Oregon Public Broadcasting

Both Oregon and Washington are facing deep budget shortfalls this year. The crises are spurring efforts to enact overhauls of state government.  

In Washington, lawmakers have been loudly debating new tax policies.  

But in Oregon, Governor Ted Kulongoski has been largely working behind the scenes to craft a long-term restructuring plan.  Salem correspondent Chris Lehman reports.

Oregon lawmakers have been hinting at the need for big changes in the way state government operates.

Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski has his own ideas.  Some of those may include revisiting several of the costly ballot measures that have shaped state government over the past 20 years.  That would take time.  

Pacific University political analyst Jim Moore says with a little more than a year and a half left in office, the Governor can’t afford to wait much longer to enact big changes.

Jim Moore:  “To do that, you have to have a real strong focuses argument about why change has to happen, and that usually involves the Governor being very clear for a long time about what’s going on.  I don’t think Kulongoski’s giving himself enough time to make that case.”

Lawmakers are occupied with writing a spending plan for the next two-year fiscal cycle that starts in July.

Kulongoski may be timing some of his proposals for a special session of the Legislature, scheduled for February of next year.