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A report released today says Oregon's state government has too many managers and does a terrible job of collecting income taxes compared to other states and the federal government.
Often, such reviews of government waste and inefficiency come from right-leaning groups. But today's deep dive into the workings of the state comes from a bunch of public employee unions and non-profits such as AARP and PTA-Oregon and the Oregon Health Care Association.
The report contains some interesting metrics on what it says is state government's bulging middle-management layer and its failure to collect income taxes owed—missing out on millions of dollars in potential revenues.
The report says state agencies are making progress toward complying with new state laws requiring that agencies with more than 100 employees maintain an 11 to 1 or better ratio of management to line staff, but there are still plenty of savings to be had.
On income taxes, the report says Oregon has an 18.5 percent "tax gap," which is the difference between personal income taxes owed and the amount the state collects. For comparison, the report says, the tax gaps in Idaho and California are just 11 percent. Collecting what's owed could eventually bring in hundreds of millions of new revenue.
Here's the meat of the tax gap issue:
WWeek 2015