Oregon
Anti-tax groups are crying foul over a change being pushed by the majority Democrats over what a “yes” or “no” vote means when actions of the Legislature are referred to a vote of the people. The issue is timely, because it’s likely opponents will be able to collect enough signatures to force a statewide vote on the Legislature’s $733 million tax hike on corporations and upper-income earners.
Contact the Citizen State Coordinator in your state to get involved protecting and expanding the initiative and referendum process. If you don’t see a Coordinator listed for your state, click here to apply.
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National Citizen Coordinator - Greg Schmid
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According to Oregonians in Action, a group that supports the referendum process, the Oregon Legislature is attempting to ram a bill through at the last minute that would change the meanings of the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
An Oregon editorial is calling for Governor Ted Kulongoski to veto a dangerous bill that recently passed the state legislature. House Bill 2005 imposes heavy fines that can be used to harass petition sponsors and will chill the petition process.
Oregon lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a bill sponsors say will curb abuses of Oregon’s century-old initiative system that lets citizens put proposed laws on the ballot.
The bill will allow state election officials to prohibit someone from registering as a paid signature gatherer if they’ve been convicted of fraud or forgery.
The Oregon Legislature gave final approval yesterday to House Bill 2005, which is aimed at restricting the state’s initiative process. Among the provisions in the bill are a 40-fold increase in fines for petition fraud and the ability of the Secretary of State to do background checks on petition signature collectors.
A bill that tightens the regulation of paid petition drives passed the Oregon Senate on an 18-12 vote Monday and was sent to the governor for his signature. The measure, House Bill 2005 would prohibit campaigns from hiring paid petitioners with a history of fraud and other similar crimes. And chief petitioners could face large fines if they failed to halt signature fraud they should have known about.
Currently there are three, at-large, partisan county commissioners. A local group wants to change that to five nonpartisan county commissioners, who would be elected by district. The Marion County initiative is being proposed within a charter, which would be like a constitution for the county. The constitution could give the county more say in county issues.
A development tax that Washington County voters overwhelmingly approved in November might fall victim — temporarily — to the economic downturn.
The tax would pay for road and transit improvements around the county, aiming to relieve congestion caused by new development. Currently developers pay a traffic-impact fee that covers 14percent of those costs, while the public covers the rest. Under the new transportation-development tax, developers would pay roughly 28percent of future costs.
Several gay-rights groups from across the country are developing databases of names and address of people who signed petitions supporting traditional marriage measures. These searchable databases would be put on the Internet open to all interested parties.
A group called KnowThyNeighboor.org has already placed names of traditional marriage supporters on he Internet in states like Oregon, Florida and Arkansas.
The Oregon House has passed a bill that will impose new restrictions on the ballot initiative process. Among other changes the Secretary of State would run background checks on prospective signature collectors.
“I’m not convinced that voters are willing to change our health care system if it includes a bunch of new taxes,” said Oregon state Representative Ron Maurer.
OLYMPIA – Calling themselves a “broad-based coalition,” same-sex marriage foes want to overturn a new law granting gay and lesbian couples most of the rights of spouses, short of marriage.
“This is both a referendum campaign and a statement of unity within the faith community,” the Faith and Freedom Network announced shortly after filing Referendum 71 this week.
Read the rest of the story at The Spokesman-Review
You can still fight City Hall, but it’s not going to be as easy or as cheap as it used to be.The City Council has instituted a $500 deposit for filing a referendum, and a proposal before the council tonight would add language to limit the time for collecting signatures.
The deposit requirement surfaced after the council discussed a local fuel tax, and local business owners virtually promised they would ask voters to approve any tax the council approved.
The Coos Bay World answers the reader’s question “I want to know what happens with the recall election ballots. Where are the mail-in ballots stored as election workers bring them to the courthouse leading up to the election?” here.