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Ways and Means advances Department of Corrections budget after debate over overtime and prison replacement planning
Summary
The Joint Committee on Ways and Means reported House Bill 5004 out of subcommittee with a dash‑1 amendment Friday after members debated chronic mandatory overtime for corrections staff and approved a budget note on planning to replace the Oregon State Penitentiary.
The Joint Committee on Ways and Means opened a work session Friday, June 6, on House Bill 5004, the Department of Corrections budget bill, and the public safety subcommittee recommended the bill be amended and reported out due pass as amended.
The subcommittee approved a total‑funds budget of $2.6 billion, including $2.5 billion in general fund and support for 4,822 positions. The recommendation included reductions for long‑term vacant positions and adjustments after the April 2025 Office of Economic Analysis forecast. Investments in the package include funding to support county reimbursements tied to Senate Bill 395, compensation adjustments for medical staff, IT modernization and maintenance projects, preparatory work to replace the Oregon State Penitentiary and a study of geriatric needs in the state prison system, and resources for emergency off‑site care to reduce backlogs. A budget note addressing the penitentiary replacement plan was also approved.
Senator Broadman, who presented the bill in subcommittee, outlined the recommended investments and reductions. Representative Kate and Senator Brown Thonum raised objections to portions of the package; Brown said he would vote no because he believes the budget is too low to meet corrections’ needs.
Representative Jessica Smith pressed the committee on working conditions for corrections staff, which she described as dire. “We have folks working within that system that are putting in 80 to a hundred hours of overtime a month. A month. And that is unacceptable,” Smith said. She added that mandatory overtime “does not count towards their PERS retirement,” and called the practice “theft.”
The subcommittee voted to advance HB 5004 as amended by the dash‑1 amendment and the motion passed without recorded objection in the work session. The bill will move forward per committee process for further consideration.
Discussion versus decision: the record separates subcommittee discussion—questions about staffing, overtime and long‑term facility planning—from the formal action to report the bill out as amended. The committee approved the amendment and advanced the bill; no additional policy changes were adopted beyond the recommendation recorded in the subcommittee report.
Next steps: HB 5004 proceeds out of the public safety subcommittee with the dash‑1 amendment and will be scheduled for further consideration by the full Joint Committee on Ways and Means and subsequent floor action.
