Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon lawmakers plan to meet this week to plug some budget holes with a new round of federal funding.

It comes a week after state agencies outlined their plans to deal with eight percent cuts triggered by falling state revenues.

Oregon’s budget situation just keeps getting worse. Expected tax revenues fell by a half billion dollars in May.

So Governor Ted Kulongoski ordered a broad range of spending reductions.

Then last month state economists shaved another $377 million off the state’s predicted tax collections.

Another round of across-the-board cuts is happening now. But Democratic House Speaker Dave Hunt says lawmakers will offset some cuts to education and human services.

Dave Hunt: “We are basically going to go through, use the state reserves that we still have in savings, use the federal stimulus dollars that the congressional delegations brought home to Oregon, and use that to protect critical services that Oregonians are relying on.”

The Legislature’s Emergency Board this week will spend more than $200 million in federal funds on schools and social programs. Most of the earlier cuts still stand, however.

Lawmakers plan to wait until at least December to take action to keep several state prisons from closing down.