Legislators achieved the seemingly impossible last session with the passage of a $5.3 billion transportation package. Somehow, throwing together a bipartisan group of lawmakers and sending them to talk with Oregonians around the state helped build the trust and buy-in needed to support a list of projects and the taxes to fund them. The lack of controversy stands in stark contrast with the failed negotiations in the 2015 session.
So it would make sense that leaders might copy that formula to help solve some of the other intractable problems facing Oregon, say, for example, its warped revenue system or its suffocating pension obligations. But so far, efforts are slow to get off the ground. While Sen. President Peter Courtney has floated a proposal to start up such a committee with a focus on funding K-12 education, he said he has yet to hear much support from either House Speaker Tina Kotek or Gov. Kate Brown. And so, Oregon waits.
The problem is the state has waited too long already. Legislators staved off draconian cuts for the 2017-2019 biennium in large part because Oregon's still-booming economy came to the rescue, powering stronger-than-projected revenue. But the threats to the state's fiscal health are only expected to grow. Public employers' pension contributions are increasing for the next several budget cycles. At the same time, state economists recently reported a small uptick in unemployment numbers among signs of a slowing economy. Oregon's luck may well be running out.
These signs should be setting off alarm bells. They are for veteran legislators Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, and others, who have asked leaders to convene a legislative committee to look at revenue and spending. But as The Portland Tribune reported earlier this month, Bentz was told by Brown and Kotek to "wait until March" - after the 2018 short legislative session which is expected to focus on a new carbon tax instead of the more pressing budget crisis bearing down on Oregon.
Editorial Agenda 2017
Boost student success
Get Oregon's financial house in order
Help our homeless
Honor our diverse values
Make Portland a city that works
Expand access to public records
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Credit Courtney for stepping up. Specifically, the senate president told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board that he wants a bipartisan group to help find a stable permanent funding source for K-12 education, reversing the damage from the 1990s era Ballot Measures 5 and 50 that sharply limited property taxes and shifted education funding from localities to the state. The group could go around the state, talk with Oregonians about what they want to see: longer school days, year-round classes, college-level courses for high school students. At the same time, legislators can explain to them the funding disasters caused by Measures 5 and 50 and lay the groundwork for a new, saner system.
The transportation committee showed what can happen when legislators focus first on identifying needs and leave for later the precise methods of revenue, he said. Similarly, a committee should draw up education needs first, and then delve into solving the difficult revenue, spending and pension issues. The idea is that their shared commitment to specified education goals will help them, businesses, labor unions and others work through to a solution.
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It's a daunting task but it's one thoughtful way of addressing problems that threaten to sink our state. Courtney, however, first needs the full support of Kotek and Brown to move some kind of process forward. Now. On Friday, Kotek told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board that she is talking with Courtney about mapping out the best way to proceed. Brown's spokesman said she voiced her support for the concept back in July. But they both need to act with the kind of urgency that these problems merit.
The longer they wait, the more self-interested parties step into the breach with "solutions" that are simplistic or destructive. Both the teachers union and a group of unnamed business interests are planning to file or have filed initiative petitions for the 2018 election. While both sides dress up these proposed initiatives as championing the public interest, neither come close.
This past session posed a number of thorny problems to solve - many of which were exacerbated by how long legislators waited to act. Deadline legislating rarely results in sound policy. Brown, Kotek and Courtney should show they've learned that lesson and hasten to work of setting up a committee.
- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board