Democrats want to cut the cuts.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Senate Democrats rolled out their budgetary wish list Monday, saying they'd like to ensure a full school year without increasing class size, freeze college and university tuition, and stave off proposed cuts to pre-kindergarten education and a popular program for senior citizens.

However, that plan carries a price tag of at least $550 million beyond the $11.9 billion no-new-taxes package proposed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Leaders of the Senate's Democratic majority only hinted at how they would pay for it all - citing as possibilities new tax dollars resulting from a rosier revenue outlook; government and school district efficiencies; a proposed car insurance surcharge; and rolling back some tax breaks.

They stopped short of spelling out precisely how they'd come up with the half-billion dollars. Senate budget chief Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, said that didn't make the Democrats' proposal a secret plan, though.

"No, no. It's not a secret plan. Give us a few days. We're just being deferential," he said, explaining that Democrats in the Senate wanted to take a few days to privately discuss with House GOP leaders their plan to pay for their spending proposals.

The leaders of the House's majority Republicans expressed anger that the Democrats in the Senate had gone public with their spending ideas without first negotiating an agreement on how much the Legislature was willing to spend overall - and how it would pay for any increases beyond Kulongoski's budget for 2005-07.

"They ran out and started filling up the shopping cart before we knew how much more we had to spend," said House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village.

Rep. Susan Morgan, a Myrtle Creek Republican and second in command in the House on budget matters, said it "takes a certain amount of nerve" to come out with crowd-pleasing ideas to increase school funding, stave of tuition increases and meet other public-spending expectations without explaining the potentially unpopular half of the equation: how to pay for it.

Morgan said the spending increase necessary to meet the Democrats objectives could mean only one thing: "It's got to come out of people's pockets."

The Senate Democrats' proposal calls for:

Public schools to receive $5.4 billion for 2005-07. That's up from the $5 billion proposed by Kulongoski and meets the minimum amount advocates say is required to maintain a full school year and prevent increased class sizes through the elimination of teaching positions.

Shifting funding for a portion of the Oregon State Police budget to a proposed surcharge on insurance - amounting to a fee of $36 a year for the average motorist. That would replace Kulongoski's "slots for cops" proposal to use $69 million in revenue from the expansion of the lottery to include video slots. That lottery money would instead go to education, most likely.

Freezing tuition on public university and community college campuses. The governor's budget called for annual tuition increases of 7 percent in the first year and 5 percent in the second year of the biennium. It would cost $59 million in general fund dollars to replace the money that would come from the increases. Community colleges, which set their own budgets, have said tuition would have to increase, although there is no set dollar figure on how much it would increase under Kulongoski's plan. Analysts said they think it would take at least $14 million to prevent such tuition hikes.

Preventing an 18 percent cut to Oregon's pre-kindergarten program for at-risk children. The governor's proposed cut would reduce enrollment by about 950 children; it would cost $11 million to reverse the cut.

Maintaining Oregon Project Independence, a program that provides in-home care for elderly people. Kulongoski proposed cutting $6.2 million from the program, which would be achieved by capping enrollment. Senate Democrats want to restore the proposed cut.