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 >» • Managing Editor Editorial Editor Graphic* Editor Freelance Editor The Oegon Defy fm***j » punished daily Monday tnrough Friday during the school year and Tuaaday and Thursday during lha summer by me Oregon Da ly Emerald Publishing Co . me . al Ibe University ot Oregon Eugene. Oregon the Imert/a operate* mdependenity o< the University with otlrces al Suite 300 ol the Erb Memorial Union and l a member ol the Associated Press The Emerald rs private properly The unlawful removal or use oI paper* r» prosecutable by taw Edllor-ln-Chle<: Jake Berg Caliey Anderson Sports Editor Steve Mm* Oawd Thorn Editorial Editor Jed Pc*hart* Jett Pastay Photo Editor Anthony Forney Jett Winters Supplement* Editor Katy Soto Night Editor: Caltey Anderson Associate Editor*: Scot Clemens. Student Government Activities. Rebecca Merritt. Commontfy. Rivers Janssen, ragner FAvehon Administration yews Start Dave Ch*rbonn*au. Rear do Davtco. Meg Dedotpn Amy Davenport. Mari* Fields. Martin f.sher. Sarah Henderson. An* Hesserdahi. Edward Kloptenatem. Ym leng lsong. Tnsta NoaL Elisabeth Re*nst|*rn*. Lia Saloccia. Scott Simonson. Stephan.* Sisson Susanna Stehens. Julm Swensen. Me hem Thompson Aguiar. Kevin Tnpp. Amy Van Tuyi. Darnel West Oerter at Men agar. Judy R Shawn* Abel*, Greg Desmond. Ter* Gault nay. Brad Jos* jenmtar Roland. Natl Thangwgrt. Clayton Ye* Newsroom__MB-UU Otaptey Advertising -MB-1712 Business Omo*..__.__344-MI2 Cteseined Advertising If bullets are taxed cwy taxpayer5 wi,,' have bullets tW'WAlAt »C>m) rnr 50**%^ a W| 4 hahcxjvh Bvatrs -— IS UK l A jp ^ i , UMCTt S101 ASC VCt. ON 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.