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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 2006)
Signature deadline nears 17 initiative petitions being circulated Once again in Oregon, voters will be asked to make the law, with initiatives crowding the November 2006 ballot. Seventeen measures are actively cir- culating this year. Oregon initiative peti- tions campaigns have until July 7 to turn in signatures. Not all of them will make it. But the Oregon AFL-CIO is hoping to get the jump on political season, and has started to educate political coordina- tors at affiliated unions about some of the measures likely to be on the ballot. The labor federation’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) has taken positions on several initiatives. It will re- visit those initiatives to decide a plan of action when it meets in mid-July. Unions will likely oppose: • A state spending limit - i.e., limiting spending on schools, roads, prisons, seniors. The measure creating the most anxiety is an amendment to the Oregon Constitution that would set a state spending limit. It’s modeled after a measure passed in Colorado in 1992. If voters approve it, state government spending will not be allowed to increase at a greater rate than population growth, plus inflation. That might sound reason- able, particularly to those who think state spending is growing at too great a rate. But the measure’s critics say the limit puts a straightjacket on the elected Legislature, preventing it from respond- ing to crises — like a spate of crum- bling bridges, an increase in crime, or high unemployment. Plus they say, “population plus inflation” ignores fis- cal realities that are a little more com- plex. For example, seniors require more public services than the average citizen, and as the baby boomers age, there will be more seniors. A population could stay the same, and yet get older and be more expensive to serve. Plus, a big part of the state budget is health care, and the cost of health care is rising faster than inflation, which is calculated based on the cost of a standard bread basket of consumer items. Colorado saw its state services dwindle dramatically as the spending limit took its toll year after year. Last year, Coloradans voted to sus- pend the limit. • A complicated tax limitation — i.e., Bill Sizemore’s long shadow. Union foe Bill Sizemore is hampered in his politi- cal work by a court order, after a jury found systematic use of fraud pervaded his ballot measure machine. But Russ Walker and former Sizemore disciple Carol Bobo are carrying on his legacy. Their current proposal, which was writ- ten by Sizemore, would allow an “in- come tax deduction equal to the federal exemptions deduction to substitute for the state exemption credit.” Confused? There will be plenty of time to study it before ballots are due. But basically it’s a way to rewrite the state tax code and cut taxes (and therefore state revenue, and therefore spending, ie. schools, roads, prisons, seniors, the mentally ill.) • A revision of campaign finance laws. Year after year, activists Dan Meek and Harry Lonsdale have pushed tougher campaign spending limits. As they’ve written them, the limits would apply to campaign contributions and in- dependent political expenditures by unions as well as corporations. The Ore- gon AFL-CIO opposes them on the grounds that working people have a hard enough time getting heard without fur- ther restrictions on their unions’ politi- cal activity. A handful of measures are expected to get union support, including several that are being actively led by unions: • Beefing up staffing at nursing homes. Expect to hear a lot about bad conditions in nursing homes. Unions that represent nursing homes are hoping this will be a no-brainer: require nursing homes to meet an acceptable minimal level of staffing. • Declaring health care a fundamen- tal right. If state legislator Mitch Green- lick is right, putting health care in the Oregon Constitution (alongside educa- tion) will make the Legislature do some- thing to make sure every Oregonian has access to health care. • Allowing any Oregonian without prescription drug coverage to join a state Prescription Drug Bulk-Purchas- ing Pool. Last year, the Legislature was too timid or too bought-out to expand Oregon’s fledgling prescription drug purchasing pool in a way that made the program big enough to be most effec- tive. So, true to the original intent of the Oregon ballot initiative process, the pro- posal is being taken to the people, by the people (unlike a couple of the union-op- posed measures, which are backed al- most entirely by out-of-state money.) Local Motion May 2006 Union election activity in Oregon and Vancouver, according to the National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employee Relations Board Elections held Results: Company Date Union Union No Union 97 15 Salem 8 0 CBS Radio Stations/KINK-FM (decertification) 5/18 AFTRA Salem 5 11 Location Umpqua Community College (classified) 4/21 Oregon Education Assoc. Roseburg Armadillo Underground 5/5 CWA Local 7906 Oregon State Lottery 5/23 SEIU Local 503 Salem City of Forest Grove (decertification) 5/25 AFSCME Council 75 Forest Grove Company Union 15 Location # of employees Twin Oaks Rehab & Specialty Care Service Employees International Union Local 503 7911 SE 82nd Ave. Portland, Oregon Sweet Home 32 Roseburg 7 Sherms Thunderbird (decertification) Bakers Local 114 Southgate Mobile & RV Park NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS 25 Elections requested Washington Demilitarization (decertification) Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 290 PAGE 8 127 165 Hermiston 8 Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call Spaces Available up to 35’ 503-288-5537 503-771-5262 1638 NE Broadway, Portland JUNE 16, 2006
