The budget bills are beginning to flow through the marble chambers of the Oregon State Legislature. This week the House voted on 21 budgets large and small, from regulatory board budgets such as $399,376 for the Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists, to $25.5 Million for whole departments like the State Treasurer's Office. The most controversial was the budget for the State Fair because it contains $1.3 Million in General Funds, which are income tax dollars. This puts this particular budget in direct competition with the state school fund. With this trickle of money bills, the legislature is getting down to its most important business at last.

The biennial budget always comes last in the rhythm of a legislative session. It is too big a job and there are too many details for it to be otherwise.

This week Senators and Representatives are getting the details and learning the tradeoffs in a time of a profound shortage of dollars. Soon, the Speaker of the House, Karen Minnis (R-Wood Village) must decide whether she will try to force through an "all cuts" budget or whether she will try to raise some revenue to offset the drop in income tax receipts. Her choice, and whether or not it is adopted, will have a profound effect on Oregon for at least a generation.

With the recession, the budget has become profoundly political. The "no new taxes" philosophy pledged by 21 of the 35 Republican members of the House is colliding with the reality of a "within our means" budget: the destruction of health care for low income Oregonians, the early closure and very large classes sizes of our schools, the laying off of yet another hundred or so State Police Officers and the true meaning of four day a week courts.

Schools, health care and public safety systems, once cut to the bone, cannot recover quickly even with an infusion of cash. Legislators are realizing that an "all cuts" budget will be profoundly destructive for those services upon which we all depend, not only for the short term of the two year budget, but for the long term as well. Building good schools, or any other institutions worth having, takes at least a generation of hard work. They can be destroyed in just a couple budget cycles.

On the other side, raising revenue is difficult in a time of austerity when business and individuals feel the pinch of economic recession. We must not abort the business recovery through burdensome taxation.

My own view? Oregon's tax burden was about average for the states before the recession. Our taxes on business and the wealthy are the lowest in the West. Overall our business climate is in the top quarter of all the states. To save our schools, return the sick to health, and protect ourselves from crime, we can afford a modest increase in taxation especially of big business and those who have done financially well in life.

What will the legislature actually do? The next three or four weeks will tell.