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How members in our union endorse candidates: “The soundbite is easy, the truth is nnmnlinotari ” The scoop on TABOR from Colorado: cumpiiuawu. interview with Kristi Hargrove SEIU members have done extensive research, applying high standards, before giving an endorsement to any candidate. To earn an endorsement, candidates have to be supportive of the right to organize, funding for public services, afford able health care, workers' rights, and other issues that are important to working families. How you vote is a personal matter, but we want you to know which candidates stand with us on issues important to working families. SEIU members endorse... GOVERNOR: Ted Kulongoski SUPREME COURT: Virginia Linder Position 6 LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: Albany City Council Bessie Johnson* Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell City of Salem City Council Laura Tester* Clackamas Cty Commission Pos. #2: Lynn Peterson Rita Bernhard Columbia Cty Commission Coos County Commission Kevin Stufflebean* Jackson County Commission Dave Gilmore Lincoln City Mayor Lori Hollingsworth Marion Cty Commission, Position #2 Sonya Heard* Multnomah County Commission: Commissioner Jeff Cogen Polk County Commission Sue Lamb Portland Metro Kathryn Harrington Umatilla County Commission: Position #2 (dual endorsement) Bob Reese and Larry Givens Did you initially vote for TABOR? The following interview features Kristi Hargrove, who was recently in Portland as a guest of Defend Oregon. Kristi and her husband operate a construction business in Colorado. They have four children. You can catch Kristi on-screen in the DVD "The Real Story Behind TABOR." I What would you want to tell people who provide services to Oregonians about your experience with TABOR? ’ Kristi: The most important thing I would say is that TABOR jeopardizes all those services and would make your jobs much more difficult, if even possible. What happened in Colorado is that as our pie shrank, certain things that are mandated - like the prison system, Medicare, certain things like that - they have no choice but to fund. But what about K-12, Higher Ed, all these things? What happens is that as the pie shrinks, they get squeezed out. There's no room for them anymore. And there's no recourse. ! J | Can you talk about TABOR and Measure 48? J Kristi: One of the biggest pitfalls of your Measure 48, just like our TABOR, is that it's something that they're putting in the Constitution. You lose your democratic voice. You don't have the dialogue anymore because legislators don't have a choice. The proponents would say that you gain more control, but you actually lose control because you can't hold your legislators accountable anymore. What happened to schools in Colorado? Kristi: For us what happened was that our schools basically imploded. Our heat had to be turned down in our building. That was how I became involved originally. Parents are paying for things that we never used to pay for before. It's a public school. But we paid every time we turned around. We now pay for workbooks. That was new this year. *SEIU 503 Member Our PTA has bought all of our textbooks for the last four years. Our parents pay higher fees for sports. Has this changed your opinion of government? Kristi: You know we all have a certain amount of cynicism about government. We assume it's bloated. We assume it's not efficient. We assume there's plenty of money to go around. And I was the same. I went down to my School Board and we started going through the budgets. And what I learned was that we were already running thin. Before it was over we became a skeleton - trying to decide which bone to take off. I'm a PTA volunteer at my local school and we started incredible fundraising efforts, raising tens of thousands of dollars. In the first year we had to raise $80,000 in thirty days so we wouldn't be in the red again at the end of that fiscal year. Because the State had already put us on Accreditation Watch - for fiscal, not academic - because we had already used all our reserves. So we raised the $80,000. The next year we had to run a property tax initiative to help pay for the school. SENATE: Endorsed Candidate Cities ■ 4 Floyd Prozanski Cottage Grove, Drain, Elkton, Glide, Lowell, Oakland, Oakridge, Sutherlin, Westfir, Yoncalla, Eugene, Veneta i 1 6 Bill Morrisette Brownsville, Coburg, Creswell, Eugene, Sodaville, Springfield 7 8 Vicki L Walker Mario E Magaña Eugene, Junction City 10 Paul Evans Aumsville, Independence, Monmouth, Salem, Turner 11 15 Peter Courtney John Napolitano Gervais, Salem, Woodburn 17 19 Brad Avakian Richard Devlin 20 24 26 Kurt Schrader Rod Monroe Rick Metsger Dist. Adair Village, Albany, Millersburg, Tangent, Corvallis, Philomath Our union recommends: 1 Cornelius, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, North Plains I Beaverton, Portland Durham, Rivergrove, Tualatin, West Linn, Lake Oswego, Portland i Locations primarily in Clackamas County 1 Locations in Multnomah County Estacada, Portland, Cascade Locks, Hood River, Sandy NO on 41&« 45 46&47 40 VKon 44 Kristi: I moved to Colorado in 1993, which was one year after TABOR. But we lived in California and our satellite news was Denver. We knew we were moving to Colorado and we were so excited. We thought, what a neat state! They're passing the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights. We get to vote on any new taxes. That's how it was sold. And that it would limit government. As a conservative, especially a fiscally-conservative Republican, I was thrilled. I thought okay, yeah. Because you know government shouldn't be about everything and of course it's out of control. And so we would have supported it. It all sounded good. But the truth of the matter goes way deeper than that. The soundbite is easy. But the truth is very complicated, very confusing. TABOR's why that park is closed. Or why the fees went up. Or why the drivers' license office is closed. How has TABOR impacted your private life and your family? Kristi: My private life has changed dramati cally as a result of this. The fundraisers, the property tax initiatives, and then Referendum C. We're going to need another property tax initiative. And it’s to just supply basic needs of the society. Because that's what gets cut - the vital services. We're being asked to look at all the amend ments and asked to understand them. That's a lot of work. And it's hard. Most of us, 90% of us, don't have the time, energy or inclination to do it. So, we're getting hoodwinked, by other people's agendas that we don't even understand. And that makes me mad because I don't want to be stupid. I want to feel like I'm informed. But I can't do that without almost being full-time at it. I have four children, a full-time business. You know what, I'm here talking about TABOR instead of being on a fishing trip with my kids. ■ Ballot Measures Measure 41 & Measure 48: When services are cut, Oregonians will end up paying more in increased fees and hidden costs. Measure 41, Bill Sizemore's Shell Game, will have an immediate, retroactive effect and Oregonians will lose almost $800 million for schools, care provider programs, and other critical public services in this budget cycle. Measure 48 is a complicated, confusing constitutional amendment that will force deep cuts to public services in Oregon, just like it did in Colorado. VOTE NO on 41 and 48. Measure 46 & Measure 47: These two measures make it tougher for working families to have a voice in politics. Measure 46 amends the Constitution to allow the legislature to limit free speech protection. Measure 47 is a complicated scheme of campaign finance restrictions that will end up favoring extremely wealthy candidates at the expense of working families seeking a voice in the political process. VOTE NO on 46 and 47. YESlia on Local Ballot Measures Multnomah County 26-84 Washington County 34-126 Linn County 22-67 Measure 45: By limiting legislators' terms and forcing experienced legislators out, power shifts to the special interest lobbyists. The lobbyists will work the system to pass tax loopholes, get sweetheart contracts, and feed at the public trough. Measure 45 will also make elections more expensive. VOTE NO on 45. Jackson County Measure 40: Changes the system for electing judges to make it easier to elect anti-worker judges to Oregon's courts. VOTE NO on 40. 33-55 Measure 44: Expands the State's prescription drug purchasing pool to all Oregonians. YES on 44 makes it easier to get access to affordable medication. VOTE YES on 44. 24-238 15-66 Wasco County Marion County । 1 PAGE 4 SEIU Local 503, OPEU - STRONGER TOGETHER OCTOBER 2006
