[budman_2001]

http://www.noblankchecks.com/

Top 10 Reasons to Oppose

#2 - The real aim of the Blank Check Initiative is to make it easier for the legislature to increase our income tax, sales tax, property tax, car tax, and other state taxes, year after year. Prop. 56 pretends to discipline Sacramento politicians, but it actually rewards them with an open-ended blank check.

[NormsRevenge]

Take a bite out of "tax and spend" politics as usual Bump!

[dk88]

BTTT.
Come on Oregon Commies, you can figure it out ... you're sooo close!

[anymouse]

And this is with mail in "motor voter" ballots - a made to order recipe for Rat voter fraud. I think many conservative Oregonians are getting tired of paying for the utopian welfare state that Oregon has become.

[Andy from Beaverton]

60/40 As Cartman would say, 'Kick Ass!'

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> ...setting the stage for yet another round of slashing in spending for schools, courts and other programs already reeling from earlier cuts.

This is supposed to be a news article?
It'd be nice if the line above had a fact in it, but it doesn't. There are NO CUTS. There have been NO CUTS. There will be NO CUTS. None. They get 800 million less of an increase than they wanted, that's all.

This measure failing means that state spending for the next biennium will increase by something like 1.4 %, and last time I checked my math, $101.40 was more that $100.00 by about a dollar and 40 cents.

Well the good part is that this has been smacked down, but still, sometimes I wish all the stupid people would just go away.

[nightdriver]

".....setting the stage for yet another round of slashing in spending for schools, courts and other programs already reeling from earlier cuts."

This is pure, unadulterated extortion!

The first thing they (democRATs) do when they are short of revenue is cut the schools, but only the buildings and the teachers, not the administrative beaurocracy. Then they cut back on the police and start turning dangerous convicts loose on society again. Then they give themselves raises like that councilwoman that gave the new Multnomah County librarian a salary of 150% of the former one.

Oregon desperately needs to fire most of their state and local governments, throw them in jail, if necessary and start over.

[PFKEY]

slashing...reeling...cuts.

Sounds like someone is in pain.

[LdSentinal]

According to the results even uber-liberal Multnomah county voted no on the measure.

Just like in Seattle, liberals will never vote yes to raise their own taxes.

[ppaul]

AND UP NORTH IN SEATTLE, SOCIALISM REIGNS SUPREME

Wednesday, February 04, 2004, 12:39 A.M. Pacific

Seattle voters approve schools levies

By Sanjay Bhatt
Seattle Times staff reporter

Voters sent Seattle Public Schools a message yesterday:

Thumbs up.

With all precincts counted in yesterday's special election, unofficial returns showed overwhelming support for both Seattle's school maintenance and operations and capital levies. After more than a year of turmoil, the state's largest district finally may be able to focus on education.

At Schools First! campaign headquarters in the South Lake Union area, Superintendent Raj Manhas and Mayor Greg Nickels thanked the city's voters.

"Thank you for showing faith in Seattle Public Schools (and) in the leadership of Raj and the new School Board," said Nickels, honorary co-chairman of the levy campaign.

According to King County's elections office, levy supporters needed at least 31,757 yes votes and 60 percent supermajority approval for the measures to pass. By 10 p.m. the levies had easily cleared the first hurdle. While only an estimated 60 percent of absentee ballots had been counted yesterday, those showed overwhelming support for both levies. Turnout seemed to be lower than the 32 percent that King County's elections office had forecast.

As returns came in, the mood at campaign headquarters was upbeat. Volunteers cheered and exchanged hugs. The campaign's get-out-the-vote drive had built to a crescendo yesterday, with volunteers waving signs at 72 intersections and phoning reminders to registered voters' homes.

"Only through the dedicated work of many, many volunteers are these campaigns successful," said Peter Maier, the campaign's president.

The crucial three-year, $338 million M&O levy provides 23 percent of the district's annual operating budget and renews a previously approved tax measure. The six-year, $178 million capital levy — also a renewal levy — is intended to pay for nearly 700 projects, including new roofs, plumbing repairs and central-office computer systems, which were recommended by the consultants who investigated last year's budget errors.

In the days leading to yesterday's election, no one could say with certainty that both levies would pass, given the pratfalls of the district over the past year. Last week, blistering criticism of a School Board proposal to weigh in on the local Darigold labor dispute led vice president Brita Butler-Wall to withdraw her motion. Last month, the board drew strong public reaction after passing a resolution to oppose charter-school legislation in Olympia.

And some voters may have had lingering concerns about past mistakes that plunged the district into financial crisis and unhinged its leadership last year.

Poor oversight and sloppy budget management resulted in excessive spending and overly rosy revenue estimates in 2001-02 and 2002-03 that ultimately created a cumulative $36 million deficit. Chief Financial Officer Geri Lim resigned in August 2002, and then-Superintendent Joseph Olchefske announced his resignation the following April.

Bringing spending in line with revenue meant drastic moves. The district liquidated assets and borrowed money. To rebuild its reserves and repay the money it borrowed, the district is selling closed schools and office buildings.

In May, the district announced its first mass teacher layoffs since 1986. But by the start of the school year in September, the district was able to offer jobs to all but three of the 178 laid-off school staff, although the disruption to some schools was irreversible. Clerical, custodial and other classified positions were eliminated, and vacancies were left unfilled. Going into 2003-04, the district had shed nearly 193 full-time equivalent positions in a year.

By October, a four-month effort to pick Olchefske's successor ended with all four finalists withdrawing and the board giving then-Interim Superintendent Raj Manhas a one-year contract.

The next month, voters ousted the three incumbents running for re-election and created a new board majority. Mary Bass, who had been on the losing end of many 6-1 votes over the past two years, became board president.

According to the district, the tax rate for the local school levies will decrease from $2.39 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2003 to $2.12 per $1,000 in 2007, assuming property values increase at 6 percent a year. If property values grow by more than 6 percent a year, as they have in the past five years, the rate will be lower, but the average tax bill would be the same.

Owners of a $336,000 home — the average residence value in Seattle last year — would see their total schools-tax bill rise from about $830 this year to $865 in 2005, $880 in 2006 and $899 in 2007. These figures factor in the assumed 6 percent annual increase in property values and include a previously approved new-school construction levy.

The actual average total schools-tax bill that homeowners pay each year probably would be lower if past trends continue, district officials say. The total levy revenue listed on the measures establish a ceiling for how much the district can collect from homeowners.

The total local levy revenue — which determines the average schools-tax bill — is based on a projected total "levy base," which is the amount the district gets from state revenue and some federal sources. If revenue from state and federal sources declines, so does the levy base and, thus, the local levy revenue the district can collect.

Thus, in 2004 the district can collect only $105 million in local levy money even though voters in 2001 authorized it to collect up to $123 million. State law limits Seattle's school levies to 32 percent of the levy base.

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com

[snippy_about_it]

"The margin of defeat is larger than expected,"

Yippee, and you helped!! Now we'll see what their next move is.

[Conservative til I die]

Oregonians overwhelmingly rejected a proposed tax increase on Tuesday, setting the stage for yet another round of slashing in spending for schools, courts and other programs already reeling from earlier cuts.

Gotta love that liberal media. They forgot to throwin the old ladies dying.

[wita]

...and the very first question I would ask, is the population of students going up or down? Are there fewerstudents this year than last? There must be a budget item covering this scenario. When student population rises, taxes may rise to cover the gain, when population is on the decrease, the reverse applies with an inflation clause on both ends. Our education budget is on the rise and no one picks up on the fact that population has been decreasing for a number of years.

[CedarDave]

Oregon wouldn't need to consider a tax increase if the enviro-wackos hadn't run off the lumber and any other natural resource industries who could broaden the tax base. Let them stew in a soup of their own making.

[Free Vulcan]

ping.

[Redbob]

Nobody seems to notice: The 42% who vote for increased taxes are most likely composed largely of those who currently receive more FROM the government than they pay out in taxes. (In addition to the true big-government Liberals)

What would their incentive be to cut taxes, and therefore cut their handouts?
At the federal level, this group is fast approaching majority status, what with "earned income credits" and other creative GOP-friendly handout programs. Once they're in the majority, we'll never cut taxes again.

[Jotmo]

setting the stage for yet another round of slashing in spending for schools, courts and other programs already reeling from earlier cuts.

The Oregon legislatures threats of "cutting" (the rate of increase) mean nothing to me. They always threaten to cut things that people care about most. God forbid we should quit giving free medical care/school/housing/welfare to illegals. Or cut spending on "the arts". Oh, no. We have to start with cops and schools. And then, we'll cut the building and teacher salary budget, not the administrators.

Cuts for schools....

We home school our kids and I still have to pay their stinking school taxes. Piss on you. Cut them, see if I care.

Cuts in Cort's/law enforcement....

I carry 24/7 and am quite capable of taking care of myself and my family. Anyone trying to commit robbery in Eastern Oregon is an idiot anyway with all the people carrying guns around here. Private citizens carrying weapons does more to deter crime than the cops ever will. Last time I talked to a cop was was about 3 years ago and he was giving me a ticket for doing 4 MPH over the speed limit. Cut the cops, see if I care.

I could go on...

But I'll spare you.

[bray]

The real news is that last week The Boregonian was running polls showing the measure as a toss up. Remember who is making and who is reporting these polls. The ones with Yaaawn Cash & Carry beating W are the same polls that had Arnold tied in Cal. Ignore the polls and bring W into a landslide election. If he wins it is the Ash Heap for Rats and liberalism.

Pray for W and The Truth