Tuesday, Nov. 6, will be your last day to vote on elected representatives. But there are also several important issues up for debate on the ballot, including a few big measures that could limit or grow the amount of money the state can take in. As we’ve seen the last few years, state revenue through taxes (or the lack thereof) can have a big role in establishing large tuition hikes at public universities, so here are just a few ballot initiatives and our recommendations for your votes on them:
Measure 77 — Catastrophic disasters @@all checked@@
Many who have been to the coast in Oregon have heard about the “big one.” The earthquake which, based on past trends, is destined to hit near the Pacific Coast and could cause big damage to coastal areas in Oregon. While it probably won’t happen for many years, this initiative would give the governor constitutional authority to act and allocate money if something like this were to happen. Keeping the options for repair open in the case of an emergency, students should consider a yes vote.
Measure 79 — Ban real estate transfer taxes
This measure would write a ban on the real estate transfer tax into the Oregon constitution. This tax doesn’t currently exist, but could be applied to make Oregon houses more prohibitively expensive, so say the proponents, the Oregon Association of Realtors. At the moment thought, this isn’t an issue, because 60 percent of the Oregon legislature would have to approve this kind of tax. In general, this would allow the state to be more responsive to its own needs in terms of revenues — something a constitutional amendment wouldn’t allow for. Vote no.
Measure 80 — Create a cannabis commission to regulate
This is a tough issue. Both the Oregonian and The Register-Guard have endorsed a no vote on this issue. The O mostly takes issue with the composition of the committee being elected by marijuana growers. The RG focuses on how, like it or not, the law on the federal books is unchanged by this measure. From our perspective, as meaningful as these issues are, it would be better for the hemp to be legal and regulated than to treat it the same as other dangerous drugs.
In addition, the income provided by regulating and taxing this additional revenue will contribute directly into certain state programs.@@http://octa2012.org/about-the-legislation/@@ Ninety percent of it will go straight into the Oregon general fund which goes into all the different state-run programs. One percent is solely designated for drug education in Oregon public schools. Considering that state support for higher education is directly connected to tuition levels, measure 80 is an option students should consider for additional state revenue. So, all things considered we support a yes vote.
Measure 84 — Phases out estate taxes
This measure is being posited as the Death Tax Phase-Out Act. If passed, it would incrementally lower the tax on money being passed to relatives after a death until that tax was eliminated in 2016. The campaign material argues that this tax hurts small businesses as family members have to pay an unfair “double tax” on their loved ones’ earnings. Unfortunately, the way it’s written, it could constitutionally be applied to capital gains taxes and have a larger impact on revenues than has been reported. There may be an issue with the estate tax, but this initiative is not the way to solve it. Vote no.
Measure 85 — Allocates corporate kicker tax to public K-12
The Oregon tax rebate, popularly known as the kicker, reallocates a certain amount of money back to taxpayers in the event of a revenue surplus. This initiative would put the money currently being kicked out to excess corporate and excise taxes and allocate it to public K-12 education. On the one hand, the policy has generally kept Oregon with a smaller rainy-day fund for years just by the way it works. On the other, education just seems like a smart place to put the money Vote yes.