My friends, you will soon be lied to once again by the big government folks who think you are rich and need to give them more of your hard earned money. On Friday, the state will release it’s best guess on the amount of money that will be available for it’s next two year budget and it is likely to be even worse than the last one. You will immediately hear cries of the need for higher taxes and fees to fill the budget hole, but it is a lie and you shouldn’t believe it.

You see, there is plenty of money to fill in that budget hole if you count the rainy day fund, stimulus money and most surprising of all, the fact that there is well over 2 billion dollars in state agency cash reserves. No kidding folks!

Now I don’t think the state of Oregon should take any of the stimulus money because we don’t need it, given that we could easily find savings in state agency operations that would equal that money. However, its a moot point because it is coming and will be spent by the state anyway.

So, based on political reality, I predict the folks in charge of state government will find an excuse not to use the cash reserves to balance the budget. Why you ask? Because they want to raise more of your taxes and fees so they have more revenue to grow government even bigger down the road. Yet, as I point out, there is enough money to fill the shortfall and still meet the needs of every facet of state government.

This reality leads to the inevitable conclusion that the only way that the folks in charge of Oregon government can justify to you the need to immorally and forcibly take more money from you during a recession is to lie to you.

Get ready for the excuses why cash reserves cant be used and get ready for the lies that you must pay more to maintain “essential services”,  like 2 billion in new computers, software and IT consultants. Surely, people are more important than computers right?

Don’t buy the lie my friends. There is a better way, which you will learn about tomorrow in the news, so stay tuned.