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
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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