Kotek budget blowout! (sneak taxes, hire boom)

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Leave it to the Taxpayers Association of Oregon to de-code the hidden budget tricks, traps and falsehoods of the just released Governor Kotek’s budget for the 2025 Legislature.

• 17% budget blowout!  Governor Kotek has proposed a $37 billion dollar budget which amounts to a 13% to 17% budget increase (depending on different calculations).

• Hidden gas tax!  As the Taxpayers Association has previous sounded the alarm last week, Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) has a billion dollar hole and has modeled a 35-cent gas tax hike to fill it.  Conveniently, Governor Kotek’s 2025 budget fills the billion dollar hole but does not explain how it will be filled.   This means that Governor Kotek’s budget does not balance (or reveal its balance).   This means Governor Kotek may likely be banking on the 35-cent gas tax in her budget, but keeping it quiet until the Legislature takes it up at the last minute.

• 1,200 government staff boom for less work.   Governor Kotek plans to hire 1,200 new government employees (page 434).  This hiring boom comes at a time when there are less Oregonians to serve (declining population), less businesses to regulate (mass office vacancy rates in Portland), less farms to regulate (fewer farms in Oregon), less students to teach (declining enrollment), less curriculum to teach (state lowered graduation standards), less energy to regulate (we closed 1 coal plant, 1 hydro-powered dam), less prisons (we closed two) and less DMV offices (many branches close during summer).

• Kotek admits business is hurting.  Kotek’s budget says, (page 10) “Corporate profits are projected to grow quite slowly for the next few years, adding to the tepid growth in the General Fund.”  This is all the evidence you need that Oregon taxes are too dang high and that red tape regulations are choking small businesses.

• Kotek humorously tries to explain this chart on Portland’s unique failures.

Kotek’s budget featured the chart above (page 4) to showcase the unique problem Portland is facing compared to the rest of Oregon.  Kotek has the magic reason, “The Portland region has lagged smaller metro areas and rural economies … The impact of working from home and loss of business travel during the pandemic has undoubtedly impacted big cities such as Portland.”   If working-from-home was the cause o Portland lagging the rest of Oregon (and nation) then all major U.S. cities would also be in decline.  They are not.  In fact, Portland was the #1 job loss city in America and the #1 business office vacancy city in America.

What makes Portland decline so severe is the fact that Portland has slammed its citizens with non-stop tax increases and has defunded their police causing a crime wave.   Kotek ignores this and blames people working from home.   If Oregon politicians cannot admit failure and identify the problem, then how can you fix the problem?

• Kotek’s hidden fees:  Kotek’s last major budget document (2022) did not spell out any fees or taxes.    Yet, she budgeted for big fee increases as if they were passed.  Only after the Legislature was in the final few weeks, did the budget come together with a whopping 185 fee increases.

See below what happened last Session to see what will happen in next year’s Session.   Kotek will not talk about it.  It will likely not be visible in the budget, but it will happen.

Wasn’t this de-coding Kotek’s budget awesome?  If yes, please contribute online to support future articles at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).