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Blog: Budget Committee may act soon

Story by Dana Haynes

Rep. Michael Dembrow, a longtime instructor at the Cascade Campus, just released the latest version of his newsletter. He says the Ways and Means Co-Chairs (Sen. Richard Devlin from Lake Oswego, Rep. Peter Buckley from Ashland, and Rep. Dennis Richardson from Myrtle Point) are finishing work on the broad contours of the 2011-13 budget, which will be announced next week.

“This is much earlier than is usually the case,” Dembrow writes. “Generally, the Co-Chairs don’t release their budget until after the May revenue forecast, so all of the agency presentations and public testimony come in response to the Governor’s proposed budget. (Some elements of the Governor’s budget will be reflected in the Co-Chairs’ budget, others not.) As a result of this change, this time the budget debate during April, May, and June will be much more ‘real-world.’ It will be interesting to see what the effects of this different approach will be.”

By “co-chairs,” he means the three lawmakers who run the budget-writing Ways & Means Committee. This is a pivotal moment in any year’s legislative session. But that’s doubly true in years like this, when the state is running a deficit and all agencies are expecting budget cuts.

Stay tuned….