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About Nyssa gate city journal. (Nyssa, Or.) 1937-199? | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1973)
Thursday, April 5, 1973 I » •• ». Th« Nyna Oat« City Journal, Nyna, Oregon Pag« S«v«n FIRST OF MONTH SHOP VALUES FRIDAY AND SATURDAY I- VARIETY - QUALITY ■ SERVICE - SAVINGS NYSSA & SAVE Research 1» The Thing This system handily avoids pos sible conflicts between law- making and politicking. Special sessions in the past, for in stance, have been called for dates just as far away as the by Jack Zimmerman Zimmerrnu | calendar will allow from pri venue are varied and dependent, mary or general elections. to a disproportionate degree, Next year’s special session on the vagaries of the eco however, tentatively is sche nomy--both statewide and duled to convene something like nationally. a month before the'74 primary. An example this session is Meanwhile, and more imme the decision by House and Se diately significant, is the spe nate leadership to fund major cial election on the school fi state agencies for only one year nance tax plan. Last week mar during the present session and ked the first time in Oregon to return about this time next history a legislative body has year to finish the budgetary referred an issue of such mag task. The reasons for such ac nitude to the voters during a tion, they say, are necessitated session. And virtually all Ore by the federal government’s re gon lawmakers--for or against luctance to appropriate suffi the plan--have committed them cient long-term portions of selves to campaign on the issue. some two-thirds of the revenue Members of the U. S. Con upon which the state depends gress know all about this si during the upcoming biennium. tuation. They must regularly This makes sense--along make the decision whether to with their other major reason-- stay in Washington and tend to the uncertain fate at the polls Congessional business or fly in May of the tax-shifting school home as often as possible to finance program approved by mend political fences. It’s said both Senate and House last week. members of the U.S. House of Gov. Tom McCall, who con Representatives must campaign ceived and fosters the program constantly throughout their that would switch dependence terms of office. And more than for funds to operate public one Oregon congressional in schools largely from property cumbent has been unseated be to income and business taxes, cause he opted to stay in the na concurs with legislative leader tion’s capital while a newcomer ship. And this is important, stumped the state successfully. because under present law only So for the next month, Oregon the governor can convene a spe- Legislators--hard-pressed to cial--in this case, annual--ses give more than passive attention sion of the Legislature. to an unprecedented flood of So a major step has been maybe 2,500 bills--will have taken toward yearly appropriat to make that "congressional de ing and lawmaking meetings in cision:” Salem. Do I scoot back home and help Coincidentally, present House explain this tax program, or do and Senate leadership have pro I stay in Salem and tend to the claimed the current Legis business at hand? lature’s standing committees It’s a tough decision to make. will continue their activities Proponents and opponents alike into the interim period between have logical reasons to work as traditional biennial sessions. hard as possible for the mea This Is another step toward sure’s passage or defeat at the fulltime lawmaking. Taken to special election polls. gether, one can’t help but ele It’s been said this legisla vate current solons to semi- ture is different than its pre professional status. decessors and the current pro But the clincher on the road blem certainly is another exam to fulltime professionalism in this particular league will be ple of the difference. Though they’re not full-fled the taste of the so-called big time current members of the ged big leaguers from a full- OR E GON TODAY Ô , Salem Scene Support cancer research by supporting the American Can- cer Society. We want to wipe out cancer in your lifetime says the Society. Oregon’s amateur lawmakers already have achieved semi-pro status during this 57th session of the State Legislature and will get at least a taste of the really big time before adjourn ment sine die. The amateur status of tra ditional part time solons in Ore gon revolves around a couple of long-held concepts. First, a Legislature that meets only biennially is less expensive. And second, members of such a body are better able to main tain close touch with consti tuents and are dependent upon employment of other types to sustain themselves and their families. Under such a plan, service in the Legislature becomes a sac rifice in the name of public ser vice. Opponents to annual ses sions, for instance, long have held that yearly meetings simply would increase the cost of state government and pro duce professional, big league politicians too greatly preoc cupied with sustaining them selves in office. This concept was just fine, say those who favor annual ses sions, as long as Oregon was a rural state and the problems of conducting state government were relatively simple. But the situation has changed now, they aver. Today the biennial bill tor state government hovers in the $3 billion range. Oregon has be come a high service state-- one which provides a lot of government assistance to it. residents. Its sources of 1OOO YARDS SPRING NEW PATTERNS 1% lo 5 YARD LENGTHS DACRON POLYESTER Legislature will savor between now and about May 1. It goes this way. Oregon’s biennial sessions purposely are conCicted on odd-numbered years and elections are con ducted on even-numbered years Once again the voters of Ore gon will have the chance to vote on a major proposal for shif- ting the burden of taxation. Persons who have recenti) moved to this state are pro- babiy quite puzzled by the forth coming referendum. In other states the legislature can place the emergency clause on tax measures, which means that the bill goes into effect due to the emergency that has been defined by the legislature. Then if there is initiative provided in the state constitution the voters can collect signatures andtrytode- feat the next tax plan at the polls after it has been in effect for sometime. But the constitution of Oregon prohibits the legis lature putting a tax bill into effect immediately. So the people always have the oppor- tunity of gathering signatures to refer the matter to a popu lar vote. Knowing that this would probably happen in any event and wanting to hasten the popular vote so that the legis lature can make alternative plans if necessary, this tax plan will be voted upon May 1st of this year. If the referendum passes the tax bill becomes law; if it fails the legislature will go back and try to adopt a new proposal. Over the years many poli tical scientists and other res ponsible citizens have urged that the provision in the Ore gon constitution prohibiting the legislature from placing an emergency clause on tax mea sures be repealed on the grounds that this would better enable the legislature to meet fiscal crises. The citizens of Oregon have never been willing time service stan<t>oint quite yet, each of the 90 men and women serving in Salem right now have a professional big league decision to make. And maybe that’s part of the price one pays for turning pro. to give up their right to vote on tax measures, and so the re sult is that in this area our state is unique in the amount of popular control. The result has been that most tax measures that have been referred have been defeated. Then, not too long ago with the massive help of students from Oregon colleges, a cigaret tax managed to sur vive the popular referendum. This gave the sponsors of this 1973 proposal a good deal of hope. Unlike previous tax mea sures that have been referred this bill goes to the people with the support of a popular re publican governor and a demo cratic majority of both houses of the legislature. Most of the big business community is op posed, and I imagine that re cord sums of money will be spent on both sides between now and the first of May. The mea sure does increase the rates of Oregon income tax and par ticularly increases the tax bur den on good-sized businesses. On the other hand, it will for the first time in memory of any of us provide meaningful property tax relief and will place Oregon’s tax system much closer to a true ability-to-pay basis. Many Oregonians are accus tomed to voting no on any re ferred measure because erf un certainty about its effect. They are thus following the motto of the famous Oregon governor, Oswald West, who said many years ago, "If you don’t know, vote no.” But this measure will probably have more explanation and more rhetoric on both sides than any other measure in re cent years because everyone recognizes that it has a grea ter chance of passage. After reviewing the evidence the ave rage taxpayer will find that he will be far better off if this tax reform bill passes. WILSON S BONANZA OF VALUES SALE STARTS AT 9 A M. 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