"I can't hear you -- c'mon!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlXHBvNFeUQ

Today the Clackamas County Sheriff testified against light rail because of increased crime. Good to know the teachers and prisoners will have a lot of "company" on the ride to Milwaukie.

"...each state agency’s budget would be cut by 4.6 percent across the board, which represents a 9 percent cut for the last 12 months of the biennium."

The O reported 9% cut. Not sure I get how that works.

Anyway, time for govt on all levels to rip off the band-aid. Let's see how bad the wound is instead of pretending it's not there.

Just keep saying to yourself: "This would all be much, much worse if we didn't tax ourselves into prosperity with M66 and M67."

Lather, rinse, repeat, wipe hands on pants.

And sleepy Ted was really ">
prescient

in 2007.

Here is an out-of-the box Portland solution: Convert some of those fancy new MAX trains into rolling jail cells by adding bars to the windows. It isn't like they will be full of passengers anyway.

No need to pay me a consulting fee for the idea, Governor Klug.

The O reported a 9% budget cut which is for a biennium. Since this is just for the one year remaining in the biennium, the cut is slightly half as that, 4.6%.
What a crock of journalistic integrity O.

Other Steve: I may be wrong, but I think it's the other way around. The state needs to cut 4.6% for the biennium, but since it is halfway over, that amounts to about 9% for the remainder.

I really wish our mainstream media cleared this up for for us hoi polloi ...

Maybe Ted Wheeler will just drop by Spirit Mountain and lay the 4.6% on red.

GW: Gotcha! Thanks for clearing it up for me.

"Teachers will get laid off. Prisoners will be set free. The sick will be left to die."

PERS employer contributions will increase, STEP raises will remain in place, raises will continue to be given,BETC grants will continue.

Don't worry folks, things are just like normal.

This simple mathematics, folks. The need to cut 4.6 percent of a biennial budget, enacted halfway into that period, equates to roughly a 9 percent cut at the delayed beginning point to the end of the biennium. What's complicated about that? So, to summarize: It's really a 9 percent cut for right now, and until the end of the current biennium. It would or will be a 4.6 percent cut if everything were to remain the same in the next biennium (which it won't, most likely).

Is math a lost science?

But what is most surprising about Ted's budget cuts,(ha), is that his chief of staff said the 9% cut will result in 200 job losses per the O.

Wow, that is too much! That's out of almost 600,000 state government employees. This extraordinary cut is 3/1000 of one percent!!

One of my local business friends has cut 11 employees out of 52. I guess he should take a lesson from the state and raise revenue by raising his prices to keep his employees.

Not just any teachers, as if they were a ubiquitous bunch. The younger more enthusiastic and cheaper ones will get tossed over first. But the payment that is carved off and redirected to PERF, measured relative to all wages regardless of pension "tier" at about 26 percent of current wage payout (this number might be stale), will surely remain untouched. An astute parent could dare to insist that this other payment is unlawful, though they would have to invest a year or two just to figure it out and then maybe longer to present the holy grail of an argument to our top court. I had speculated in 2003 that the replacement peer group of non-tier-one PERS teachers would have a voting majority within the OEA itself perhaps within ten years. We are almost there. All hope is not lost.

Is math a lost science?

No, journalism is. It's never explained properly in the media.

PS: Get off your high horse.

First shut down a couple of those college, or whatever they are calling those institutions that babysit the children of the upper class for four years or at least get them to foot the bill for their room and board.

Bluecollar - I have a bit of news for you... the kids of the upper class generally don't attend public universities (unless there is a familial tie). In general, they get to go to spendy, private schools with small claaes, lovely campuses, more prestige, and more engaged faculty. U of O or Reed or Stanford or Lewis and Clark or Harvard or Princeton or Amherst or Bowdoin or Williams.... be serious.... U of O is not getting the cream.

Right. Just skimmed. *SWOOSH!*