In November, Oregon ballots may
be filled with ballot measures.
According to the Secretary of State’s office, 44 initiatives have been
accepted and assigned numbers. Three
that are already scheduled for the ballot include two Legislative Referred
Constitutional Amendments; SJR 1, which if passed will amend the Constitution
to create a fund for Oregonians pursuing a post-secondary education and
authorizes taking on debt to finance it; and SJR 34, which also amends the
Constitution to allow judges to be hired by the National Guard and by state
public universities as teachers. The
third is a Voter Referendum on SB 833 which was passed by the 77th
Legislature and signed into law. SB 833
allows ‘undocumented residents’ to apply to the ODMV for a ‘driver card’.
According to http://ballotpedia.org/,
there are fifteen state-wide initiatives currently being circulated for
signatures, five of which are measures to amend the Constitution. Two of those five would be Legislative
Referred and would have to be passed in the 2014 Session. One is an amendment to allow voters to pass
property tax levies that exceed the current statewide limits of $5 per $1,000
assessed value for school districts and $10 per $1,000 for all other local
governments - something Benton County would be sure to utilize. The other is an amendment to reset a
property’s current taxable value to current market value whenever it is sold -
another way to get around property tax limitations the voters enacted through
the initiative process. The three amendments being
circulated for signatures are Same Sex Marriage Amendment, No Dues Collection
by Government Amendment (would prohibit payroll deductions from public
employees to/on behalf of any public employee union) and a Prohibition of
Public Funding of Abortions Amendment.
Locally there are just two
petitions. One is to place the Corvallis
‘plastic grocery bag ban’ on the ballot so voters can decide if it is what they
really want. The City Council initiated
the ban as an ordinance without even holding hearings on it. The Voters for Effective Environmental Policy
have gathered about 75% of the required signatures. If you would like to help gather signatures
from Corvallis voters on this petition, please contact Wiatt Kettle at rfvcmc@comcast.net.
I’m sure you will agree that
getting signatures on petitions would be a great way to enjoy the spring
weather! Contact hq@bentongop.org
for more information.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
What are the issues for 2014?
Ten more petitions are being
circulated that would result in measures that would create statewide
statutes. They are:
* Get
Government Out Of Politics Act - Prohibits public employee payroll deductions
if money used as/combined with political funds;
* Affordable
Renewable Energy Act - Removes conditional limitations on use of hydroelectric
power to comply with utilities’ renewable portfolio standards;
* Right To Vote
on All New Taxes Initiative - Requires that a majority of “electors interested”
must approve laws imposing or increasing taxes/fees over specified amounts;
* Public
Employee Choice Act - Prohibits requiring union membership as condition of
public employment; prohibits requiring “fair share” fee payments;
* Two Percent
Gross Receipts Tax Initiative - Lifts $100,000 corporate minimum tax cap and
replaces it with a 2% gross receipts tax on all revenue above $100 million
(worse than a sales tax);
* Graduated
Gross Receipts Tax Initiative - Replaces current corporate minimum tax on
C-Corps with a graduated gross receipts tax of 0.25% for Oregon businesses with
$10 million in sales to up to 1% for Oregon businesses with $100 million in sales
(taxing income before deductions);
* Mandatory
Labeling of GMO’s Initiative - Mandates labeling of certain foodstuffs that
contain genetically modified organisms;
* Privatization
of Liquor Sales Initiative - Privatizes liquor sales and allows 10,000 square
foot stores to stock liquor on shelves;
* Legalized
Marijuana Initiative - Legalizes marijuana in the state;
* Protect
Religeous Freedom Initiative - Protects people whose religious beliefs oppose
same-sex marriage from participating in such ceremonies.
Sponsorship, petition number and
status of these petitions can be found at http://www.oregonvotes.gov/doc/2014_Sponsorship_log.pdf
The second petition is sponsored
by Jerry Jackson and Gerry Tsupros. It
is a county petition to place a measure on the ballot to elect Benton County
Commissioners by districts. Currently,
all Benton County voters can vote for all three positions on the
commission. Since Corvallis has about
65% of registered voters, Corvallis pretty much elects the commissioners
now. If passed, Corvallis would become
one of three districts and could elect only one of the commissioners, and the
other two districts would start getting some representation for a change.
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