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Headlines
Ex-Penn State president tops highest paid list
Presidents of public universities are taking home bigger paychecks, and a growing number are raking in more than $1 million.
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Headlines
What if the Internet Sales Tax Doesn't Make it Through Congress?
Some states are so anxious for the anticipated revenues they've already committed the money to various projects.
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Headlines
Williams: Marketplace Fairness Act and Internet taxes are not the answers to state budget problems
Bob Williams: Hoping for more federal stimulus or hoping the feds will allow taxes on the Internet will not solve the budget crises the states currently face. The problem is spending, not revenue.
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Headlines
State Pension Litigation Update, May 2013
In attempts to reign in the costs of pensions, state lawmakers legislate pension reform. Challengers to those reforms often bring suit, alleging violations of state law, contracts, and the Constitution.
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Headlines
Study shows Medicaid has little positive effect on health outcomes
While the debate about Medicaid expansion continues on in several states, a recent study reveals that new beneficiaries may use their new health coverage more often, but won't actually be much healthier because of it.
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Budget timeframe: Biennial
Fiscal Year begins: July 1
Find the current state budget here.
Find the legislative session calendar here.
Find the current legislative leaders here.
Gov. John Kitzhaber
Office of Governor John Kitzhaber
900 Court Street NE
Room 254
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Phone: (503) 378-3111
Fax: (503) 378-8970
http://governor.oregon.gov/
George Naughton, Budget and Management Administrator
Department of Administrative Services
155 Cottage Street, NE U10
Salem, OR 97301-3965
Phone (503) 378-3106
Fax: (503) 373-7643
http://www.bam.das.state.or.us
george.m.naughton@das.state.or.us
Want a more robust, long-term look at your state's fiscal health, beyond the budget? There are two parts: Click here for the FY2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report compiled by the state government, and click here for information on the state's pension liabilities.
Oregon is required to pass a "balanced budget." Section 291.216(2) of the State law requires a budget report to set forth the aggregate figures to show a "balanced relation between the total proposed expenditures and the total anticipated income." Section 291.254 then requires State agencies to reduce their expenditures should probable receipts be less than what was anticipated. Article IX, Sections 2 and 6 of the 1859 Constitution allow a tax, for the ensuing year, to pay for a deficiency from the previous fiscal year. Oregon law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next.
The State maintains 21 individual funds. The State does not budget on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) basis. Budgeted funds include: the General Fund, Federal Funds, Lottery Funds, and Other Funds. We do not know how many funds are included in "Other Funds" and cannot conclude how many are budgeted from information provided by the CAFR. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Find the state's bond ratings here.
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Budget Processes and Systems :
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HEADLINES
Budget Gimmicks Update, April 2013
State officials have a deep bag of tricks to "solve" budget gaps but they often keep budgets far from being balanced. This consistent habit of kicking the can down the road has put states in their current fiscal catastrophe. Below are some of the gimmicks on which lawmakers rely, and examples of how states have used them.
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HEADLINES
Public pension funds face scrutiny from accounting updates
GASB rules, Moody's addition could mean headaches for execs.
- View All Oregon articles
K-12 Education :
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HEADLINES: Oregon
State budget proposals call for more funds for schools
Both state Democrats, GOP want to spend more on education than Gov. Kitzhaber has proposed.
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RESEARCH
The School Staffing Surge: Decades of Employment Growth in America's Public Schools, Part II
Public schools grew staffing at a rate four times faster than the increase in students over that time period. Of those personnel, teachers' numbers increased 252 percent, while administrators and other non-teaching staff experienced growth of 702 percent, more than seven times the increase in students.
- View All Oregon articles
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Solutions:
How Reality-Based Budgeting Can Permanently Resolve State Budget Gaps
State Budget Solutions recommends that state legislators take action in 2013 to resolve the serious state financial crises by changing their focus from inputs to outcomes by redesigning budgets from the ground up based on priorities and performance.
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Solutions:
How to Prevent Future Pension Crises
The time for state and local governments to offer defined contribution retirement plans that protect both taxpayer dollars and public employee retirement security is now.
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Solutions:
State Lawmaker’s Guide to Evaluating Medicaid Expansion Projections
Supporters of Obamacare claim that expanding Medicaid will entail little to no cost to state governments, since the federal government will fund the vast majority of the additional costs. Indeed, some analyses project states achieving savings from adopting the expansion. However, state lawmakers should be wary of accepting such analyses at face value.
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Solutions:
Medicaid Is Broken—Let the States Fix It
Block-granting Medicaid is the best way to deliver better, cost-effective care to the most vulnerable Americans.
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Solutions:
The Case for Reform: Prisons
Prisons are supremely important, but they are also a supremely expensive government program, and thus prison systems must be held to the highest standards of accountability.
- View All Solutions
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State Pension Litigation Update, May 2013
In attempts to reign in the costs of pensions, state lawmakers legislate pension reform. Challengers to those reforms often bring suit, alleging violations of state law, contracts, and the Constitution.
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GAO finds growing state, local fiscal gap with Medicaid to blame
Closing the gap to achieve fiscal balance over 50 years will require "action to be taken today and maintained for each year equivalent to a 14.2 percent reduction in the state and local government sector's current expenditures."
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Oregon
PERS cuts set for a House vote today
Months of discussion in the Oregon Legislature about the Public Employees Retirement System could come to an end this morning if the House of Representatives passes the Democrats' proposal to cut pension benefits.
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In Congress, a Bill Seeks to Tie Municipal Borrowing Power to Public Pension Disclosure
Representatives from California and two other states introduced a bill in Congress on Thursday that would strip states and cities of their right to issue tax-exempt bonds unless they first disclosed the true cost of their pension plans and whether they could pay it.
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States move along different roads to tackle underfunding dilemma
More states are enacting measures to help improve the solvency of their public pension funds as funding ratios remain low.
- View All Pensions
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BLOG: Higher Education, Spending
Who is the highest paid state employee in your state?
Time to add a new diagram to the state budget and policy playbook--your state's highest paid employee is probably a football or basketball coach.
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BLOG: Medicaid
Medicaid expansion won't yield quality health care
The bombshell Oregon Medicaid study released this week should give all states pause as they consider plans to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. States must now ask what the point of Medicaid is in the first place.
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BLOG: Budget Gimmicks, Budget Processes and Systems, Measures to Balance Budgets, Spending, State Debt
Let's Put Privatizing Municipal Services Back on the Table
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BLOG: Unions
Airing Out the Smoke-filled Rooms: Bringing Transparency to Public Union Collective Bargaining
To help prevent union strong-arming that fleeces taxpayers, we should know precisely what public union officials are demanding and what government employers are offering in any collective negotiation about employment terms and conditions.
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BLOG: Budget Gimmicks, Budget Processes and Systems, Budget Transparency, Federal Government Impact, Federal Government Impact, Measures to Balance Budgets, Pensions, Revenue, Spending, State Debt
Yes, Your Paycheck is Smaller...And it May Get Worse
And it isn’t just individuals who must reconfigure budgets, the states are looking at smaller “paychecks” as well.
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