December 1, 2008

 

Dear OCCF System Partner,

 

On December 1, 2008, Governor Kulongoski announced his Governor’s Recommended Budget for fiscal year 2009-11. This biennial budget includes approximately $15.8 billion in general funds, the discretionary dollars that the Legislature spends on a variety of state services and programs.

 

The GRB for 2009-11 includes a recommended reduction of 7.09% in general funds ($4,264,718) from the 2007-09 Legislatively Approved Budget (LAB). This is an across-the-board reduction for all programs and systems.

 

**Based on an Essential Budget Level calculation (EBL), which is the calculation being used in the Legislative request for possible 5%, 10%, 15% or 20% reduction increments for the 2009-11 budget, this percentage would be 10.1%.

 

 

 

The overall GRB will now go to the Legislature for consideration during the 2009 Legislative Session, which begins January 12th. The Legislature will build their own budget based on the total general funds that are available. (This total amount will be adjusted by Revenue Forecasts in March and May of 2009).

 

The Commission will continue to rely on the Budget Work Group process to plan for budget reductions for 2009-11. This includes budget preparations currently under way for possible 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% reductions in 2009-11, which will be submitted to the Legislature in January 2009.

 

For details on the Commission budget, and the entire Governor’s Recommended Budget documents, please see the following links:

 

Commission Budget Information (on page 6) http://www.oregon.gov/DAS/BAM/docs/Publications/GRB0911/C_HS.pdf

 

2009-11 GRB Budget Documents: http://www.oregon.gov/DAS/BAM/GRB0911intro.shtml

 

If you need additional information, please contact Iris Bell (503) 378-6250, Marsha Clark (503) 378-5138, or Andy Smith (971) 322-8512.

- Mickey