OREGON AFSCME

e-lert #6 ¥ Feb. 23, 2009

Edited by Don Loving, Council 75 Public Affairs Director

Well, as mentioned on Friday, we delayed this edition of the e-lert until today hoping to be able to give you some better details concerning the state budget crisis. Alas, not many details are forthcoming very quickly. Agencies and legislators are grappling with how to fill an $855 million gap in what's left of the 2007-09 biennium, then they'll move on to the formidable task of a $3 billion shortfall in the 2009-11 biennium.

As you can expect at the capitol, some Democrats see raising taxes as the only solution and some Republicans see cutting everything in sight as the only solution. Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) is among those seeking the middle ground when he said, "You can't just cut your way out of this thing and you can't just tax your way out of this thing — we're going to have to do a little bit of both."

We do have some budget details on public safety agencies, so we'll start this e-lert with those ...

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PUBLIC SAFETY PROBLEMS — Any discussion regarding the Oregon state budget requires a "reminder" that we need to differentiate between General Fund agencies and other agencies. The state General Fund gets its dollars primarily through income taxes and some Oregon Lottery proceeds. The Oregon Department of Corrections is by far the largest (mostly) AFSCME-represented state agency that depends on General Fund dollars. Most other AFSCME-represented state agencies are fee-dependent — DEQ, OLCC, DLCD and so on. SEIU, which represents the bulk of the Capitol Mall employees, has far more General Fund-dependent members than we do.

In Oregon, K-12 education is funded through the General Fund. While legislators would deny the bluntness of what I'm about to say, in essence it's true: each session lawmakers decide how much to spend on K-12 education and then all of the other General Fund agencies fight for what's left. Again, DOC is our big one, and you can only cut prison budgets so much before you have to start letting inmates out early, something no legislator wants happening on his or her watch.

So, with that background, here's what insight we can offer right now on various public safety agencies, all overseen by our senior Political Coordinator Mary Botkin:

Corrections — As mentioned, DOC is, for all intent and purposes, a General Fund agency and has no "other funds." As such, it is suffering from cuts that offer little in alternatives, the current amount of cuts identified are in excess of $33.9 million. DOC is eliminating about 371 vacant positions, not building out the second phase of Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras and has implemented a complete hiring freeze. Community corrections will suffer losses of over $13 million. Botkin's focus is on restoring professional certified training through DPSST — as reported earlier, the DOC wants to move training "in-house" — and stopping the closure of any of our current facilities. "My belief is that the economic crisis of closing a prison facility will far outweigh any positive impacts on the overall budgets," said Botkin.

Botkin notes that the Joint Ways and Means Co-Chairs have taken all discretionary funds (inmate welfare funds, ending balances and other savings) and moved them to the General Fund. "We will be in a bloody battle with Human Services and schools for our share of the General Fund," she says.

DPSST — The Department of Public safety Standards and Training has seen the elimination of 27 trainers and staff as a result of revenue cuts and losses in federal funds, worsened by the DOC's preliminary decision to eliminate DPSST training for corrections officers. This is a cut from the DOC budget of $7.5 million and decimates the corrections training program within DPSST. There is a crossover impact as this will result in higher costs for local governments and the local law enforcement community. That will be, by extension, problematic for local government budgets as they are forced to choose between public safety and human services.

Oregon Military Department — Fortunately this agency is largely funded through federal funds, but they will still take some significant cuts in program areas including Emergency Management and Youth Challenge, Seismic Rehabilitation and the improvements in armories statewide.

Oregon Department of Justice — A glimmer of good news here. The DOJ budget, while hit in some areas, seems in a good position of recovering most of the cuts. Child support enforcement takes the biggest losses, but also has the largest support base lobbying the budget committee. Botkin says AFSCME is focused on the defense of criminal convictions. "That is the area that has some of the largest impact on us organizationally and has the fewest supporters, so we need to step up," says Botkin. "This is the area that defends state agencies against lawsuits by outside forces and inmates."

Oregon Youth Authority — The OYA is hit especially hard in the first round of cuts. The list of cutbacks includes closing over 100 institutional beds, eliminating 50 close custody beds in the community, eliminating 104 community placements, reducing parole and probation services, community diversion and gang programs. The agency will also close 29 foster care beds and 75 behavioral and rehab beds, as well as closing the Burns facility entirely. "Closing one facility with 50 beds saves the system the same as it would take to close 100 beds spread around the state," says Botkin. "It's an economy of scale thing and a devastating blow to a small rural community like Burns. While these are not AFSCME jobs directly, it does carry forward and cost us AFSCME-represented juvenile parole officer jobs both short and long term. At this point, exactly how many is not clear."

We will of course continue to update you with any cutback information as it becomes available.

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DD ISSUE APPARENTLY RESOLVED — Once again AFSCME has hopefully cleared a hurdle with state Rep. Sarah Gelser (D-Corvallis), who keeps introducing legislation that would inadvertently eliminate our county developmentally disabled programs and the case workers. AFSCME Political Coordinator Ralph Groener is handling the funding side of this issue, while Botkin works the mechanics of the legislation, which would have transferred all such programs from the counties to the state.

Botkin is working with Local 88 (Multnomah County) and Gelser to make sure all the amendments are done to satisfy Local 88's concerns — concerns that would also impact other AFSCME-represented county employees working with MR/DD clients.

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'RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD' ... However, Gov. Ted Kulongoski apparently has a super-umbrella.

AFSCME lobbyists have been working with advocates for all public services to access the state's Rainy Day and Education Stabilization Funds to help fill the budget holes. But any hope of doing so appear exhausted when Kulongoski announced on Feb. 19 that he would veto any proposals that utilized any of these funds.

It's a sticky situation for legislators. The long-sought-after Rainy Day Fund was finally created by the 2007 session, using mostly corporate kicker funds. There's currently some $700 million in the fund. On the one hand, lawmakers and the governor are reluctant to tap into the fund so soon after it has been established — they want to grow it over several years. On the other hand, budget-wise it's not currently raining in the state — it's pouring.

"I understand the reluctance, but if the fund was indeed created for the proverbial 'rainy day,' how much wetter can we get?" asks Botkin. She also says new public safety budget and system work groups have been formed, and Botkin will be sitting on both the adult and juvenile work groups to suggest budget savings and organizational changes that will create short and long term system savings.

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ALLEN TESTIFIES ON HB 2009 — Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Ken Allen was one of several union leaders to testify Feb. 20 in favor of HB 2009, the proposed health care provider tax bill.

As explained in an earlier e-lert by Council 75 Political Coordinator Joe Baessler the bill would levy a 4 percent tax on hospitals and insurance providers that would help fund low-income patients, particularly children. While the measure would provide about $600 million within the state, there would be federal Medicaid reimbursement totaling $1 billion in return.

"I want to put a face on the people we're talking about here," Allen told the legislative committee hearing the bill. "In many cases these are people providing health care services to others that make so little, they can't afford health care themselves — sometimes for their families, and sometimes not even for themselves individually. HB 2009 addresses a serious need in our state."

Action Alert! We are unabashedly repeating our Action Alert from last week. You are encouraged to contact your state legislators and urge them to not only pass HB 2009, but to do so quickly. Baessler says there is a timing issue with new federal reimbursement rules that make it imperative for HB 2009 to pass no later than the end of April.

Phone numbers and e-mail addresses are provided for each state legislator on the Council 75 website's Oregon Legislature page. And no, it's not an excuse if you don't know who your legislator is — there is also a link on that page that will take you to a form to identify your state representative and state senator, all you have to do is type in your address.

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BEER TAX DEBATE — Council 75 members and staff are active in the uphill attempt to pass the first increase in Oregon's beer tax in over 30 years. The beer lobbyist is, as always, pulling out all the stops, but the simple fact is that Oregon has the lowest tax on suds of any state in the union.

We have crafted an editorial page article that will soon be sent to major publications across the state, co-authored by Allen and Gina Nikkel, Executive Director of the Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs. As we never know who will pick it up and who won't, we'll share it with you here:

This state budget cycle, addictions services in Oregon are facing especially drastic reductions. In particular, the latest state budget proposal cuts funding for treatment, prevention and recovery programs by a staggering 84 percent.

In these tough economic times, it is not enough to simply talk about cuts. We need to look for funding solutions. With huge demands being placed on our state's coffers and an increasingly dismal budget forecast, it's critical that we find alternative sources of revenue to pay for the programs and services Oregonians depend on. This is why we are calling on state legislators to pass the beer tax increase — House Bill 2461.

Recently the Legislature held its first hearing on the proposed beer tax increase and we were there. Our legislators need to know that, beyond all the news stories and competing statistics in this debate, there are real people engaged in the fight against the disease of addiction who support a reasonable tax on beer.

Specifically, we think it's time to listen to the experts when it comes to funding addictions programs—the direct service professionals who dedicate themselves to helping individuals, families and communities cope with substance abuse and dependence. These providers know better than anyone how underfunding and budget cuts can impact services.

If you ask someone who works in the field, they'll tell you that substance abuse and addiction programs are already woefully underfunded. These front line workers know all too well about the waiting lists for individuals trying to get into programs and often have their hearts broken when they see people turned away from services with no place else to go.

You don't have to work in the profession to know the faces of addiction. They are family members, co-workers, friends and neighbors. They are people whose untreated disease has significant social and economic consequences—not only for themselves, but for all of us.

It's been 32 years since Oregon's beer tax was increased, and Oregon currently has the lowest beer tax in the country. The proposed beer tax increase will not only provide a stable and adequate funding source for the state's chronically under-funded substance abuse services (and Ballot Measure 57, which mandates treatment and recovery programs for inmates and parolees) — it will free up $114 million from the state's General Fund to be used for other critical services that may otherwise be threatened.

Lest we be duped into thinking this will be the end of beer drinking as we know it, let's ask ourselves why you can cross the river to Washington — a state with a sales tax and a higher beer tax than Oregon — and purchase a six pack for nearly the same price as you can in Oregon. Price is a function of supply and demand. If the distributors choose to use this reasonable tax as an excuse to increase their profit margins beyond the level of the tax, then shame on them.

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Briefly, away from the capitol ...

MORE LANE COUNTY MEDIATION — There is still no contract agreement between Local 2831 and Lane County, despite a proposal from the local last week that would have bridged the financial impact between the current medical plan the employees want to keep and the cheaper, lesser plan the county wants them to have. The county says it will implement its final offer on March 1, but state mediator Bob Nightingale has schedule another session for this Friday (Feb. 27). We'll keep you posted.

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STATE BARGAINING — The first day of "traditional bargaining" with the State of Oregon occurred today (Feb. 23) at the new Salem AFSCME office. As explained in the last e-lert, the state pulled out of expedited bargaining because of concerns about the budget. There's little to report on today's first session other than our union and SEIU are following through on their pledge to work together — a team of SEIU representatives is in our building as I write this meeting with our State Central Table team to share ideas and information.

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