Ballot Measure 50... why it's proposed as a Constitutional Amendment.

Why Ballot Measure 50 is up for a Constitutional Amendment and not a mere statue (law).

Many people are wondering, but only a handful of people know the deal. Here it is for you... all nice and shiny!

Legislatures (House and Senate) can pass laws all they want. They don't need us to vote on it. But some laws are harder to pass than others. A new tax law is one of those hard laws to pass... for a reason.

In 1996 a law was passed requiring a 3/5 majority of the legislature to pass bills for raising revenue.

In order for the House to pass a bill for a new tax, they need to get a 3/5 Super Majority vote in the Legislature. Remember, we're talking about only our Legislature voting, not a ballot measure.

This 3/5 Super Majority is needed between the Oregon Citizen Legislature comprising of the House of Representatives (60 members) and the Senate (30 members).

At least three-fifths of the members of each house, the Senate and the House of Representatives, must approve a bill for raising revenue in order for it to pass. (Yes, I'm redundant, but this stuff is like making sausage, just bear with me.)

In the 30-member Oregon Senate, the number of Senators required to approve a bill, which raises taxes, is 18 (raised from 16).

In the 60-member Oregon House of Representatives, the number of Representatives required is 36 (used to be 31). Again, this would apply only if a bill has the primary purpose of raising revenue.

Now, I don’t know how many democrats and republicans are in either the House and Senate, but, the important part is that when this was presented to the entire Legislature... the Super Majority was not reached. The democrats were in favor, but the republicans did not get on board.

See, this is key! The republicans had a chance to vote this into a simple law, but they didn't. Remember... the big issue now is "Why is this up for a vote to be on the Constitution?" This is the answer... because the republican Legislature did not want it passed as a law... period!

Now… (again) this was proposed to the House and Senate as a bill to be a statute, not as a constitutional amendment. Basically, in lay man terms, the dems proposed the same damn thing to the House and Senate as a bill to be a Law and it did not pass because they did not receive a Super Majority, thanks to the republicans..

I’m sorry if this is dragging on, it’s not my intention to, but this is important... and to date, nobody on any of these blogs has properly explained exactly why it’s up for an amendment and not a mere statute. Except for me on RINO's blog.

Before we get to the problem of it being on the Constitution it would be good to ask why did it not reach a Super Majority when we had the chance.
Why did they do it? Knowing full well that the dems were left with no other option than to LEGALLY put this measure up for a vote before the people as an amendment to the Constitution where all that is needed to get something up for the public to vote on it being an amendment in the Constitution is a Simple Majority, or 51%, which we now have.

The republicans say that the tax should not be on the Constitution, unlike the gasoline tax and snowmobile tax (for some reason cigarettes are sacred). They say the Constitution should not be a place for petty taxes. They also say they are ALL IN SUPPORT OF KIDS GETTING HEALTH CARE... yet they did not sign on when this was put before them in the legislature.

If Ballot Measure 50 passes and it amends the Oregon Constitution, the republicans are more at fault than the dems for not supporting the bill when they had a chance.

Is health care an end that more than justifies the means of an amendment?

And, yes, yes, I know... the pic above is of our founding fathers for the U.S. constitution and not the Oregon Constitution but it still gets the idea across.