Oregon Tax Revolt - Later Legislation

Later Legislation

The tax revolt manifested itself in a series of budget battles in the Oregon Legislature about school funding, the Oregon Health Plan, and other spending priorities during the late 1990s. Then Governor John Kitzhaber and the Republican leadership in the legislature clashed repeatedly over budget priorities.

In 2000, Don McIntire helped place Measure 8 on Oregon's ballot, which would have limited state spending to 15 percent of personal income for the previous biennium. Measure 8 was defeated by a margin of 43.5% to 56.5%. However, in the same election Oregonians enshrined the so-called "kicker check"—a rebate check given to taxpayers in the event that state revenues sufficiently exceed forecasts—into the state constitution with Measure 86 which passed 62% to 38%.

Anti-tax activists defeated two proposals in 2003 and 2004 (Measure 28 and Measure 30), which were referred to voters by the Oregon State Legislature to increase income taxes temporarily.

Sizemore's group ran into legal problems in 2002. Sizemore sparked the ire of several public employees unions with a series of initiatives aimed at reducing public employee pensions and reducing their political power. The unions responded with the Voter Education Project, which tracked signature gatherers hired by Sizemore to place measures on the ballot. After documenting instances of fraud by signature gatherers, the Oregon Education Association, a teachers' union, successfully sued Sizemore's organization under racketeering laws in 2003. The $2.3 million judgment against Oregon Taxpayer's United severely hurt Sizemore's ability to put measures on the ballot. The fraud allegations also led to the passage of Measure 26 in 2002, which prohibits the payment of signature gatherers on a per-signature basis, and was approved by voters 75% to 25%.

Tax activists generally claim that Oregon's government is wasteful and inefficient, arguing that the government could do better with less. They often highlight programs that they feel are unnecessary. Opponents of the tax revolt argue that passing tax decreases via ballot measure leads to short-sighted policy making, in which voters are enticed to vote with the revolt by lower tax bills and without thinking about the budget problems caused by reduced revenues.