PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

A news report on a proposal from Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson to create a new, less expensive state government procurement system deserves more than quick consideration – the kind it got about a week ago.

So, I write this blog to highlight what I consider to be a far-sighted proposal.

Richardson, whom I lobbied for years at the Capitol when he served as a state representative from Central Point, always has possessed a penchant for going beneath the surface to ask tough questions.

My interchanges with Richardson occurred when I lobbied him in his role as a key member of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, which, at the Capitol in Oregon, develops the two-year budget for state government. His deep dives did not always produce a workable concept, but at least they were dives – and that was often more than you could say for some of Richardson’s counterparts on Ways and Means.

Now, as the only Republican to hold a statewide public office, Richardson is going deep again in an issue related to state government’s multi-million dollar procurement policy.

Under this headline – Oregon is wasting millions of dollars — here is how the Oregonian newspaper described the Richardson proposal:

“If Oregon had used a web-based procurement program in the last biennium, it could have saved more than $1 billion, a state audit has found.

“The state’s purchasing system for goods and services consists of paperwork and old computer systems, which auditors said resulted in inconsistencies and ‘does not adequately analyze state spending data’” Of roughly $8 billion in spending per biennium, auditors said the state has data on approximately $1 billion or 12.5 per cent of the purchases.

“They estimated Oregon could have saved $400 million to $1.6 billion if it had a modern procurement system in place during the 2015-2017 biennium. For example, the state paid 17 different prices for one type of multifunction printer and 131 different amounts for surge protectors.”

Richardson then went on to make a key political point. He said “adoption of a statewide eProcurement system, if quickly implemented, could close Oregon’s 2019-21 budget gap of $623 million without raising taxes.”

My emphasis on the word “without.”

Richardson, without getting too political, was countering a proposal by Governor Kate Brown to enact various new taxes in 2019-21, both to close the supposed $623 million budget gap, as well as to give more money to priorities she avows for Oregon K-12 schools, housing and other subjects.

For her part, Brown has suggested the Legislature approve $9.7 million for the new procurement system. That would cover the cost to implement the system by mid-2021, although a Department of Administrative Services spokeswoman said there would be additional costs in the future such as licenses to keep running the system.

Richardson offered to help Brown put the new system in place more quickly.

I like Richardson’s proposal because it does what many state officials won’t do, which is to analyze, with a critical eye, current state spending. Often, the idea is just to continue spending from one two-year budget period to the next and, then, when that isn’t enough, score points from the left by advocating new taxes, including increased taxes on Oregon businesses.

To be fair, there could be a rationale for new taxes, especially if they are designed to spur improvements in such key areas as K-12 education quality, which itself is critical to citizens and businesses.

But, those tax increase proposals would be stronger if they followed critical looks at state spending first, not just spending as usual.

So, kudos to Richardson and his staff of auditors for coming up with an idea to improve the operation of state government.

Here’s hoping that Richardson’s proposal will receive a solid airing in the 2019 legislative session.