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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2000)
Measure 95 k|f|* Attempts to gauge “teacher perform ance” by requiring measure ment of “student learning,” and would base teachers’ salaries on that “performance." Teacher per formance can’t be measured that easily, and pay should be based on skills and education. Measure 96 Prohibits the Legislature from ♦ making it harder for citizens to put constitutional amend ments on the ballot. We sup port this because everyone should have an equal opportunity to put measures on the ballot. But citizens need to be more careful to not tinker with the Oregon Constitution for every private agenda. Measure 97 Stops farmers and ranchers from using body-gripping traps and poisons until after they’ve tried other methods. This is humane and rational, and animal own ers can still get a permit to use traps from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Measure 98 NO* BarsPu^'cem' .w Jwys. ptoyees from using ;(/r rv^ payroll deduction to give 7 money for political purposes, just because the state’s pay roll department would have to process those payroll deductions. Again, similar to Measure 92, this singles out one group of people and makes it harder for them to participate. / That’s not democracy. * Measure 99 Createsa state commission to Y r V regulate home care workers for the elderly and disabled. The commission would be sure that home care workers are properly trained and registered, and would represent home care workers for collective bargaining purposes. This is a win for the elderly and dis abled and a win for home care workers. Only Satan would oppose this measure. Measure 3 YES Requires a criminal convic ♦ tion before seizing private * p ro perty. Cu rrent ly, t he gov ernment can seize a citizen’s property if they think it was used in a crime, even if the citizen has not yet been arrested or convicted. Gee, do you think we should be sure they’re guilty before we take their stuff? Measure 6 Moves Oregon toward real campaign /V finance reform. This measure estab lishes a campaign fund, so that if candidates for state offices voluntar ily limit spending and show public support for their candidacy, they receive money from the state. The money for this fund comes from eliminating the tax deduction taken by businesses and wealthy individ uals for huge campaign contributions. Even better, if a candidate’s opponent refuses to abide by the spending limits, the candidate gets additional mon ey to match the uncooperative opponent. This measure is a step in the right direction, and it shows how clear and concise a law can be if it’s written by an experienced professional, instead of by Bill Size more. Measure 8 Limits the state’s spend ing ability—to 15 per cent of the state’s income in the last two years. Every two years, the state budgets for the next two years. Sometimes investments need to be made. The Legislature should have the flexibility to spend more than 15 percent if needed. Voters could pass a law if they want a balanced budget, but this con stitutional amendment is unnecessary and severe. Measure 8 would reduce our spending ability by $5.7 billion. How would we fund higher education? Similar to Measure 84, this ♦ makes the Legislature cough Measure 1 YES w up money when they make demands. Measure 1 says that if the Legislature sets school quality goals, it must provide funding to meet those goals. Simple and fair. Measure 4 !>■■« Would establish a trust fund j r\ * for the tobacco settlement * money, just like Measure 89. But unlike 89, this measure would use the money only for the Oregon Health Plan. Either way, Measure 89 or 4, we think protecting the settlement money and using it for health-related services is a good idea. If both measures pass, the one receiving the largest percentage of “yes” votes would become law. But if half of the state votes “yes” on one measure and “no” on the other, they could both fail. Best vote for both of them. Measure 2 NO* Anotfler measure overly complicating our lawmaking process. Mea sure 2 says that if 10,000 vot ers get upset about an admin istrative rule and sign a petition, the Legislature would have to review and vote on the rule. It’s easy to get 10,000 people upset about darn near anything in Oregon. If we can so easily double- and triple-guess our gov ernment, it can’t work effectively. Measure 5 Requires unlicensed gun sell Y r\4 ers to perform background 4 checks—just like licensed dealers do. This is simple: Everyone selling a gun in Oregon should be required to do a background check on the person buying the gun. Measure 7 UA« Requires state and local governments to pay p roperty owners if a nything the government does can be shown to reduce the property value. In other words, if the state establishes a nature reserve near someone’s land, and the owner cries that the de velopment value of that land is reduced as a result, the state would have to pay them—for develop ment that hasn’t happened. Taking private proper ty currently requires compensation. Claiming value reduction is too broad. This would cost state and lo cal governments $5.4 billion. Yes, billion. y Measure 9 K|f"|+ Wou,d prohibit public schools from “encourag j/f xV ing, promoting or sanctioning” ho mosexuality. The vaguely written Measure 9 isn’t about protecting children or fairness in curriculum. It’s about the OCA wanting homosexuals scared, silent and sup pressed. The OCA has toned down the wording of its recent measures to avoid the charges of bigotry and hate-mongering it inspired in past years. How ever, Measure 9 is the same bigotry, just in a nice, shiny “protect our kids” package. 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