SALEM- With just over a week to go before the August 26 revenue forecast, the State Economist and Governor Ted Kulongoski let slip that the $577 budget shortfall projected back in May likely will be adding an additional $200 to $500 million to its numbers.

“Given the information available, we estimate that the general fund revenue forecast will be down between $200 and $500 million,” wrote State Economist Tom Potiowsky in a memo sent to Gov. Kulongoski on August 11. “We stress this is a likely outcome and the final numbers could be outside the range.”

SALEM- Oregon’s Employment Department announced on Tuesday that the state’s unemployment rate for July landed at 10.6 percent, leaving the rate essentially unchanged for the past nine months.

It has remained between 10.5 and 10.7 during that time, including June, where it was at 10.5 percent.

SALEM- As expected, the Legislative Emergency Board voted to restore $17.1 million in state funding to the Oregon Department of Human Services on Thursday.

In a press release sent out Thursday afternoon, Senate President Courtney, D-Salem, said, “We know it is absolutely the right thing to do to keep serving those who need help the most-especially our senior citizens and children with disabilities.

SALEM- Senate President Peter Courtney, D- Salem, and House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Clackamas County, announced on Tuesday their intentions to use the week’s Emergency Board meeting to prevent cuts to senior in-home care and services for those people with disabilities.

During the Legislative Emergency Board meeting scheduled for Thursday morning, Hunt and Courtney expect to restore $17 million of the $158 million that the Oregon Department of Human Services was required to cut as part of the governor’s allotment process.

PORTLAND- An internal poll released Wednesday brings into question the electoral safety of long time Senator Ron Wyden.

Portland based polling firm, Moore Information, made public their survey results paid for by the Huffman campaign which showed that 37% of Oregonians support a GOP candidate for Sen. Wyden’s seat while 36% favored the incumbent Democratic Party. Twenty-eight percent of respondents remained undecided, as of when the survey was performed on July 10th.

SALEM- Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s final approval over agency budget cuts has reverted Oregon’s General Fund spending to approximately 2007 levels. Oregon’s General Fund budget accounts for about 22 percent of the entire Oregon state budget.

Despite cuts to the General Fund, the state’s total budget has increased by over $11 billion since the last biennium.

SALEM- While the Oregon unemployment rate has dropped since its peak of 11.6 percent May and June of 2009 to 10.6 percent this May, it still sits slightly above the national average of 9.7 percent.

Brooke Jackson-Winegardner, an economist for the Employment Division, said that there are several factors that contribute to the higher unemployment rate in Oregon. Seasonal industries like agriculture, construction and timber along with the state’s small labor force were two, but a third less-likely candidate was Oregon’s mild climate.

SALEM – The allotment reduction strategies of Oregon’s state agencies were made available on the Department of Administrative Services website Wednesday.

The Department of Corrections reduced its budget by $52 million and will close three correctional facilities – the Mill Creek Correctional Facility and the Santiam Correctional Institution in Salem and the Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City. In addition to layoffs, the cuts will result in the release of 966 minimum-custody inmates and the elimination of “a substantial component of the Alternative Incarceration Program.”

SALEM – The State Land Board, composed of Governor Ted Kulongoski, Secretary of State Kate Brown and Treasurer Ted Wheeler, voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize the initiation of rulemaking and the amendment of rules governing the leasing of geothermal resources.

Director of the Department of State Lands Louise Solliday explained that the rules hadn’t been updated since 1974 and were out of date in many aspects, from royalties and per-acre revenues to application requirements and processing.

SALEM – The $562 million dollar budget shortfall was a heavy blow dealt to agencies across the state, but it was not the last.

An accounting error resulted in an overestimation of projected revenue from tobacco taxes and resulted in an additional $15 million shortfall in the general fund, explained Mazen Malik, a senior economist for the legislative revenue office, raising the final number to $577 million.