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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1998)
Campaign News Burke mixes party platforms Libertarian candidate Richard Burke says be would replace property taxes with a sales tax By Tricia Duryee Community Reporter Oregon voters will have an ad ditional choice when voting for the state’s next governor in the upcoming May primary. Libertar ian candidate Richard Burke says he is offering the best aspects from both the Republican and Democratic platforms. "We are a mix of the best of both parties,” Burke said. He said Libertarian party members are most commonly known for their “socially tolerant and compas sionate capitalism.” Burke’s opponents are Democ ratic incumbent Gov. John Kitzhaber and Republican candi date Bill Sizemore. They both an nounced their decision to run earlier this month. Burke works as a computer consultant in Beaverton and is an elected member of the Sunset High School Local School Advi sory Committee. He has also held a similar position at Terra Linda Elementary School and is chair man of the Mainstream Liberty Caucus. He has pledged to concentrate his campaign on three issues. One of his ideas will be to completely replace the property tax with a consumption or sales tax. Burke said even though the majority of Oregonians don't sup port a sales tax, 60 percent of those recently polled favored a sales tax over a property tax. His second goal was to address the separation of school and state by introducing the concept of charter schools. He said that tak ing the politics out of public schools would eliminate con flicts of interest. “The money would fall into the school of [the parent’s] choice,” he said. “That will re move conflict by letting the par ents control where their child at tends school.” Burke asked, “Who should di rect the education of the child? The parents.” The final issue that Burke is choosing to focus on is crime. He said he believes the reason soci ety has so many problems is be cause the emphasis is pointed in the wrong direction. He said he would like to see more reac tionary measures instead of pre ventative actions. One example he noted would be to divert the attention from people doing drugs to the people who commit crimes on drugs. "The jails are full of people who aren’t violent,” he said. Burke is also in favor of distrib uting drugs through a pharmacy. ”1 am in favor of legalizing drugs, but not in favor of anarchy. There would be a lot of laws to protect us from irresponsible behavior ... when drugs are used badly.” At a special nominating con vention in Clackamas on Feb. 8, Burke was nominated to run for governor as the Libertarian can didate. Although Burke said he believes he is a long shot, he said there is still a possibility that he will be elected. "People have perceptions of every party. People have told me that they don’t vote for the party, but they vote for the guy or woman,” he said. “I hope they mean it.” Burke also mentioned that peo ple from the Libertarian party and other independent parties have been elected to positions in other states, including Maine, Rhode Island, Minnesota and Alaska. “It has happened,” he said. “I am going to run the best race I can.” Sizemore aims for fewer state taxes Republican candidate Bill Sizemore made headlines for writing Measures 5 and 47 By David Ryan Freelance reporter The Oregonian called him “the Republican tax-revolt leader.” ASUO President Bill Miner calls him “evil.” The University Republicans say he is “a devoted husband and father of five.” These are all opinions about Bill Sizemore, the front-running Republican candidate for gover nor and executive director of Oregon Taxpayers United, a con servative political action commit tee. Sizemore announced his plans to run for Oregon governor on Feb. 10. Sizemore is most known for writing Measures 5 and 47, which cut property taxes and “thoroughly overhauled the [Ore gon] property tax system,” ac cording to Oregon Tax Reports, an accounting journal that covers changes in Oregon’s tax laws. The attention Sizemore has re ceived from the property tax overhaul gives him the best name recognition of the Republican candidates entered so far. However, this attention also gives Sizemore a controversial reputation with supporters of government programs such as higher education. “I personally would not want to be in an institution of higher education if [Sizemore] were gov ernor,” said Miner. “He’s not a friend of higher education. I think he’s shown that with Mea sures 5 and 47. ... Oregonians want more prisons, they want higher education, they want smaller class sizes, and to do that they need money. [But] money just doesn’t grow on trees.” Sari Wisch, co-chair of the College Democrats, agreed. "With Sizemore's Measure 47, the cutback in property taxes caused the University to lose much-needed funding. [Size more] is set on causing much needed services to be eliminated from the city of Eugene and the state of Oregon.” However, Sizemore’s involve ment with Oregon Taxpayers United and his authorship of Measures 5 and 47 are viewed positively by members of his own party. “[Because] Sizemore is cur rently the executive director of Oregon Taxpayers United and was the author of Measure 47 ... we feel that if elected, he will work for Oregonians to keep more of their income, at the same time putting more money back into Oregon," said Jason Gather cole, vice president of the College Republicans. “Sizemore is a de voted father of five. He genuinely cares about Oregon and its future, and we feel that he makes an ex cellent candidate for Oregon’s governorship.” “We can decide which of these two directions we want to go: bigger government with higher taxes or limited govern ment with limited taxes,” Size more said in his announcement to run for governor. “I’m going to vote for him,” said Roy Fenn, a graduate stu dent in international studies. “I think government is too large and needs to be scaled down.” Critics cite the fact that while business’ property taxes dropped significantly as a result of Mea sure 5, individual property taxes went up and state government agencies began to have budget problems. “Today, Oregon businesses pay 64 cents in corporate income and business property taxes for every $1 raised from personal in come and residential property taxpayers,” said Russell Sadler, host of "Russell Sadler’s Civic Affairs” on public radio station KSOR. Oregon Taxpayers United de fends Sizemore’s record on tax cuts by implying that the budget crisis in Oregon is caused by wasteful government spending. On its Web site, Oregon Taxpay ers United has published a list of Oregon’s total education expen ditures from 1989 to i996. The numbers show that total expen ditures have risen almost con stantly since then. The same statistics published by the Oregon Department of Ed ucation show that total expendi tures for Oregon’s schools have risen an average of 17.5 percent more than the Oregon Taxpayers United’s statistics show for the 1993-94 and 1994-95 school years. Oregon Taxpayers United points to school boards as the source of education’s woes. “Employee costs are 80 percent of most schools’ budgets,” wrote school board member Joe Drig gers of Canby on Oregon Taxpay ers United’s Web site. “School boards, knowing that revenues per student had become relative ly fixed, have refused to curtail employee costs. We had the abili ty to control our expenses, and chose instead to give our employ ees raises.” In his announcement to run for governor, Sizemore noted that editorial writers had described a contest between his philosophy of limited government and Gov. John Kitzhaber’s support of gov ernment programs as “good ther apy” for Oregon. “Well,” Sizemore said, “let the therapy begin.” JlZSoOO '* at.T.mm.a ■ Jfc i «-I IN JLu No Smelly Parts! These critters are well and truly dead, but fossils tell all about life and landscapes of the past: life’s origins, microbial warfare, the rise of trees, world’s greatest midlife crises, a time for flowers, spreading grasslands. Learn more in Geetogy 103 this spring. This course helps fulfill Science group requirements! THE FRENCH H^RN l&L GROCERY cafe • bakery * wine • produce Show your student IP and recieve 10% off a lunch or breakfast item in theoafc 6:45am-6;30pm M-*P * 7ain-6pm 5at. • 6am-£pm .V:;»*>,. ,v ■*• ••■ / A'*rv ......’S'"•••%..w/1 < '_.. 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