Oregon
Service Employees International Union Local 503 is urging members to vote yes for Ballot Measures 66 and 67 on Jan. 26. Measure 66 would increase taxes for Oregon households making more than $250,000 annually. Measure 67 increases the corporate minimum tax from $10 a year to $150 a year.
Speaker of the House Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, and House Republican Leader Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, will discuss Ballot Measures 66 and 67 during a breakfast event in Oregon City on Nov. 12. The measures deal with tax increases and changes passed during the 2009 legislative session.
While Ashland residents waited for the arrival of ballots for the Nov. 3 special election, stakeholders continue making their arguments over the fate of the city’s prepared food and beverage tax. Ballot measure 15-95 proposes extending Ashland’s 5 percent food and beverage tax until 2030. Eighty percent of funds collected are used to pay off an existing debt on the city’s wastewater treatment plant, while the remaining 20 percent is used to acquire open space to build parklands.
Oftentimes state governments are not fond of the initiative and referendum process. The state of Oregon is no exception, and they recently hired investigators to try and find fraud and wrong-doing amongst petitioners gathering signatures to block a recent tax increase.
Paul Jacob’s recent Common Sense article talks about the investigations and what they discovered. You can check out the article here.
A referendum asking voters to ratify House Bill 2001, a major transportation package funded by a state gas tax increase, will not appear on the ballot next fall, state elections officials reported. Sponsored by former state Sen. Gary George (R-Newberg), the initiative, titled “Oregonians Against Highway Robbery,” was crafted in response to the legislature’s approval of a six-cents-per-gallon gas tax increase, as well as increases to vehicle registration and title fees.
Kate Brown, former state speaker of the house and now secretary of state, was interviewed by the Chieftain Editorial Board on a recent visit to Wallowa County.
Several states –including Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming – ban or restrict paying people who collect signatures on a ballot initiative, referendum or recall petition based on the number of signatures they collect. Payment-per-signature allows citizens greater certainty in judging the cost of a petition effort. Moreover, in states that have passed such bans, the cost of successfully completing a petition drive has risen considerably, sometimes more than doubling.
The Polk County Extension Service is down to its last option. Minus a jolt in funding, the extension service office — now open just three days a week — will close next year. “You just can’t limp along doing fundraising, bake sales and spaghetti feeds forever,” said former station superintendent John Burt. The prospect of closing the service has prompted supporters to gather signatures for a ballot measure that would create an educational service district and institute a property tax. Backers need 6,215 valid signatures to place a measure on the May ballot.
More than half of Oregon voters support creation of a casino in the Portland area, according to a poll released today. The poll, by Riley Research Associates of Portland, found that 54 percent of Oregon voters either somewhat or strongly support the idea, while 40 percent oppose the idea and 6 percent were unsure. The poll was commissioned by Matt Rossman and Bruce Studer, two Lake Oswego businessmen who have been pursing the idea of a casino resort at the former Multnomah Greyhound Park in Wood Village.
The group hopes to get a measure on the May 2010 ballot that would form a special aquatics district to fund the operation of the Tigard and Tualatin high school pools, which the Tigard-Tualatin school system says it can no longer afford. As of Tuesday night, the councils of the four affected cities – Tigard, Tualatin, King City and Durham – as well as the school board, had approved the resolution to place the special district formation on the ballot.
An epic showdown is brewing between proponents and opponents of four tax bills passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Kulongoski during the past few weeks. House Bill 3405 increases the corporate minimum tax from $10 to $150 for companies in Oregon with gross sales of less than $500,000. HB 2649 raises personal income tax rates for three years from 9 to 10.8 percent for individuals earning more than $125,000 per year and joint filers earning between $250,000 and $500,000.
Citizens in Charge Foundation President Paul Jacob has some harsh words in the New York Times for new Oregon restrictions on the ballot initiative process:
The potential recall of Portland Mayor Sam Adams has nearly begun. The Community to Recall Sam Adams filed a prospective petition July 7 with Portland’s City Auditor that, if approved, would allow the group to start collecting the thousands of signatures needed to spark a vote. The group hopes to recall Adams after the mayor admitted lying about a relationship he had with Beau Breedlove when Breedlove was an 18-year-old legislative intern.
(LAKE RIDGE, VA) - Today, Citizens in Charge Foundation, a transpartisan national voter rights group focused on the ballot initiative and referendum process, presented Oregon State Senator Vicki Walker with the July 2009 John Lilburne Award. Senator Walker is being recognized as the only Senate Democrat to defend Oregon voters in an attempt to stop legislation that criminalizes activists expressing their freedom of speech via the ballot initiative process.
Democratic legislative leaders on Monday dropped their attempt to reverse the meaning of a “yes” and a “no” vote on two tax increases that may go before voters early next year. Lawmakers backed off after several of them were besieged with a number of calls from constituents complaining about the proposed change, which many critics saw as an attempt to boost the chances that the two tax measures would survive a ballot referendum.