HJR 15 strips voting power from citizens

Today the House Rules heard a bill sponsored by Representative Chris Garret that would would take away voting power away from the public in a shameless power grab.   HJR 15 outlaws people’s using the Oregon initiative petition process if their measure would cause the state to spend money.  Instead it would require any such measure to be required to have its own tax or fee so that the state would not have to spend a penny.   Politicians could still pass financial impacting laws without a new tax — but the public could not.

During testimony, supporters said Oregon’s initiative petition process has “gone too far” and even called it a “mistake” because we allow Oregonians more freedom than other states.  Supporters laid the primary rhetorical blame on voters passing tough on crime measures.   Here is how it goes.  Politicians refuse to protect the public by releasing prisoners early.   The public gets victimized and tries to protect its own very life by locking up criminals.  Now, upset politicians wish to punish voters with a tax every time they exercise such decisions in the future with HJR 15.   

Voters are not the problem — politicians are.  It was voters who tried to enact PERS pension reform in the early 1990’s.  It was tossed out by courts, but the politicians nearly 15 years ago had a massive public mandate to fix the problem.  Yet now the system is $16 billion in debt because the politicians avoided the bigger decisions.  Oregon voters deserve a medal not handcuffs & a tax with HJR 15!

Read HJR 15