A crowd — many of them wearing matching purple shirts representing the Service Employees International Union Local 503, which represents about 72,000 caregivers and other professionals — lines up to attend a public hearing in the Oregon Legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee. (Photo by Mia Maldonado/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
As Oregon lawmakers weigh how to balance the state’s budget, hundreds of Oregonians visited the Capitol to plead with them not to cut funding for public defense, career and technical education and kids with disabilities.
In the fall, Gov. Tina Kotek asked all state agencies to put together proposed cuts of 2.5% and 5% to their current budgets in response to a tax law President Donald Trump signed in July that created a $900 million gap in the state’s 2025-27 budget cycle. Democratic lawmakers are now considering partially disconnecting from the federal tax code to preserve state funding, while an updated state revenue forecast Wednesday indicates the current hole is closer to $650 million.
More than 260 people signed up to testify to the state’s budget-writing Joint Ways and Means committee during a public hearing about which programs to prioritize, according to committee co-chair Sen. Kate Lieber, D-Portland. People waited in a single-file line to enter the overflowed hearing room downstairs in the Oregon State Capitol, while an additional 660 people had submitted written testimony as of Wednesday morning.
Sen. Deb Patterson, D-Salem, was the first to testify, reminding lawmakers that Oregon has disconnected from the federal tax code several times before, such as in 2018 when it disconnected from a 2017 federal 20% deduction for certain pass-through and proprietorship entities.
“Today we must disconnect with parts of (the federal tax law) that benefits multinational corporations at the expense of working people and must focus on protecting access to health care and other programs, as well as protecting our state fiscal resources for the long-term,” Patterson said.
Dozens of education advocates — including community college leaders, public school teachers and students — testified against cutting programs that expand access to career and technical education, promote careers in agriculture, science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, as well as programs geared at improving attendance and community outreach.
Several called for dipping into the state’s $1.2 billion education stability fund to ensure no mid-year cuts.
Parents of children with disabilities also implored lawmakers to break with the federal tax code and preserve the parental income disregard — a program that lets children with disabilities qualify for Medicaid-funded services based on their own income rather than their parent’s income.
Shasta Kearns Moore, the state chapter lead for Little Lobbyists Oregon, said she was shocked to see the program on the list of possible funding cuts for the Oregon Department of Human Services.
“If we’re not funding services that let children survive, then what are we even doing?” she said. “Disabled kids can’t just work harder or raise funds another way.”
Penny FitzMaurice testified alongside her young son, Silas, who she said has a rare neurogenetic syndrome, needs 24/7 care and must be within a foot of distance from her at any time because of safety concerns.
“Medicaid allows parents to keep their children at home instead of institutions,” FitzMaurice said. “It allows us to go to schools and not hospitals, and without it, many families would be forced to make impossible choices between working, housing and caregiving.
At least two people spoke in favor of Trump’s tax changes at the hearing, criticizing lawmakers for subsidizing so many programs. Others who testified asked lawmakers to maintain funding for transportation projects, the state’s public defense commission and natural resource agencies in charge of monitoring water and air quality.
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