EDITORIAL
It’s your duty to vote
More than two centuries ago, our forefathers endowed
on the citizens of this country the right to vote, and with
it they entrusted the fate and destiny of our fledgling
democracy to tho hands of the people.
OK, so it wasn't to all of the people, but these guys
weren't brilliant about everything. (After all, they did
voluntarily choose to wear powdered wigs. In public.)
Far be it for the Emerald to call it your patriotic duty
to get yourself to the polls and vote today, but ... well,
here we are. Tho issue at hand, the sales tax Ballot Mea
sure 1, may not be as exciting as some of the issues of
other recent elections, but the debate over the sales tax
has still taken some interesting turns along the way.
Such as:
• When was the last time the opponents of a major
ballot measure used the word "goofy” in describing the
measure's faults? Tho sales tax's opponents did so in a
widely seen television commercial that was one of tho
first to hit the airwaves. Would someone have described
last year's failed Measure 9 as "goofy"? We didn’t think
so.
We’re sure there were some other fascinating points
about the sales tax discussion which mado the subject
utterly enthralling, but we forgot them. So back to the
dull stuff.
Opponents and supporters of the sales tax both seem
to be missing the point. Supporters are convinced that if
the opponents only informed themselves of all of tho
guarantees contained in the sales tax measure (Ijko an
unchangeable 5 percent limit, or the dedication of all
the revenue to schools), they would all say. "Oh. well,
in that case, sure."
Well, first of all. opponents don’t believe that tho state
government will bo true to those promises (no matter
how hard supporters try to convince them otherwise).
The voters believe state government cheated them out of
tho savings they were supposed to realize under 1990‘s
Measure 5. Most homeowners saw only slight (if any)
property tax relief under Measure 5. because their prop
erty was assossod at a higher value. They accuse the Leg
islature of ignoring and deliberately undermining the
popular mandate that Measure 5 was supposed to be. It’s
no wondor that the voters are refusing to trust the leg
islature now.
Second, many of the voters who supported Measure 5
did so In an effort to lower their individual tax burden.
If a person toses $10 to taxes, and then passes a measure
that he or she believes will lower their taxes to $7 (but.
in effect, lowers it only to $9), how can we seriously
expect that person to pass another measure which wifi
practically nullify the effects of the first measure? OK,
maybe he or she pays $9.60 instead of the original $10.
The point is this: How much a person is made to pay is
more important to them than what kind of tax it was
that made them pay it.
The real division between opponents and supporters
of the salos tax is this: opponents want to pay less taxes,
supporters are willing to pay as much as before (or even
more). This division has been virtually ignored during
this campaign, but It will probably be the principal issue
affecting the outcome of the election.
That’s politics. Get out and vote.
Oregon Daily
Emerald
f tX4 OKI uO»4 >» •
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LETTERS
Donut holes
I agree with the opponents of
stnte Ballot Measure 1 that it is
unreasonable to subject staples
of the American diet such as
donut holes and potato chips to
a sales tax However, 1 believe
that Oregon's economy would
benefit in the long run if our
state's voters should decide to
approve Measure J.
Measure 1 would significant
ly rearrange our tax structure so
that our state's economic horses
would be placed, so to speak, in
front of our state's tax tarts. This
change would allow room for
Oregon's 98-pound weakling
economy to grow and gain
enough strength to support the
250 pounds of government body
wo have acquired over the past
few decades.
Removing school financing
from properly lax should make
essential human needs like
housing less costly while the
sales tax makes less essential
consumer goods more expen
sive. Most of the goods that
would be subject to a sales tax
are imported into Oregon from
other states and foreign coun
tries.
A sales tax would not only
broaden our tax base to include
tourists but should also capture
contributions from our many
Oregon residents who thrive in
our large and growing under
ground economy and pride
themselves in not paying
income taxes.
Oregon has always spent
heavily on education but has
tended to receive a relatively
low return on its investments
because we export our most
cupable students to out-of-state
jobs while preparing our least
capable students to fuel the
revolving doors of our state's
only real growth industry — our
criminal justice system.
Perhaps a sales tax is not the
worst thing that can happen to
Oregon, even if it does include
donut holes and potato chips.
Nicholas J. Urhausen
Eugene
Longer letters
Lia Salciccia's opinion (ODE.
Nov. 2) that "boring. pointless
letters won't improve the Emer
ald" rags on various contribu
tors and says be concise, be spe
cific. Her editorial interested me
because the Emerald had pub
lished a letter of my own that
day.
! wrote a good letter with a
point, but the printed form was
not the letter I submitted. The
original child was too long at
370 words. Going to the news
room, 1 myself edited out the
verbiage that made it readable
and gave it nuance and literacy.
More matter, less art, sad to say.
A gourmet repast reduced to
crudites and dip.
The Emerald's limit of 250
words per letter restrains
expression. Student columnists
have a much freer field ... to
make boring pointless remarks
like Salciccia's (whose column
seemed to be a 'Tiller” that day).
Boring topics are not so; they are
intangible without science or
numbers. Such "aery spirits"
need space Two-hundred-and
fifty words is a cattle-pen to
expound on Ayn Rand's corpo
rate deception. Perhaps the
Emerald should up the word
limit to 350 words and pare out
the twinkie matter of student
columns.
Andrew Shaffer
Eugene
PACs
The principles of democracy
in our Constitution is that all cit
izens of the United States have
an equal opportunity to choose
and influence their representa
tion through voting The state of
Oregon has threatened the fun
damental principle because it
has no limits on campaign con
tributions by individuals, PACs
or corporations, allowing repre
sentation to be unduly influ
enced by the highest bidder.
In 1972. the average campaign
for a House seat cost $3,100. In
1992, a campaign for the same
seat cost candidates about
$38.000. During the same 20
year span, individual campaign
contributions have decreased
from 61 percent to 13 percent
while the contributions from
PACs have increased from 22
percent to 69 percent. Also. PAG
contributions weigh heavily in
favor of incumbents, which
greatly explains why 54 of 59
incumbents were re-elected.
A disturbing side note is that
PAC contributions have
increased at a faster rate than
campaign spending, leaving
candidates with excess funds
that they are legally entitled to
spend as they please. An exam
ple of profiteering from PAC
contributions is House Speaker
Larry Campbell who after
receiving $62,000 in PAC con
tributions declared that he could
"do any damn thing" he wanted
with the money (The Oregonian.
Sept. 4).
The coalition for Campaign
Finance Reform has filed an ini
tiative to reduce the influence of
PACs by limiting all campaign
contributions. The coalition
needs to collect 66,771 signa
tures in order to get the initia
tive on the ballot for November
1994. 1 encourage all students
who want to see a return of
equality to politics to sign the
petition and. at least, give the
initiative a fighting chance.
David Almaida
Political Sc lance
LETTERS POLICY
The Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters
containing comments on topics of interest to the University
community.
Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than 250
words, legible, signed and the identification of the writer must
be verified when the letter is submitted.
The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or
style.