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"I very much appreciate the fact that AOI has been diligent in protecting the interests of taxpayers in the Legislature. Whether it has been taking the lead in creating the Magistrate Division of the Oregon Tax Court thereby eliminating the biased Department of Revenue administrative hearings, or stopping legislation that would decrease the interest on tax refunds due taxpayers, AOI has worked closely with the business community on tax issues before the Legislature that benefits all Oregonians."
--Dave Canary, Partner, Garvey, Schubert & Barer
Legislative Leadership Appears Ready to Game Upcoming Tax Referendum
Article by: J.L. Wilson - June 26, 2009
House Bill 2414 changes election law so that YES means NO for referendum measures
Legislative leaders, once again responding to pressure from public employee unions, are attempting to change Oregon’s longstanding election law in order to sow confusion among voters for the upcoming referendum election on the legislature’s tax increases. In a late-night maneuver on Wednesday, Democrats snuck language into HB 2414 intended to induce confusion in hopes of keeping the legislature’s recently passed tax increases intact.
The language in question: "A measure referred to the people by referendum petition may not be adopted unless it receives an affirmative majority of the total votes cast on the measure rejecting the measure. For purposes of this subsection, a measure is considered adopted if it is rejected by the people." In other words, voting YES now means NO, and voting NO now means YES. By inverting the meaning of "yes" and "no," the legislative leadership is making a brazen attempt to satisfy their union supporters who’ve made clear their belief that they can only win an election on the tax package if such a change is made.
Business groups, including AOI, are furiously lobbying against HB 2414. (Read AOI’s letter & Alliance of Oregon’s Business Associations letter.) The Oregonian also editorialized against the measure this morning (Read editorial here).
In an interesting twist, the legislature is proposing to invert the meaning of “yes” and “no” on citizen-driven referrals only. Referrals from the Legislature will still enjoy the time-honored benefit of YES meaning YES and NO meaning NO.
