Thursday, April 5, 1973
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Th« Nyna Oat« City Journal, Nyna, Oregon
Pag« S«v«n
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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.
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