News

Emergency-fund requests exceed available resources

STEVE LAW
Statesman Journal

September 6, 2006

There are more hands in the cookie jar than leftover cookies when it comes to the state Emergency Fund.

State agencies submitted requests Friday for $12 million from the pot of emergency money that's supposed to tide the state over until July, when the new budget cycle begins.

But there's less than $11 million left in the Emergency Fund, and the state also faces a $10 million lawsuit settlement and potential costs to quell fires on state lands.

As a result, the money requests are likely to be pared down by the time the Legislative Emergency Board meets Sept. 21 and 22 to take up the proposals.

Lawmakers aren't likely to be surprised by any of the requests, said Lindsay Ball, the director of the state Department of Administrative Services. But he predicted some requests are likely to get put off or reduced, because there is not enough money to fund them all.

"It certainly means they will not be able to approve all of the items before them," said Theresa McHugh, who advises lawmakers as deputy director of the Legislative Fiscal Office. If all the emergency requests are honored, "we would be $650,000 in the hole," McHugh said.

The biggest money request is $7.8 million for public-defender services. There are more poor people needing legal defense than projected when the budget was written. Under the state and federal constitutions, poor people are guaranteed legal representation at public expense if they can't afford a lawyer.

Even if the spending requests are reduced, the state faces two potential money requests that aren't on the list.

A coalition of timber-dependent counties won a lawsuit contesting the Legislature's 2003 decision to spend $10 million from a forest-development account for other purposes. It's not clear when that bill will come due, but the tab is expected to be more than $10 million.

Then there's the perennial issue this time of year: fighting forest fires. The fire season is far from over and the final cost is unknown.

The Legislative Emergency Board is a panel of lawmakers that makes spending and other decisions when the full Legislature is out of session.

If the Emergency Board defers some spending items until its next session Nov. 31 to Dec. 1, the state's Emergency Fund will get bolstered, McHugh said. By then, lawmakers will be able to redeploy $15.5 million set aside for other purposes, including $12.7 million reserved for employee salaries that wasn't spent.

That might enable lawmakers to spend money more freely, knowing they have a larger cushion.