Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosMore than 250 people turned out Thursday to hear the Legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee talk about how the state will spend tax dollars.
Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Lawmakers visiting Bend get an earful
In person and by video, citizens ask state to fund needs east of Cascades
By James Sinks / The Bulletin
Published: April 13. 2007 4:00AM PSTOne-fifth of the Oregon Legislature came to Bend on Thursday to solicit advice on how to divvy up a state budget that - while expected to grow by 20 percent in the next two years - won't be large enough to pay for every program on every wish list.
Lawmakers got an earful, as more than 250 people turned out at Oregon State University-Cascades Campus, filling two classrooms and spilling into the hallway. Of those, 96 signed up to speak.
Another 84 people signed up to testify via video uplinks from The Dalles, Pendleton and in Ontario.
From most, the message was similar: Increase the dollars for particular government programs.
"As college students, we struggle enough as it already is," said Blue Mountain Community College student Laurie Hartung, pleading from a television screen for state money to prevent tuition hikes. "We don't need to struggle any more."
Given two minutes each, not everybody got a chance at the microphone during the 2 1/2-hour session - but the 66 who testified gave the 18 members of the budget-drafting Joint Ways and Means Committee a glimpse at the kaleidoscope of public needs on the state's east side.
Community colleges and courtrooms. Hospitals to mental health clinics to public health. Juvenile crime prevention efforts and programs for children and families. Farm and forest research programs.
The field hearing was the eastside stop in a seven-city swing by lawmakers before they finalize a $15 billion general fund and Lottery budget for the 2007-09 cycle, which begins July 1.
A spending blueprint drawn up by the co-chairmen of the Ways and Means panel steers more money to all parts of the state budget except for administration - yet not all programs will see the same levels of increases.
"Love it or hate it, at least it balances," said co-chairman Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, in brief opening remarks. "We have to make choices, and you will help us make those choices."
For instance, K-12 schools would see a robust boost in spending to $6.24 billion, while community college and university officials say they won't be able to maintain programs without more than has been proposed.
"Although there are limited funds, you have to look at Central Oregon Community College and OSU Cascades as an investment and not just a cost center," said Patricia Moss, the chief executive of Bend-based Cascade Bancorp, who urged the panel to help pay for a new health and science building at the COCC campus.
"The long-term payback will be beneficial to not just the region, but the entire state."
The co-chairmens' budget plan spends less than Gov. Ted Kulongoski has proposed for new buildings on university and community college campuses, which puts funding for that building in doubt.
Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan railed at the proposed public safety budget, saying a proposed hike of $45 million for public defenders should be shared with prosecutors and judges.
"We're going to have to make this a partnership, because it doesn't exist now," he growled.
John Shelk, president of Ochoco Lumber in Prineville, asked lawmakers to invest in the research programs through Oregon State University that have helped the timber and agricultural industries adapt.
"Natural resources have been hit hard," Shelk said. "I ask you: Please do not disinvest in this, because you are eating your seed corn if you do."
In Ontario, Holy Rosary Medical Center Chief Executive Matthew Cox said the state needs to steer more dollars into public health care - pointing to cutbacks over the past six years that have cut the number of low-income people on the Oregon Health Plan by more than 80,000.
And in The Dalles, community college professor Tom Lawrence said the current level of state support means the school can only enroll 32 students in its wind-power turbine technician program a year - not near enough to meet the need.
Trudy Townsend of the Wasco County Commission on Children and Families said 40 percent of kids are not making it to kindergarten ready to learn.
"We have a lot of work to do, and we take that small amount you give us and make it grow," she said.
Not all of the testimony was critical of the budget plan.
Bend LaPine Schools Superintendent Doug Nelson urged the committee to quickly pass the proposed K-12 budget, saying that it would allow for new investments in literacy programs and reductions in class sizes.
"On behalf of the 15,500 students and families in Central Oregon, I would like to thank you for the proposed budget in K-12 education," he said. "It is a bold investment in our schools and our students."
Afterward, Schrader said he was most struck by the commonality of concerns on both sides of the Cascades, including pleas for more money for community colleges, agriculture programs and judicial system investments.
However, he said he was surprised at the level of requests for programs to help with children and family programs. "That's not a unique urban problem," he said.
The level of interest in the meeting was clear from the time the doors opened.
An hour before the meeting was set to begin, 40 people had signed up and another 48 were in line. Only about 35 of the people in Bend got a chance to speak.
Among those too far down the list were high school junior Eric Steensen, of Redmond, who wants the Legislature to spend more on 4-H programs, and retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Marble, of Bend, who wants lawmakers to pay more attention to the hidden problem of mental illness.
Marble's 32-year-old son is lucky because he has access to treatment, but thousands of people in Central Oregon do not, he said.
And Dee Lane, of La Pine, wants the state to expand alcohol and drug treatment in the prison system, where she said her son is serving a 28-month sentence - yet he may not have access to addiction programs, she said.
She pulled out a picture of her son, Kyle, and his 2 1/2-year-old daughter. "He's a real person, not a statistic," she said.
State Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, whose district includes Crook County, said the field hearings are giving lawmakers a glimpse of the real world outside the Capitol.
"If the Ways and Means Committee is really listening, you will see more money for community colleges, foster care, people with disabilities, the judicial system and the Oregon State Extension Service," he said. "We'll see what happens."
State Sen. Ben Westlund, D-Tumalo, a member of the budget-writing committee, also attended the meeting.
James Sinks can be reached at 503-566-2839 or at jsinks@bendbulletin.com.
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