The Money Is There

The Oregon Congress failed to pass a proposed school budget today.  It’s not the end of the road.  As pointed out by the Oregon Education Association, the budget is being “held hostage” to gain more cuts to the Public Employee Retirement System.

The core issue, of course, is that the available revenue is assumed to be constrained and that “tough choices” need to be made about what to fund or where to achieve other “savings”.  This is a ready-made formula for showdown partisan politics that is, ultimately, beside the point.

The choices are “tough” because most agree that state services – among them education, human services and prisons – are underfunded and revenue is scarce.  The revenue is available.  There is a vast, bubbling pool of untapped wealth that has been protected for years by lobbying, propaganda and social conditioning. 

Oregonians have decided through their votes and their choices what they want to fund, and even at what level.  They have to take the next responsible step and that is to fund the services at an appropriate level.  It is demonstrably false that the resources are unavailable.  The machinery exists to pry them loose.  Putting that machinery in motion is an act of will by the legislature or the electorate.  Tax the people responsibly, equitably and adequately.