A8
OREGON
East Oregonian
Saturday, June 5, 2021
Lawmakers pass $9.3 billion budget for schools
By DIRK
VANDERHART
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
SALEM — Oregon
lawmakers on Thursday,
June 3, signed off on a $9.3
billion budget to fund K-12
schools for the next two
years.
That’s a record allotment
for the State School Fund
doled out to districts around
the state, and is expected to
be approved by Gov. Kate
Brown in coming days. But
the package, though large,
was not enough to stave off
a last minute push for more.
As the budget bill, Senate
Bill 5514, came up for a vote
in the House of Representa-
tives, state Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, moved that it
be returned to committee.
Smith, like the rest of his
party, some
Democrats
and many
schools
of f icials,
believes
t h e $9. 3
billion isn’t
Smith
enough to
adequately fund K-12 educa-
tion for the next two years.
They’ve pushed instead for
a $9.6 billion budget.
“We’re just coming out of
a pandemic, and the notion
of having a good budget
isn’t good enough this time,”
Smith argued on the House
fl oor after moving for the bill
to be sent back to committee.
Such parliamentar y
maneuvers have been fairly
common this session, with
Republican lawmakers
attempting to pull their
favored longshot bills out of
committee for an immedi-
ate vote, or to send legisla-
tion they don’t like back to
be amended. Normally, there
is no question that major-
ity Democrats will unite to
defeat the motions.
But as Smith pointed
out, a chunk of Democrats
also favor a more robust
schools budget. On June 1,
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Students settle into Michael Bittorf’s Advanced Placement English class at Pendleton
High School on March 31, 2021. Oregon lawmakers on Thursday, June 3, signed off on a
$9.3 billion budget to fund K-12 schools for the next two years.
13 lawmakers — including
eight House Democrats —
signed onto a letter arguing
for more funding in a variety
of education areas.
Citing jaw-dropping esti-
mates in the state’s latest
billion will result in cuts to
schools is contested. Accord-
ing to the Legislative Fiscal
Office, school districts
only need about $9 billion
to maintain their services
levels.
“WE’RE JUST COMING
OUT OF A PANDEMIC, AND
THE NOTION OF HAVING A
GOOD BUDGET ISN’T GOOD
ENOUGH THIS TIME.”
— State Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner
quarterly revenue forecast,
the lawmakers wrote they
“believe the resources exist
to strengthen all education
investments” before the
Legislature adjourns later
this month.
Among their asks: An
extra $300 million for the
State School Fund.
“According to the Oregon
Association of School Busi-
ness Officials report, the
$9.3 billion budget still will
result in cuts for most school
districts in our state,” said the
letter, addressed to the chairs
of the Legislature’s budget
committee. “We urge you to
increase the state school fund
budget to $9.6 billion.”
Whether or not the $9.3
In her initial budget
proposal, Brown suggested a
schools budget of $9.1 billion
and, last month, pointedly
criticized legislative lead-
ers when they fl oated a $9.3
billion package. She has
since come to agree on that
amount.
A mong those who
defended a $9.3 billion
budget on June 3 was state
Rep. Dan Rayfi eld, D-Cor-
vallis, a budget commit-
tee co-chair. He argued the
proposed dollar fi gure was
adequate for schools and
would avoid the specter
of cuts in two years, when
federal relief funds and other
money might be scarce.
“We need to do it sustain-
ably so that we don’t have
those ups and downs two
years from now and that we
do take care of our children,”
Rayfi eld said.
He noted that schools
would see hundreds of
millions of dollars in addi-
tional funding from a new
business tax lawmakers
passed in 2019 in order to
bolster education funding.
Democrats hastened to point
out June 3 that Republicans
opposed that tax.
Republicans supporting
more schools money paid
little attention to that argu-
ment, saying districts can
more flexibly use funds
sent to them in the schools
budget.
“Most of the classrooms
in my district don’t have air
conditioning, do not have
appropriate ventilation, and
it’s been an issue,” said state
Rep. Lily Morgan, R-Grants
Pass. “The funds that we’re
negotiating today have the
fl exibility for those smaller
areas.”
In the end, all eight House
Democrats who’d asked for
more schools money in the
June 1 letter stuck with their
party leadership, and helped
vote down the Republican
motion on a 37-23 vote.
The budget then passed
on a 36-20 party-line vote.
Brandon McMinn fi shes at the Clearview Pond in May 2020
near Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton.
Oregon could ditch catch
limits due to drought
By MONICA SAMAYOA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — The drought’s
threat to hatchery-reared
trout and other fi sh is prompt-
ing Oregon to consider big
changes in how it stocks fi sh
and manages fi shing regula-
tions.
According to the U.S.
Drought Monitor, 72%
of the state is in severe or
extreme drought status.
That’s prompting the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife to consider remov-
ing bag level limits in some
areas, releasing fi sh earlier in
the summer from hatcheries
into lakes and streams, and
relocating fi sh to a diff erent
body of water to save them.
“Our trout stocking, we
typically stock a number of
water bodies in the state and
at present some of those water
bodies either have a very low
or no water,” Deputy Admin-
istrator for Inland Fisheries
Shaun Clements said. “So,
we obviously can’t put fi sh
into them. So, we’ll be chang-
ing where we stock and when
we stock.”
Clements said March and
April were unusually dry,
setting the stage for a drier
2015, the last time Oregon
experienced such a serious
drought.
“We’ve had very little rain
this month, like historically
little rain and because of that
and the warm temperature,
our stream fl ows are at 25%
of what they would normally
be at that time of year,” he
said.
Impacts to fish popula-
tions will vary across the
state but migratory fi sh like
salmon and steelhead and
areas and tributaries along
the coast may see the biggest
impact.
“We are going to be seeing
more of these drought events
through time because of
climate change. There’s a
lot of projections around for
these mega-droughts, which
are 10- to 20-year droughts,”
Clements said. “So, this is
going to become the new
normal.”
ODFW suggests anglers
may be required to fi sh in
the earlier, cooler time of
day and to use barbless
hooks so already stressed
fi sh can be released easily
and quickly.
Regulation changes will
be posted in the Recreation
Report by fi shing zone.