Steiner will step down as top Oregon budget writer to focus on run for treasurer

State Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Portland at the Oregon Legislature on Feb. 12, 2024. (Jordan Gale/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Sen. Elizabeth Steiner didn’t set out to become one of the main writers of Oregon’s budget.

When she was appointed to the Senate in late 2011, the Portland Democrat and physician knew she was interested in health care, education and revenue – making sure Oregonians were healthy and well-educated and that the state had the money it needed. But two of her new colleagues had other plans for her. 

“Two of my colleagues were on (Ways and Means) subcommittees and really didn’t like it,” Steiner said during an interview Friday. “They had gone separately to the Senate president and said ‘I don’t want to be on this committee. Give it to the new girl. She can’t complain.’ And so there I was on two budget committees, and figured out I loved it.”

Now, after more than 12 years serving on budget committees and six as the Senate co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee, Steiner is stepping down as co-chair to focus on her campaign for state treasurer. She announced her decision Monday and will stay in the role until July 15.

“Co-chair is a big job and requires a lot of attention,” she said. “And Oregonians deserve to have somebody who can pay full attention to that job, which I won’t be able to do while running a statewide general election campaign.”

She plans to continue serving in the Senate at least through the election and to finish the remaining two years of her four-year term if she loses the treasurer race to fellow Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas – an unlikely prospect, given Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican to that job since 1988. Over the coming months, Steiner hopes to provide guidance for the next Senate co-chair, whoever that may be.

She also hopes the Legislature will be able to expand its analysis of potential savings tied to investments, similar to what the Congressional Budget Office does. Right now, the Legislative Fiscal Office quantifies costs to the state and the Legislative Policy and Research Office analyzes bills, but lawmakers don’t have the analysis they need to support their beliefs that some investments will save the state money in the long term. 

Six returning Democratic senators –Wlnsvey Campos of Aloha, Lew Frederick of Portland, Sara Gelser Blouin of Corvallis, Deb Patterson of Salem, Janeen Sollman of Hillsboro and Aaron Woods of Wilsonville – serve on the committee or as co-chairs of budget subcommittees and are best-positioned to take on one of the Legislature’s most powerful committee gavels. 

It’s a difficult, time-consuming job. Despite Oregon having a part-time legislature, Steiner estimates she spends about 25 to 30 hours a week working on budget issues during the interim. 

The chairs of the budget-writing committee often end up having to turn down pleas from lawmakers, lobbyists and other Oregonians to fund programs – no matter how large a surplus Oregon has had in recent years, it hasn’t been enough to pay for every project. 

“Nobody likes saying no, but there’s a reason that legislators are divided into people who like budget and people who don’t,” Steiner said. “There are various reasons people don’t, but one of them is it’s not fun to say ‘No.’  I don’t like it, but I’m willing to do it.” 

The next Joint Ways and Means co-chair may have to say “no” more often. Oregon, like other states, benefitted from an influx of federal spending to help recovery from the COVID pandemic. That money is gone while the state is still recovering from pandemic side effects, including student learning loss and workforce shortages.

Continued high inflation will also stress the state budget. Collective bargaining agreements with state workers and other public employees, including K-12 teachers, are costing more than they would have with a lower inflation rate, and other services also cost more now than they would have. 

“My successor is going to have the challenge of dealing with budgets that are much higher or need to be much higher than we actually normally account for, or that would be compensated for by increases in revenues,” Steiner said. “That’s going to be an interesting challenge.”

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