Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - A key point of the exercise was to make students more familiar with the state budget, and on that score it surely succeeded.

Students in James Mattiace's two senior economics classes at Springfield High School spent the better

"It was awesome," Mattiace said. "When do you find high school students sitting around talking about tax brackets and the kicker?"

But the teens didn't appear to come away with too great an appreciation for the blood, sweat and tears involved in balancing a state budget in tight times. For them, it just didn't seem all that difficult to figure out.

"I think we should do it because they can afford it," declared Joey Pinedo, voicing support for a 1 percent income-tax hike for households earning more than $100,000.

Given the task of erasing an $803 million deficit from the state's general-fund budget through cuts or new revenue, that idea - along with increasing taxes on cigarettes, beer and wine, instituting a sales tax and raising taxes on corporations - quickly gained traction in Mattiace's seventh-period class as the students worked together in groups of four or five. They were less inclined to cut, although lopping days off the school year, eliminating assistant prin- cipals and delaying school computer upgrades made it onto the lists.

Pinedo's group, which included Jenni Jolley, Heather Smith and Brian Sundblom, proposed cutting five days from the school year, along with increasing taxes in several areas. They decided there's enough time wasted at school that five days wouldn't be missed.

"It would have to be on the shoulders of the teachers and the students to make sure they worked hard all the time to make up for that," Jolley said.

The idea and the worksheets for the budget-balancing exercise came from Citizens for Oregon's Future, a nonprofit organization that strives to educate citizens about the tax system.

"We know from polls that adults don't have the information, so maybe the next best time to get them used to it is in school," said Steve Novick, the group's spokesman.

He pitched the idea to social studies teachers around the state, and at least six jumped on it, including Mattiace and Trish Shoemaker at Creswell High School, whose students presented their group proposals Wednesday.

After a "conference committee" meeting Friday between three students each from both of Mattiace's classes, a joint proposal emerged, one largely based on raising taxes. Key elements include a 2 percent sales tax on durable goods, which would be offset by a $500 income tax credit for all taxpayers and a 10 percent property-tax cut; and a tax increase of 1 percent for those earning $70,000 or more and 8 percent for those earning $300,000 or more.

After paying off the $803 million deficit, that would leave a surplus of about $1.3 million, the students figured, 40 percent of which would go to education, 40 percent to human services and the remaining 20 percent to other services.

"Both groups of students were really looking for compromise and finding solutions," Mattiace said. "They were all sitting around the table saying we pretty much need to raise more revenue."

Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo said she was delighted to hear that students were learning more about budget balancing.

"It's just so important," she said. "I mean this is our challenge today helping people understand the state budget and understand the decisions being made and what the challenges are of getting adequate dollars into our schools. I just think it's a wonderful lesson for our students, and hopefully they will spread the word."

But Fawn McNeely, spokeswoman for Rep. Wayne Scott, R-Canby, said students should also understand the very real challenges and trade-offs involved in balancing the state budget. Scott is co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee, which is expected to release its own balanced budget proposal Monday.

"It's a lot of work to put together the state budget," she said. "I think (Scott's) biggest worry is that people do think it's easy."

McNeely noted that Oregonians time and again have said no to new taxes, most recently with last year's Measure 30, a tax-increase package adopted by the Legislature but then referred to the ballot through a citizen petition process. And Oregonians have repeatedly said no to a sales tax, she noted.

There are a number of people who find it difficult to go against the will of the voters, because they are sent there by those voters," she said.

Mattiace's classes plan to release their proposal at a press conference at the school Monday to coincide with the Ways and Means Committee's presentation.

CAPTION(S):

Jenni Jolley listens to suggestions on how to balance the state budget from other students in her Springfield High School class. Teacher James Mattiace's economics classes settled on a joint proposal, one largely based on raising taxes. They plan to release their ideas at a press conference Monday.