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POTENTIAL CUTS

Bureau of Labor and Industries:

Leave positions unfilled; cut spending on travel, supplies and employee training; move Salem office and shift employees; reduce Wage and Hour Division claims that don’t relate to overtime or minimum wage.

Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development:

Increase tuition and fees; cap enrollment; cut career technical programs; increase furloughs and layoffs; cut outreach and placement assistance for students in skills programs.

Oregon Department of Transportation:

Cut $1 million from the $10 million grant program for local transit agencies. The program pays for rides for seniors and disabled people who don’t have other transportation options.

Construction workers could find it harder to claim money owed to them, and students in vocational programs could struggle to find jobs if Measures 66 and 67 fail, state officials say. The measures, which would raise taxes on individuals and corporations, will appear on the Jan. 26 special election ballot.

State departments have put together lists of potential cuts to their budgets if the measures fail. The lists outline 5- and 10-percent cuts for each department.

According to Oregon’s Legislative Fiscal Office, the state would need to plug a $727 million hole if the measures fail. That represents approximately 5.5 percent of the state’s general fund.

The state Bureau of Labor and Industries could cut back its Wage and Hour Division, which pursues money owed to employees. Cuts would leave the division able to process claims related only to overtime and minimum wage violations, according to the bureau’s proposal.

If a subcontractor didn’t pay its workers, or paid them too little, BOLI wouldn’t pursue the workers’ claims. The employees could still sue, said bureau spokesman Bob Estabrook, but they’d have to pay the legal fees themselves.

“If you and I have a verbal contract that I’m going to do some painting on this project you’re working on, and you agree to pay me the going rate, say it’s $15,” Estabrook said, “and then, when I get my paychecks, I’m getting paid at $12 an hour, I’d be able to go to BOLI and say ‘I want BOLI to go and recover the $3 an hour.’ ”

If employees have to get a lawyer to pursue wage claims, that would also affect the contractor, who would have to hire a lawyer in response, Estabrook said.

In the last fiscal year, 633 Wage and Hour Division claims were considered “discretionary” – that is, not dealing with overtime or minimum wage issues. That made up around 40 percent of the division’s total claims.

Under the proposed cuts, high school and community college students could find it harder to land technical and vocational jobs. Clackamas Community College would eliminate some career technical programs under the proposed cuts.

Other cuts would affect the Sabin-Schellenberg Professional Technical Center, a North Clackamas school district program that allows students to receive community college credit. The Portland Community College Margaret Carter Skill Center also would face cuts in the amount of outreach to potential students and the number of staff who help students find jobs.

The Oregon Department of Transportation would cut $1 million in grants to transit districts across the state that pay for rides for elderly and disabled people who can’t get around otherwise. TriMet alone would lose $405,000 under the proposal.

The effect of the cuts could be even greater, said Geoff Sugerman, spokesman for House Speaker Dave Hunt, because the state already is a quarter of the way into its two-year budget cycle, leaving only a year and a half to catch up with a deficit.

In addition, Sugerman said, the state would lose another $200 million in matching federal money attached to those programs. When state officials made cuts to balance the last biennium’s budget, they tried to keep from cutting any dollar that resulted in a net loss of $2, he said.

“That was the principal in 07-09: to protect as much as possible,” Sugerman said. “Now, as we’re getting deeper and deeper, that gets harder and harder to do.”