Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon lawmakers are moving ahead with a plan to use the state’s reserves to shore up the education budget.  

That comes despite a threatened veto from Governor Ted Kulongoski.  The legislature’s spending plan cleared a subcommittee Thursday morning.    Salem Correspondent Chris Lehman reports.

The Governor thinks lawmakers are poised to use too much of the state’s reserves in order to balance the budget.

The legislature is grappling with a four billion dollar budget deficit.

Lawmakers in the Ways and Means Education Subcommittee made no mention of the veto threat as they unanimously approved the K-12 spending plan.

Committee co-chair, Democratic Senator Rod Monroe, downplayed the intra-party brouhaha between the Governor and the Legislature.

Sen. Rod Monroe:  “The governor will do what he needs to do.  I hope that he does not veto the budget.  I think it is very close to a budget that he has suggested.”

Monroe, like House Speaker Dave Hunt a day earlier, predicted that enough lawmakers would vote to over-ride a veto if it comes to that.  That would take a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers.