Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon lawmakers are hitting the road this week.  The Legislature’s budget-writing committee is holding hearings across the state to sample public opinion about how to deal with a looming budget deficit.  Salem correspondent Chris Lehman reports.

Officially Oregon is about $3 billion short of the amount of money needed to continue current state services.  But most lawmakers expect that number to grow to well past $4 billion.

The Legislature will plug some of the hole with federal stimulus dollars and the state’s reserve funds.  But lawmakers will have to fill the rest of the gap by either cutting services or raising taxes.

The series of hearings is aimed at collecting views from outside the capitol.  The first meeting is Monday in Lincoln City.

The eight city tour wraps up May First in Eugene.

Anti-tax groups had planned a press conference Monday to serve notice that they intend to force a referendum on any possible income tax increase.  

They cancelled that event, but Russ Walker of FreedomWorks says they’ll keep an eye on any tax proposals that emerge after the Legislature’s field hearings.