Doonesbury
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\f Oregon daily
emer
Thursday, July 26, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 12
OMI count questioned
By Paul Ertelt
Or the Emerald
The Oregon Marijuana Initiative failed
to make the November ballot because of
errors in verifying signatures, say peti
tioners for the measure who plan to bring
a lawsuit against Secretary of State Nor
ma Paulus.
But Greg McMurdo. deputy secretary
of state, says he is satisfied that no errors
were made in the verification process,
“Every group that doesn’t get on the
ballot always says there are errors,” he
says. “But they never come up with
anything and always end up dropping
it.”
But the petitioners have documented
several cases where the state’s numbers
just don’t add up, says petitioner John
Sajo.
The petitioners needed 63,521
signatures of registered voters by July 6
to get the measure on the November 6
ballot. They turned in almost 85,000
signatures.
But after a sampling was sent back to
the counties to be verified, 28 percent of
the signatures were disqualified, leaving
the petition 3,019 signatures short. The
state routinely verifies only 5 percent of
the signatures with the counties. The
percentage of error in that sample is then
extrapolated to the total to determine if
enough signatures have been obtained.
Lawyers hired by the petitioners are in
the process of rechecking the invalidated
signatures, and they have already found
several discrepancies, Sajo says.
v
“In Klamath Falls, there were three
they said were not registered,” he says.
“We went in and found the cards in the
card file.” Also, Josephine County
recorded that 49 signatures were not
valid, while the correct number was only
45, he says.
And there have been several cases
where petitioners had crossed out
signatures that seemed doubtful, but
some of these were used in the samples
anyway, Sajo says.
“We’re finding factual discrepancies
in virtually every area, and most are
against us,” he says. Since the sampling
is only 5 percent of the total signatures,
the petitioners only need to find about
150 erroneously rejected signatures to
prove the measure should have been on
the ballot.
But McMurdo maintains the state has
no provisions to rectify the situation if it
is proved that the measure was rejected
because of errors. The only recourse the
petitioners have is to go to court, he says.
Sajo says the secretary of state does
have discretionary power to place the
measure on the ballot, but she has refus
ed to do a recount.
“We will be filing a lawsuit in the next
few days, but we feel it is unfair that we
have to do that,” Sajo says.
Autzen’s new floor
Harry Kambhuis, an OmniSport International USA employee
from Holland, labors away on the 30-yard line of the new OmniTurf
at Autzen Stadium. Kambhuis is part of a crew of OmniSport
employees and 12 University football players who are installing the
new stadium rug.
Officials say the $363,500 rug, consisting of inch-long
polypropylene fibers anchored by 40 pounds of sand per square yard
of turf, is the first of its kind to be installed on a football field in the
United States.
Photo by Michael Clapp
Student congress attracts political speakers
By Julie Shippen
Of the Emerald
State Senator Margie Hendriksen is
one of many well-known political
figures who have been confirmed to
speak at the 37th Annual United .States
Student Association summer congress to
be held at the University Aug. 4-9, said
Sherri Schultz, the local USSA congress
coordinator.
Other speakers on the agenda include
Gwen McKinney, of the National
Alliance of Third World Journalists;
Keith Jennings, with the Progressive
Black Students Committee; Ron Hern
don, of the Portland Black United Front;
and Jan Oliver, University Council for
Minority Education and a former ASUO
president.
Democratic vice presidential can
didate Geraldine Ferraro is being sought
as the congress’s keynote speaker,
Schultz said. The ASUO executive staff
is also pursuing Democratic U.S. Reps.
Jim Weaver and Les AuCoin as lecturers
for the congress, Schultz said.
In related USSA affairs, three of the
University’s seven outstanding USSA
voting delegate positions were filled
Tuesday. ASUO Pres. Julie Davis and
Schultz, ASUO executive assistant, were
appointed delegates at the weekly
meeting of the ASUO executive staff.
Bill Snyder, ASUO student events
coordinator who carried USSA voting
delegate power last year, will again serve
at the week-long summer session and at
the three other nationwide congresses
set during the coming year.
As voting delegates, Davis, Schultz
and Snyder will act as representatives of
the University and ultimately help
decide the organization’s platform
policies for the next year.
Up to four more delegates will be
chosen from other campus groups who
have been active in various political
issues, such as the Student Campaign for
Disarmament or the Oregon Student
Public Interest Research Group, Schultz
said.
The ASUO executive staff also invites
interested students to attend the USSA
congress as observers. Although they
may not vote on caucus resolutions or
the legislative agenda, observer
delegates will have all other rights of
voting delegates. All task forces,
workshops, general sessions, and
plenary sessions that interest them will
be open to observers free of charge.
Workshops and general sessions at the
congress will address topics ranging
from voter registration, campus
divestiture of South African financial
holdings and women’s safety on campus
to environmentalism, racial violence and
the student’s stake in Central America. A
complete agenda is posted in the ASUO
office.
Tax reform expected from special session
By Mike Sims
Of the Emerald
When Gov. Vic Atiyeh addresses a joint special ses
sion of the Oregon Legislature at 10 a.m. Monday, he
will ask lawmakers to make two significant changes in
the state's tax structure.
Atiyeh wants the legislature to modify Oregon’s
unitary tax on national and international corporations
that do business in the state. The governor also wants
the body to resolve an Oregon-Washington “tax war”
by making changes in how Oregon taxes income earned
in the state by out-of-state residents.
The Senate also will take action on a slate of Atiyeh
appointments to state boards and commissions, but the
name of Terrence Clark will be absent from the agenda.
Clark, who was appointed to the State Board of Higher
Education in June, will be unable to attend a Friday
meeting of the Senate Committee on Executive
Appointments.
Committee aide Marilyn Sander said Wednesday
that Clark’s appointment to the board cannot be con
sidered by the panel (which must approve executive ap
pointments before they are sent to the full Senate for
confirmation) unless he is present to testify on his
behalf.
Clark is a second-year dental student at Oregon
Health Sciences University in Portland. He was ap
pointed to replace Sputhern Oregon State College stu
dent Randall Gill, whose term officially expired June
30. However, Gill will remain on the board until Clark’s
appointment is confirmed by the Senate.
Sander said that the committee and the Senate are
expected to convene again in September.
Officials hope that modification of state corporate
tax laws will help enhance Oregon’s business climate.
Many American and foreign films currently refuse to
locate in any state that employs the unitary tax —
Oregon included. Foreign business leaders, as well as
Atiyeh, have urged Oregon lawmakers to make changes
that would base Oregon corporate tax rates on domestic
earnings only.
Under the current unitary tax law, a corporation’s
entire worldwide income is used by the Department of
Revenue as the basis for determining what portion of
that income has been earned in Oregon.
“There is no guarantee that companies will move
to Oregon if we modify the tax,” observed Atiyeh press
aide Denny Miles. “But it’s guaranteed that we won’t
be considered for expansion by those firms if we
don’t.”
Speaker of the House Grattan Kerans, D-Eugene,
was forthright and optimistic in predicting passage of
the proposed modifications to the tax. “I’ll vote in favor
of the modification; it’ll pass both chambers and be
signed by the governor Tuesday afternoon,” he said.
In explaining Atiyeh’s request that the so-called
“border tax” be changed, Kerans said "Basically we’re
going back to the status quo by repealing the 1983
change.”
That change came in the form of a law enacted by
the 1983 Legislature that required non-resk'ents who
work in the state to pay Oregon income taxes based on
total household income, rather than on income earned
in Oregon.