Measure 62, backed by long-time Republican politician Kevin Mannix, seeks to amend the Oregon Constitution to allocate 15% of lottery funds to public safety funding. Currently, lottery funds go 44% to parks, bond payments and educational reserve funds, while 56% goes to a variety of programs, including K-12 education and economic development. Absent new revenue for these programs, they would receive a reduction in the amount of funds they receive.
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…the Casual Destruction of a Small Democratic State by a Despotic Major World Power

Taking a brief recess from the ballot measures, I thought I’d throw some rocks out there in the idyllic summer pond of our thoughts. Unless you’ve been living under said rock, you know that the Russian military cruised into the Caucasus nation of Georgia last week and polished off the US-supplied Georgian military like a postprandial shot of vodka. Most Americans gave it the same attention they gave the Olympic archery competition. It’s tempting to listen to the isolationists lulling us to sleep with the “it’s a centuries-old conflict between parties you should care nothing about” routine, just as they did for Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo and Darfur. In fact, the invasion has a lot to do with geography, history, and the role of the US in the modern world.

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Sizemore-sponsored Measure 60 would eliminate seniority as a consideration for pay raises and retention for teachers. The Measure would not affect current labor agreements, but would apply to all future agreements. Instead, pay raises and retention during layoffs would be based on an undefined criteria called “classroom performance” and by their training in the field they teach.
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Yet another Sizemore attempt to make the world safe for the rich and reduce the size of State government to a point at which it could be drowned in a bathtub, Measure 59 would eliminate the cap on the deduction of federal taxes from state income taxes. Let’s say you’re a single person who is lucky enough to make $100,000 per year. You’d expect to pay in the 28% tax bracket for federal taxes and in the 9% tax bracket for your state taxes. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you have $15,000 in federal tax liabilities. You’re actually then only being taxed on $94,500 for your state taxes, since the first $5,500 of federal taxes is deductible on your state taxes. If Measure 59 passes, you would only pay state taxes on $85,000 of your income.
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Can the current administration of the United States disapprove of Russia for declaring “regime change” in Georgia? Russia is using disputed territory as the official reason of regime change in Georgia — but instead of fighting in that territory, they have moved into Georgia.

Georgia had more troops in Iraq than any other country except the United States and England. Will the European nations still vote to allow Georgia into NATO if somehow Georgia manages to remain autonomous?

Tune in next time to “Moral Authority Lost”…

Measure 58, another initiative petition from Sizemore et al proposing a statutory change to Oregon law, would prohibit the public schools from teaching non-English-speaking students in a language other than English for more than two years for high school students, a year and half for middle school students, or one year for elementary school students. It provides that English-speaking students may study a foreign language for longer than two years. The explanatory statement concedes that the measure will have to be harmonized with federal law. The State estimates financial costs of $203 million to $253 million annually to local school systems.
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Measures 57 and 61 are competing measures designed to reform sentencing for property crimes. The measure with the most votes will become law. If neither receives more yes votes than no votes, neither will become law. The measures both increase sentences for property crime offenders, but differ in their approaches in that Measure 57 supports increased sentencing primarily for repeat offenders and provides funding for rehabilitation programs, while Measure 61 takes a purely punitive approach.
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At last some controversy! Measure 56, another legislative referral, attempts to repeal the double majority requirement for property tax measures. The “double majority” requires that in elections other than even year general elections, property tax measures that fund government services must be passed by more than 50% of the voters in an election where 50% or more of the qualified voters actually vote. Oregon voters passed the double majority requirement in 1996 as part of the Oregon tax revolt facilitated by racketeer/activist Bill Sizemore and Oregon Taxpayers United.
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Measure 55, another legislative referral, fixes that pesky problem I’m sure all of us have had - when you’re elected to the Oregon Legislature from a district and redistricting causes you to live in the same district as another legislator from the same chamber. The State then reassigns you to another (presumably empty) district somewhere else in the State, where you do not live. You have now gone from representing tweedies and Reedies to cowboys and farmers. Your ACLU membership becomes a political liability and your constituents start asking awkward questions about why you aren’t an NRA member.
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The Secretary of State has published the measures that will be on the ballot in November, along with statements of financial impact. In a schedule-defying act of commitment to voter education, I’m going to try to cover each of these. Ambitious, no?

Actually, not so much. I’m starting easy. Measure 54 lowers the voting age in school district elections in Oregon from 21 to 18. Not too many readers of this website will have much of a problem with that, but there’s another good reason to vote for it - the current law is illegal. The 26th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits abridging the voting rights of people 18 and over. The explanation? Simple - the voters passed the age 21 requirement in 1948, while the 26th Amendment didn’t come along until 1971.

This measure comes to the ballot as a legislative referral and has no financial impact. You can either vote for it and feel good about yourself or wait for the courts to strike down the age 21 requirement. Ah, the classic Hobson’s choice!

As always, the views expressed here are my personal opinions and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.