Everything about Oregon Tax Revolt totally explained
Problems with the legal wording of Measure 47 caused the
Oregon Legislature to send
Measure 50 to voters in 1997, which clarified Measure 47. During a special election in May 1997, Measure 50 was approved by the voters 55.7% to 44.3%.
The tax revolt manifested itself in a series of budget battles in the Oregon Legislature about school funding, the
Oregon Health Plan, and other spending priorities during the late 1990s. Then
Governor John Kitzhaber and the
Republican leadership in the legislature clashed repeatedly over budget priorities.
In 2000, Don McIntire helped place
Measure 8 on Oregon's ballot, which would have limited state spending to 15 percent of personal income for the previous
biennium. Measure 8 was defeated by a margin of 43.5% to 56.5%. However, in the same election Oregonians enshrined the so-called "
kicker check"—a rebate check given to taxpayers in the event that state revenues sufficiently exceed forecasts—into the state constitution with
Measure 86 which passed 62% to 38%.
Anti-tax activists defeated two proposals in 2003 and 2004 (
Measure 28 and
Measure 30), which were referred to voters by the Oregon State Legislature to temporarily increase income taxes.
Bill Sizemore's group has run into legal problems in 2002. Sizemore sparked the ire of several public employees
unions with a series of initiatives aimed at reducing public employee
pensions and reducing their political power. The unions responded with the
Voter Education Project, which tracked signature gatherers hired by Sizemore to place measures on the ballot. After documenting instances of
fraud by signature gatherers, the
Oregon Education Association, a teachers' union, successfully sued Sizemore's organization under
racketeering laws in 2003. The $2.3 million judgment against Oregon Taxpayer's United severely hurt Sizemore's ability to put measures on the ballot. The fraud allegations also led to the passage of
Measure 26 in 2002, which prohibits the payment of signature gatherers on a per-signature basis, was approved by voters 75% to 25%.
Tax activists generally claim that Oregon's government is wasteful and inefficient, arguing that the government could do better with less. They often highlight programs that they feel are unnecessary. Opponents of the tax revolt argue that passing tax decreases via ballot measure leads to short-sighted policy making, in which voters are enticed to vote with the revolt by lower tax bills and without thinking about the budget problems caused by reduced revenues.
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