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Governor John Kitzhaber and legislative leaders are expecting the next session to be dominated by discussions aimed at balancing the state budget, despite several other concerns. Steve Best explains…
The upcoming four-week session which starts in February will center around ways to deal with shrinking state revenues, which have dropped by over $300 million since last summer.
And despite a projected loss this term of between 50 and 80-million dollars, lawmakers are very unlikely to consider tax hikes as a way of closing the budget gap, since both Houses are closely divided, and any tax increases would face an uphill battle.
In the face of this, other legislative concerns such as the Governor’s proposed sweeping reforms in healthcare and education may well find themselves down the list of priorities.
