Over the past decade, the growth in Oregon’s total state government spending has far outpaced inflation and population growth. In other cases, state spending expanded thanks to a growing economy and revenues from existing taxes. By far the biggest increase in state spending came from an expansion of the social safety net. Over the past decade, spending on human services, for instance, grew about 30% faster than spending on education, the second largest state expenditure. His concern isn’t just about the growth of the state’s Medicaid program—it’s the trade-offs lawmakers made to pay for it.