Oregon's budget is insanity

Insanity.

Despite all the hand-wringing and doom-saying, Oregon’s proposed budget for 2009-11 proposes spending $15.2 billion in general fund and lottery dollars, a 5.3 percent INCREASE over the 2007-2009 budget in a time of supposed fiscal austerity. Justifying this spending level, Democrats claim the budget requires $2 billion in cuts because it would cost $17.2 billion to continue providing state services at their current level. That would have been a $2.8 billion, or a 19.5 percent, increase over the 2007-2009 budget. If the Democrats think that kind of explosive growth in Oregon’s general fund and lottery dollars budget makes sense, look at what the budget would be if you carried that kind of increase through in subsequent budgets:

2011-2013 $20.6 billion
2013-2015 $24.6 billion
2015-2017 $29.4 billion

Somebody’s taxes are going to have to go up to cover this. Just think of what Oregon’s politicians could do with all that money.

On top of all this, don’t forget that the Democrats are proposing $800 million in new tax revenue for the 2009-2011 general fund and lottery dollars budget. The added taxes are intended to deal with the temporary economic downturn, but that taxes will be permanent.