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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2000)
Tuesday Editor in chief: Jack Clifford Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P-O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu Today the Emerald editorial board presents its endorsements for all 26 of the state ballot measures. Many of these are critically important to education funding. Please think about these issuesand vote. Watch for the Emerald’s voters guide, a news supple ment that will appear on Wednesday. On Thursday, we will offer our endorsements of the state and local candidates and the city / and county ballot measures. Ballots must be returned by Tuesday, Nov. 7, at 5 p.m. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Measure 83 YES This measure allows veterans ♦ who served 210 days of active * duty or in certain eligible op erations later than 1976 to be included in the Veterans’ Home Loan pro gram. Currently, veterans who served after 1976 are not allowed the benefits of this pro gram and they should be. 4^* Measure 87 K|0+ Removes the “free l^lvr^ expression” protec TVv. tion from sexually oriented businesses. Currently, if a lo cality wants to regulate where a sexually-oriented business is located, it can do so by showing actual or threatened harm. A business shouldn’t be refused exis tence simply based on the content of what they sell. We should protect free expression. Measure 84 In 1996, voters approved this YrV constitutional amendment re ♦ quiringthe Legislature to pro vide money to local govern ments if the Legislature mandates programs or services for those local governments. In other words, if you tell a city or county to do something, pay for it. The 1996 measure re quired a review in 2000. It’s still a good idea. / duce the amount of money the state has to spend on services like education and public safety. It would cost the state $47 million in 2001-2002. Measure 85 ln 1857> Oregon decided that Yrv in order to be a county, an area of land needed to be 400 square miles and have 1,200 inhabitants. It’s now 143 years later. This amendment would update the requirement, allowing new counties to be formed with less than 400 square miles if more than 100,000 people inhabit the area. Measure 89 Creates an investment fund Y rS* f rom Oregon’s share of the to * bacco settlement to be used specifically for health, hous ingand transportation programs to benefit the most needy Oregonians without using the principal from the settlement. Let’s use this free money for as many health-related causes as possible. Measure 86 Makes the state’s “kicker law” Y r\* a Part of the Oregon Constitu tion. The kicker law says that when state income exceeds the state’s estimates, the extra money gets re turned to the taxpayers. It works fine as a law, but it doesn’t need to be added to the consti tution. If our economy changes, our lawmak ers need to have flexibility when dealing with taxes. Measure 90 NIC!* Allows public utili ties to raise rates in order to get a return on in vestments in utility property that is shut down. Essentially, Portland General Electric wants to raise elec tric rates to make money off of the closed Trojan nuclear plant. In 1998, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that PGE’s plan vio lates Oregon law. Then the Legislature voted to change the law. Last year, more than 53,000 voters signed petitions to have the changed law put to a vote of the people. Sor ry that nuclear power thing didn’t work out, but no. Measure 94 Repeals the mandatory mini YfcS* mum sentencing require ments of Measure 11 and re quires resentencing of criminals sentenced under Measure 11 ’s mini mums. Measure 11 has hijacked justice in Oregon, so we recommend repealing it. But Oregon needs to increase rehabilitation ef forts for juveniles and increase penalties for violent crimes like rape. Measure 91 klf\» Makes federal in come taxes fully de ductible on personal and cor porate Oregon income tax returns. Would reduce state revenue by between $800 million and $1 bil lion, drastically reducing the state’s ability to fund education and public safety. y Measure 92 NO* Ret?u'resorganiza tions to get specific /r VV written authorization from W employees before allowing those organizations to collect money through payroll deductions for politi cal purposes. This hampers one group of peo ple’s ability to engage in the political process and is unfair to workers. Measure 93 NO* Rec*uires voters to approve nearly every tax and fee that any state agency implements. This unnecessarily ties the hands of state government to work efficiently and keep agencies running.
