Rep. E. Werner Reschke: Legislature and the transportation tax

By Oregon State Representative E. Werner Reschke,
Newsletter excerpt

The Legislature cannot repeal the referred transportation Tax, according to 90-year-old legal opinion.

This precedent directly contradicts Governor Tina Kotek’s recent call for lawmakers to repeal her signature transportation tax package after more than 250,000 Oregonians signed a petition demanding a vote.

A 1935 Oregon Attorney General opinion confirms that once Oregonians invoke their constitutional right to referendum, the Legislature has no authority to repeal the measure before it’s put on the ballot for voters to have their say.

The Oregon Constitution is clear that the power of referendum is reserved to the people, and once a measure qualifies through signature verification, the Secretary of State has a duty to place it before voters.

That said, the State Legislature will meet for a 5-week session at the beginning of February. There is no doubt that Democrat lawmakers will attempt to keep the measure from appearing on the ballot in its present form. They may try to change the date of the election or find a loophole around the clear, legal right to have a referendum that has collected the requisite number of signatures and been certified by the Secretary of State.

Simply put, what the Governor and Democrat leaders do not want is to be held accountable for their actions. They used extreme efforts to pass this transportation tax, even when over 90% of the public testimony was against it. Now when we have put the tax bill up for a vote by the people, these same Democrats want to just erase their tax bill with no consequences. Our message is simple: Let the people vote in November on this tax measure!