Oregon’s budgetary process is like that old joke.
You know the one, two men are at a bar jawboning while perched on a couple of stools. The first man grows serious and announces that he has come down with Dunlops disease. The second man says “Oh, that sounds bad. What is that?”. The first man stands up, shows off his flabby middle and says “My belly’s dunlopped over my belt!”
Oregon has got Dunlops. The entire Oregon apparatus is used to seeing that flabby belly hanging over its belt that anything less than sustaining or growing that flab
Take son the appearance of a starvation diet
Oregon public employee unions, their bosses and private counterparts think that we are a bunch of straight men and clueless.
They claim that if we don’t ladle on the extra fat every budget season that (a) someone is going to die (B) be “left behind” or (C) government we know it will cease to exist.
We sit there like straight men with dough eyes saying “Oh that sounds bad!”
This election we have a chance to put the budget on a diet and send it to the gym for a workout for a little muscle.
Measure 48 will continue to feed the budget but at the rate of inflation plus population growth. So if population grows at 4% and inflation grows at 4% the budget grows by 8%. In the world of Measure 48 it is 4+4 = 8.
It doesn’t stop there. Lawmakers will be able to put the extra in rainy day fund or give it back to taxpayers for when we need it. Let’s face it — Oregon’s flabby budget needs to lose a few extra inches here and there.
Measure 48 would get rid of the Dunlops and save Oregonians some extra money.