A lengthening agenda.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Gov. Ted Kulongoski, House Speaker Karen Minnis and Senate President Peter Courtney agree that the state faces urgent problems that might not wait until the next regular legislative session convenes next January. The trouble is, the problems they've identified are not the same. A special session of the Legislature appears increasingly likely, and four separate issues are already on the agenda. The governor and the legislative leadership will have to work out a plan for addressing each of their priorities, and for keeping the agenda of any special session from lengthening still further.

Courtney has been leaning toward a special session since late last year, when the state Department of Human Services - the agency that manages Medicaid programs and services for disabled, low-income and elderly Oregonians - discovered a $172 million shortfall in its budget for the 2005-07 biennium. Cutting that much from the state's social services programs would entail policy choices in which the Legislature should be involved. Yet DHS Director Bruce Goldberg offered hope that the shortfall could be addressed without drastic changes in policies or services, which allowed other state leaders to refrain from joining Courtney in support of a special session.

At the same time the DHS was sinking into a budgetary quagmire, a growing state economy was producing unexpected amounts of revenue. Most of the surplus revenue, $460 million from the personal income tax and $205 million from the corporate income tax, is slated to be rebated to taxpayers next year under Oregon's "kicker" law. But several leading business organizations have signaled a willingness to let the state keep the surplus corporate income tax funds, provided the money is used for purposes they support. And unrestricted revenue is also growing - particularly from the state lottery, which is generating $69 million more than was projected last year.

The availability of unallocated state funds has caught the attention of supporters of the financially troubled Portland School District. In the 2004-05 school year, the district received $402 million in state and local tax support. Next year, the total is expected to decline to $331 million, largely due to the expiration of local tax measures.

The Legislature could help, either with outright grants of state funds or by approving an extension of a local tax measure. Kulongoski has said that if a special session is called, he will support allocating $10 million for Portland schools; Courtney also believes the state should provide assistance. Any state aid for the Portland School District, of course, would cause other districts throughout the state to line up for similar favors.

Minnis, meanwhile, has said that a special session should consider statewide regulation of payday loans - short-term, unsecured loans that often carry triple-digit annualized rates of interest. Minnis helped kill a payday loan bill during the last regular legislative session, but the political landscape has changed. City ordinances to protect borrowers are spreading, and an initiative to regulate the payday loan industry may be headed for the November ballot.

Plugging the hole in the DHS budget, changing the corporate kicker law, helping schools in Portland and elsewhere, regulating payday loans - that sounds like more than a day's work. Kulongoski and the legislative leadership would have to be certain that a consensus existed on all of these issues, and also resist pressure to add still more items to the agenda of a special session. Otherwise, Oregon might get a preview of what annual legislative sessions would be like.