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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 2012)
Opinion The Skanner News Candidate Endorsements Barack Obama for President of The United States Earl Blumenhauer for Congress 3rd District Lew Frederick for State Representative 43rd District Chip Shields for State Senator 22nd District Charlie Hales for Mayor COMMISSIONER OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES U.S. PRESIDENT STATE SENATORS Barack Obama CONGRESS 1st District Suzanne Bonamici 2nd District Joyce Segers 3rd District Earl Blumenauer 4th District Peter DeFazio 5th District Kurt Schrader STATE OFFICES Secretary of State Kate Brown State Treasurer No Endorsement Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum Amanda Fritz for City Commissioner Brad Avakian 22nd District Chip Shields 23rd District Jackie Dingfelder 25th District Laurie Monnes Anderson JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT Position 3 Richard C Baldwin STATE REPRESENTATIVES JUDGE OF THE COURT OF APPEALS 41st District Carolyn Tomei 42nd District Jules Bailey 43rd District Lew Frederick 44th District Tina Kotek 45th District Michael Dembrow 46th District Alyssa Keny-Guyer Tim Volpert MAYOR OF PORTLAND Charlie Hales CITY COMMISIONER Amanda Fritz The Skanner News Ballot Endorsements T hese are our endorsements for the ballot initiatives on the Nov. 6 ballot. Whether you agree or disagree, you should be sure to get out and vote. STATE YES ON MEASURE 77. Measure 77 amends constitution to allow the governor to declare an emergency (a “catastrophic disaster”) and begin recovery efforts more quickly. Con- sidering we’re expecting a major earthquake some time in the next 30 years, it’s not a bad idea. YES ON MEASURE 78. Measure 78 is a “housekeeping” measure designed to clean up language, mis- spellings and clarify Oregon’s three branches of government. NO ON MEASURE 79. Measure 79 amends constitution: Prohibits real estate transfer taxes, fees, and other assessments. Critics charge that the law takes control away from local governments and should not be put into the state constitution. YES ON MEASURE 80. Measure 80 allows personal marijuana, hemp cultivation/use without license; com- mission to regulate commercial marijuana cultivation/sale. While we have reservations about some aspects of the law, we support a common sense effort to start regulat- ing the pot industry and bring its profits into the tax coffers. This is the only measure that, if passed, could potentially CREATE revenue for the state. YES ON MEASURE 81. Measure 81 Prohibits commercial non-tribal fishing with gillnets in Oregon “inland waters,” allows use of seine nets. This measure is aimed at protecting the last wild salmon runs in the Columbia River by banned the use of gillnets—which capture everything that runs into them, whether it’s endangered fish or not. YES ON MEASURES 82-83. Measures 82 and 83 amend the state constitution to authorize estab- lishment of privately-owned casinos and mandates percentage of rev- enues payable to dedicated state fund. It’s a shame the campaign has been suspended but we are support- ing it anyway. Why should one group have a monopoly on casinos? We’d like to see competition in the industry and if there’s a shake-up in tribal casino management – so be it. NO ON MEASURE 84. Measure 84 Phases out existing inheritance taxes on large estates, and all taxes on intra-family property transfers. Few Oregonians will be impacted by the cost of an inheritance tax, but everyone would be impacted by the loss to the state economy of an esti- mated $50 million to $175 million a year, depending on how it would reduce capital gains taxes, accord- ing to the state Legislative Revenue Office. NO ON MEASURE 85. Measure 85 amends constitution: allocates corporate income/excise tax “kicker” refund to additionally fund K-12 pub- lic education. One of the biggest problems the Oregon legislature has is that its tangle of anti-tax laws makes it hard to budget -- for any- Ballot Measures 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 5 5 STATE OF OREGON Yes on Measure 77 Yes on Measure 78 No on Measure 79 Yes on Measure 80 Yes on Measure 81 Yes on Measure 82 Yes on Measure 83 No on Measure 84 No on Measure 85 5 MULTNOMAH COUNTY No on Measure 26-143 4 4 5 CITY OF PORTLAND Yes on Measure 26-144 Yes on Measure 26-145 No on Measure 26-146 thing. The kicker is a major culprit because it literally makes it impossible for the state to save money – kicking it back to corpora- tions that are not even based here. Make sense? We don’t think so either. MULTNOMAH COUNTY NO ON THE LIBRARY LEVY. 26-143 Form Library District with permanent rate to fund library services. We are worried about piling more taxes onto households in tough times. It’s not that we don’t support the libraries, but as Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen says without this meas- ure, things will stay the same. So we are making the tough call of passing on this one, this time. CITY OF PORTLAND YES ON THE SCHOOLS BOND. 26-144 Portland Public School District Bonds to Improve Schools. We didn’t support the last schools bond because it was too cost- ly and poorly written. This measure has built-in citizen accountability, which is important because we do not have faith that school district bureaucrats will spend our resources wisely. If the measure pass- es, we will be holding the district’s feet to the fire on how these dollars are used. YES ON FIRE AND POLICE DISABILI- TY RETIREMENT REFORM. 26-145 Amends Charter: Changes Provisions of Fire Police Disability Retirement System. We all support our Fire and Police Departments, but dedicating 26 cents on every tax dollar the city takes in for their disability plan is a burden that we can’t continue to bear. NO ON THE ARTS TAX. 26-146 Restore School Arts, Music Education; Fund Arts through Limited Tax. We love arts in the schools – they actually help kids learn many other subjects. But this measure taxes every working adult “over the pover- ty line” $35 a year, with part of the money going to the ballet, the symphony and the opera. Many people are still the working poor even if they are above the official “poverty line” – and these people should not be tapped to subsidize the ballet, the symphony and the opera. As much as we love those things too. October 31, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 5
