Oregon votes 2002
Oregon voters approved two ballot measures in a special election Sept. 17, both fixing a small percentage of the state budget shortfall and giving immediate funding to K-12 schools for this year.
The two ballot measures were referred to voters during the Legislature’s third special session in June to help fill what was then a $750 million budget hole. The money raised by the two measure will not affect the current $482 million budget shortfall.
Measure 19 will convert the education endowment fund — which is funded by the lottery — into a rainy-day account for K-12 education. The measure will then borrow $150 million from the fund for this school year.
Measure 20 will increase the current state cigarette tax by 60 cents, ending in a total of $1.28 per pack. This new tax is expected to raise $70.7 million in the current biennium and be mostly dedicated to compensating for earlier Oregon Health Plan cuts.
Barb Bellamy, spokeswoman for the 4J school district, said the success of Measure 19 will open $4.7 million for schools.
“We already had to deal with an $8 million shortfall going into this year, so we’ve had to make reductions,” she said. “Measure 19 will at least mean that balancing the budget will be a lot less drastic.” Bellamy added that schools are now dependent on an income tax increase to receive the rest of their funding.
“(Measure 19) is really good for us, as well as other schools in Oregon,” she said. “But there is $3 million we still don’t know about.”
The success of Measure 19 could adversely affect higher education students, however.
The Oregon Opportunity Grant, which gets 25 percent of endowment fund interest to help college students pay for school, will loose approximately $3.5 million in funding during the next biennium because of Measure 19. As a result, about 3,300 college students will not be able to receive a portion of the grant.
“I think that it’s really
unfortunate that in really tight budget times, needy students get priced out of education,” said Oregon Student Association Interim Legislative Director Melissa Unger.
Legislators also agreed on a budget solution last night after referring a $315 million income tax increase measure to voters and passing a package of bonding and cuts. The three funding solutions will fill the budget shortfall that has plagued the Legislature for five special sessions.