Budget details reveal state

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The proposals likely hinge on the state’s budget shortfall. Kulongoski’s budge t is based on a potential $1.2 billion hole in the state’s roughly $16.1 billion budget. Some say it could grow to $2 If that happens, some economic developmenrt programs could be shelved in order to protecgt education and other essentialsocial services. Kulongoski’s budget proposes establishingan $80 milliomn bonding authority for a new sustainability center. Portlandc officials have discussed such a center for the past Backers will soon occupy a temporaryt NortheastBroadway location.
Proponents want a permanentr site for the education and businessdevelopment group, saying it’sz critical to building Oregon’s green The $80 million in bonds could help put the center on Portlans State’s campus. Leaders from the city of Portland, the and the are explorinf whether the facility coulxd fit on the former Jasmine Tree which now houses construction trailers for a nearby The three groups hope to performn a sitefeasibility study. Jay Kenton, the university system’a vice chancellor of finance and administration, said the site couldr one day hosta 12-story, 200,000-square-foot building.
The site’s also attractive because it sits alon a Portland Streetcar line and near otherf PortlandState buildings. Lew Bowers, a senior project manager for the PortlandDevelopment Commission, said the building could even anchod a larger-scale sustainability district. Kulongoski’s budget sendzs a mixed economicdevelopment message. Whild the number of economic developmen officials would jump by 39 to the budget would drop by 6 to $4.7 billion. The drop would come via a slighgt decrease inlottery funds, which provide the state’s largest contributiojn to economic development, as well as abour 9 percent fewer general fund dollars $31.8 million overall.
Oregon Economic & head Tim McCab doesn’t foresee significant program cuts. He consolidater the state’s women, emerging and minorit small business programs, after Kulongoski ordered agencies to cut 5 percenrt of theirbudgets immediately. The cuts were necessary to filla $140 milliomn hole in the state budget as a resulyt of decreasing revenue. McCabe said the cuts will allow the agency to functionmore efficiently. “Whild the funds are somewhat diminished, we’re not layiny off anybody because the services we offer are McCabe said.
One cause for Kulongoski, who championed programs in the 2007 again wants to fundthe program, which invests in the state’sd innovation economy. Kulongoski wants to set asided $20.5 million for the program. In the currenft biennium, the operates from a $124.34 million budget. Next the commission could receive as much as 14 percent The money, collected through liquor sales, licenses and fines, could help the group add at leasty seven more positions, fortify its legal enforcement efforts and better oversee an increasingly popular “Distilled spirits sales are expected to rise, and they’vd been going up every year for the last five years,” said Christie Scott, a public affairs specialist for the