Oregon Gov. Kate Brown calls mid-August special session to cut state budget

Oregon lawmakers will return to Salem for a second special session Aug. 10, Gov. Kate Brown announced Friday. In this file photo, Senate lawmakers assembled for the first special session in June largely wore masks to protect against spreading coronavirus. Brooke Herbert/StaffBrooke Herbert/The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oregon lawmakers will reconvene at the state Capitol Aug. 10 for a special session focused on cuts to close a more than $1 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Kate Brown announced on Friday.

Legislators have known since earlier this year that they had to return to Salem for a second special session to patch the budget, after Brown decided their first special session would focus on police accountability laws.

The governor’s decision to call lawmakers into session could be a concession that the state is unlikely to receive any budget assistance from Congress, a possibility Brown and public employee union leaders cited earlier in the summer as a reason to delay the second special session. But the U.S. House and Senate remain far apart on a new COVID-19 relief package and the Republican-controlled Senate’s plan contains no money to address shortfalls in state and local government budgets.

“For months, we have waited for Congress to take action, and it is still my hope that they will include aid for states and local governments in the coronavirus relief package currently being negotiated,” Brown said.

Two of the three top budget writers in the Legislature wanted to act more quickly to scale back state spending, saying it was unlikely Congress would approve budget bailout money for states, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported in early July. Although one of the Ways and Means Committee co-chairs described the roughly $400 million in proposed trims to the current budget as “easy cuts” largely focused on unfilled jobs and programs that have yet to launch, there are some layoffs and a small prison closure on the table.

Oregon is halfway through a two-year, roughly $25 billion general fund and lottery budget.

Unlike in Washington and California, Oregon has not frozen or cut pay for public employees. The current budget calls for roughly $200 million in cost-of-living raises and step increases for everyone from frontline workers to state executives, spread across the two-year budget. On average, that is expected to add up to raises of up to 15%. Those raises “roll up” in future budgets, meaning the cost of current state programs and services will increase even as state economist predict Oregon will bring in $8 billion less in income taxes — the state’s largest revenue source — over the next five years due to the pandemic.

Brown has avoided saying whether she is seeking concessions from public employee unions, as Gov. Ted Kulongoski did during the 2008 recession. Her calendar shows she has met repeatedly with leaders from AFSCME and SEIU Local 503, including SEIU lobbyist Andrea Cooper, who was Brown’s 2018 campaign manager.

The governor on Friday also encouraged lawmakers to consider passing further “urgent legislation that builds on or remains from the first special session,” according to her proclamation calling lawmakers into session, which was reported by nonprofit health news site The Lund Report.

A task force formed in the first 2020 special session is working on additional police accountability and reform proposals, which were originally expected to be introduced in the next regular legislative session in early 2021. However, there is increasing momentum to bring up some of the proposals to demilitarize police, eliminate legalized slavery from the state’s constitution and to strengthen the state’s fair housing laws in the special session, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported earlier this week.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said lawmakers have been itching to fix the budget for months and he insisted that work must remain front and center.

“Key budget legislators have been working on this for months, now is the time to get it done,” Courtney said. “We have another long session coming in January. Now is the time for the budget. That must be our mission this special session.”

Senate Republican Leader Fred Girod of Lyons, who in the last week has repeatedly described protesters as violent and destructive anarchists, agreed the focus should be on the budget.

“Senate Republicans have been willing to work on the budget since before the governor called the first special session earlier this summer,” Girod said. “If we diverge from the stated purpose of addressing the budget, this second special session will make a mockery of the legislative process yet again. Policy bills should be off the table.”

-- Hillary Borrud: hborrud@oregonian.com; @hborrud

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