Lawmakers favor education spending over social services in 2015-17 budget.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Lawmakers favor education spending over social services in 2015-17 budget.
“We are balancing in terms of priorities,” said Sen. Richard Devlin, budget committee co-chair along with Rep. Peter Buckley.
The tightrope act is particularly important as Oregon comes out of the recession that hampered economic growth for years, Buckley said. Every agency and program gave up something, he said, and now everyone wants to gain that funding back. However, there is still not enough money to cover every possible cause, Buckley said.
Read more at the Statesman Journal.
The Portland Tribune reported on what’s next for the proposed budget:
“There are still 10,000 different decisions that still have to be made,” Devlin says in reference to the details of agency budgets that are reviewed by subcommittees.
All those budgets have to be signed by the governor.
DHM Research did a survey of what Oregonians want to happen in the upcoming legislative session, and predictably, the results were varied.
“Our research shows people in Oregon are feeling more optimistic about the economy. And national studies show similar findings across the country. However, there is still anxiety about jobs and specifically family-wage jobs. Many people feel they are underemployed, especially younger adults with college degrees starting out in their career and older adults with lots of experience,” says Su Midghall, DHM president and principal.
Labor and business advocates have both developed agendas for state lawmakers to consider at the session that starts in earnest in February. They have been previewed at news conferences and gatherings in recent weeks, and include proposals to increase the state minimum wage and use more of the state’s natural resources to improve rural economies.
(Source: Portland Tribune).
