Not yet ready to trust Legislature

Whether Oregon voters will agree to tinker with the state’s nearly sacred income tax “kicker” in the November election depends largely on whether they trust the Legislature.

Their recent passage of two tax increases suggests voters have a certain level of faith in their lawmakers.

But we’re withholding judgment, and here’s why:

We don’t yet have all the information we need to answer the fundamental question: Can the Legislature be trusted to keep even more tax dollars, even when the state is not mired in one of its periodic budget crises?

Unfortunately, we don’t know whether this most recent crisis, which precipitated Measures 66 and 67, was as dire as the measures’ proponents claimed.

Worse still, the Legislature doesn’t know either.

At the heart of this uncertainty are the “ending fund balances” scattered about the state’s $50 billion budget.

Secretary of State Kate Brown responded by saying that most of that money is restricted for one reason or another, and not available to partially plug that $727 million hole.

State Sen. Chris Telfer, a Republican from Bend, wasn’t satisfied with Brown’s answer.

Neither are we.

Telfer wants to know precisely how much of the $3.3 billion the Legislature could have spent last year.

But apparently nobody can answer that question.

State Controller John Radford said he should have an answer to Telfer’s query later this year, after new accounting standards take effect June 15 that require state agencies to detail limitations on ending fund balances.

When those dollar figures are available, we’ll finally know whether the Legislature’s decision to raise taxes last summer — voters affirmed that decision by passing Measures 66 and 67 — was truly necessary.

If the answer is no, then we could not endorse any proposal to change the kicker.

If state officials can’t keep track of tax dollars now, they certainly can’t be trusted with hundreds of millions more.