Schools still facing cuts

Measures 66 and 67 passed statewide despite failing in Clackamas County; but area schools still face funding gaps

By Anthony Roberts

The Oregon City News, Feb 2, 2010

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Despite the approval of two tax-increase measures last week, area school districts still find themselves scrambling to plug holes in their annual budgets – they’re just smaller holes.

Voters approved Ballot Measures 66 and 67 by a 53 percent to 46 percent margin last week, however, Clackamas County narrowly rejected the measures. Here, the measures fell by a 51 to 49 percent vote. The Clackamas County Elections Division reported 63 percent turnout, or about 135,000 ballots cast. Both of the measures failed by fewer than 3,000 votes.

Officials at local school districts were pleased, but stopped short of celebrating – they are still looking at a dire budget year. Teachers and employees in Oregon City, Gladstone and North Clackamas already took some sort of pay cut or pay freeze last year.

“The difficult question we now face is how to make more budget reductions,” said North Clackamas School District Superintendent Tim Mills. Last year, North Clackamas used $3 million in reserve funds and $3.6 million in one-time resources to balance the budget; these funding sources are not available to balance the budget in 2010-11. The district has to make cuts to plug a $3 million budget gap.

Oregon City School District also must dig out of a $3 million budget hole, though as a percentage of the total budget, their funding gap is much larger. The district’s annual expenditures for the current budget are about $60 million, which is already a $10 million decrease from last year. NCSD, a much larger district, has a $136 million budget.

Oregon City, which has suffered from declining enrollment, already made drastic cuts last year, closing Park Place Elementary School and laying off teachers. North Clackamas’s cuts weren’t as serious, but they avoided worse layoffs only after an 11th-hour deal with the teachers union on wage and benefit concessions.

John Kinden, director of finance at Gladstone School District, said the district will likely face a budget gap of at least $1.5 million. He warned, however, that there are a number of circumstances that could change, and if the economy takes a dive, the district could face a gap as high as $3.5 million in its $17 million budget.

The ballot measures

Measure 66 will increase income taxes for high-income people earning $125,000 as individuals and $250,000 as a couple. Ballot Measure 67 increases taxes for corporations and some businesses from the minimum of $10 a year.

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