
online retailers makes those
supplies easier to fi nd, with
more options, and at a lower
cost,” Crockett said. “I
imagine that it became hard
for Thiel’s to keep up.”
“As a musician, I’m sad-
dened to lose another music
shop,” she said.
The closure of Thiel’s
— for now — made her
also think of another loss to
local musicians and music
students: the recent clo-
sure of Spencer’s Instru-
ment Repair shop on Marine
Drive.
Advertising
Territory
Representative
Exciting opportunity for a skilled customer service
professional with knowledge of the Seaside, Ore. area.
Sou’Wester
Garden Club
plant
sale
Hours are generally 8-5, Monday through Friday, with
weekends off. This position comes with generous
compensation for someone with the drive and
determination to succeed. Benefits include paid time
off (PTO), a 401(k)/Roth 401(k) retirement plan,
expense reimbursement and insurances.
Two+ years of customer service experience are required,
or a degree in business, marketing or communications,
or a combination of like experience and education.
This is a great opportunity to grow a career working with
business and community leaders in the Seaside area.
We will train the right person!
Saturday,
May 25
9am-Noon
Seaside
Convention
Center
OUTSTANDING
PLANTS
Raffle and
Silent Auction
Send resume and
letter of interest to:
hr@eomediagroup.com