BY SARAH ROSS

Photo by Dave Dugdale/Flickr.com

SALEM- With the intention to protect its revenue stream, lawmakers recently approved more funding for Oregon’s tax collecting agency.

The Department of Revenue, directed with collecting state taxes from businesses and individuals, will see an increase of one percent in their budget from two years ago.

The increased funding is meant to retain auditor positions and “revenue production” which the Legislative Fiscal Office estimates would bring in an additional $32.7 million over the next two years.

“I believe the intent was they [legislators] did not want to harm the revenue stream,” said Laurie Byerly, fiscal analyst with the Legislative Fiscal Office.

“If you take away auditors and you take away people that work on collections, you’re potentially reducing those dollars coming in the door,” she said.

The department will fully eliminate 35 vacant positions in the administrative and property tax areas, which were first taken during Governor Ted Kulongoski’s allotment reduction last year.

Byerly said those working in the Property Tax Division work mainly to support counties and do not have a direct impact on the state’s general fund budget.

“I think the most important thing is we don’t have to lay anybody off,” said Rosemary Hardin, spokeswoman for the department.

The largest increase in the budget came from contracting tax collection out to private companies, as the department is required to do by law. This process was moved out of being funded by the general fund and instead covered by out-of-state tax collection fees. It led to a $1.6 million increase in that portion of the legislative budget since the 2009-2011 biennium.

Another portion of the budget funds a state run, computerized mapping system which counties use to track property lines. This budget, which pays for upgrades to the system for counties, will see a decline in over $3.4 million, or 9.2 percent from two years ago.

Despite the overall increase, the budget received little dissent from members in either chamber. In the Senate, only Sen. Larry George, R-Sherwood, opposed it, while seven Republican representatives voted against it in the House.

Freshman Representative Shawn Lindsay, R-Hillsboro, told Oregon Capitol News his concern on this budget came from the increase.

“When we are cutting higher ed[ucation], and when we are not funding some of the K-12 ed[ucation] the way that I believe we should, I’m quite disappointed that we are increasing spending for the Department of Revenue,” said Lindsay.

The lawmaker also expressed his disappointment with the budgeting process which, he says, is run by committee chairs and doesn’t allow for line item vetoes used to delete portions of a bill by the full chamber.

“It’s either accept the whole thing or reject the whole thing,” said Lindsay. He pointed to his often liking some portions of budgets but not others as causing his ‘no’ votes on several budgets.

For this department, however, lawmakers tend to offer budgetary protection.

“At least as long as I’ve been around, there’s always been a recognition and a concern about reducing the [Revenue] Department too much, because you will have an impact on the revenue coming in to the general fund,” Byerly said.

After passing out of both the House and Senate chambers late last week, the budget will move on to the governor for final approval.