Voter's Guide - Weighing In At 3 Pounds of 49 Arguments.

Vote time is November 6th (not may like the pic says). Be sure that you submit your voter's registration to the post office YOURSELF and don't give it to any republicans or they just might throw them away! No kidding, it really happened in 2004. And thanks to an honest volunteer at a GOP headquarters, they had the whistle blown on them.

Well, the Oregonian did a little bit on the 49 arguments in the voters guide. Take a look-a-see.

Voter guide thick with Measure 49 arguments
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
DAVE HOGAN The Oregonian Staff

With people putting their money where their mouth is, voters are lucky that the Nov. 6 ballot has only two statewide measures.

The voters pamphlet mailed to homes next month adds up to 90-plus pages, packed with 175 paid arguments for and against the proposals.

Most of that is a record 117 arguments about Measure 49, which would revise a 2004 property-rights law. The voters pamphlet, which arrives in homes next month, will include 69 arguments for the proposal and 48 against it.

No other ballot measure racked up anywhere near that many arguments, according to records dating back to 1992. The most during that time were 83 arguments regarding 2004's Measure 37, the same property-rights initiative that would be revised by this year's ballot measure.

"Measure 49 is certainly the most arguments we've ever received on a measure," says Tami Dettwyler of the state Elections Division.

Supporters and opponents of ballot measures have to pay $500 to spell out up to 325 words of their thoughts in the voters pamphlet, so Measure 49's discussions cost more than $55,000.

Other measures that sparked large numbers of published arguments in the past included a proposed income tax surcharge in February 2004, which had 75 arguments for and against. And in 2004, Oregonians felt strongly enough to pay for 68 arguments regarding Measure 36, which specified that marriage is between a man and a woman.

The other measure on this year's ballot, Measure 50, drew 58 arguments about the proposal to raise cigarette taxes to fund children's health programs. That includes 27 for and 31 against.
That means the 175 arguments about this year's two measures is almost as many as the 196 arguments for all of the dozen measures on the November 2002 ballot.

Election officials plan to have this year's voters pamphlet delivered to Oregon homes Oct. 10-12.
Dave Hogan: 503-221-8531; davehogan@news.oregonian.com

Kitzhaber tepid over Measure 50:

The biggest complaints about Ballot Measure 50 are:

1. It's a diminishing returns flow of funds. Since the smoking population will get smaller, it's not fair to give these poor kids a lame horse... so, we better not give them any healthcare at all.
2. It's a constitutional amendment and is therefore bad!
3. It aint fair to all the poor people who smoke! Why should they carry the burden?

Ok, since we all know republicans don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves, much less poor people, much much less poor people on minimum wage (who they think are better off without an increase in wages) we know that #3 is full of horse shit.

#1 is flawed for so many reasons it’s not even funny. Ballot Measure 50 has already taken into consideration the decrease in smokers and still comes up with some massive dollar amounts for little kids. Numbers like “$386 million” which is the dollar amount that will be raised over the next four years, thanks to all the volunteers at Black Lungs Anonymous.

Last I checked that was $386 million more than what we got going towards little kids right now. But those darn republicans don’t want a penny of it going to them kids. They want their tobaccee cheap and accessible.

Now, the only legitimate issue that the righties bring up is the constitution. They’re right… the Constitution (US or State, no difference) should be sacred for big, important things like… giving blacks and women the right to vote, right to bear arms etc.

Should it be used so flippantly and casually to tax a drug? Well, no, not really. So the big question is WHY did the planners make it this way?

Could it be that they just want to make sure nobody touches it? …..mmmmm possibly. Or could it be because the only way around the rat bastard republicans is through the constitution? I don’t know and the answers are not readily available. But, I’ll find out Tuesday what the hell the reason is.

In the mean time, here’s what John Kitzhaber has to say about Ballot Measure 50. You can visit his blog here.


Why I intend to vote for Measure 50
Submitted by John Kitzhaber on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 9:06am.
Over the past few weeks I have been asked several times whether or not I am supporting Ballot Measure 50, which seeks to fund the Healthy Kids Plan. While each Archimedes Movement member in Oregon will need to decide how to vote on this issue, I am writing to clarify my own personal position.

I intend to vote for Measure 50 for one simple reason – we have Oregon children who desperately need better financial access to health services now and they cannot wait. This is one way to address a very real problem in the short term.

At the same time, I agree with many of you who argue that the financing mechanism in Measure 50 is far from perfect on a number of counts. First, I do not believe that the Oregon constitution is the appropriate place to put a tobacco tax increase. This should have been a statutory measure.

Second, I believe that financing health care for children is the responsibility of our entire society, not just those who smoke. The general fund would have been a more appropriate and a fairer financing mechanism. However, it is also not fair that so many of Oregon children lack timely access to needed medical care. We should not penalize them because this was the best the legislature could come up with.

So I intend to vote for Measure 50 and will urge others to do so as well. But we must also recognize that this is not a solution to the larger challenges facing our health care system. It is a bandaid – albeit an important one – but it does not take on the underlying structural problems which are driving up costs in our health care system.

If we do not deal honestly and effectively with these issues – which is one of the central objectives of the Archimedes Movement – the promise of access we are making to our children in the Healthy Kids Plan will be a hollow one and, in a few years, we will be dropping kids from coverage once more. We can do better.

So, even as we commit ourselves through Ballot Measure 50 to dealing with the immediate crisis in access faced by thousands of Oregon’s children, we must also recommit ourselves to the larger challenge of serious system wide reform.

John Kitzhaber
P.S. For more information on the campaign for Measure 50, see the Healthy Kids Oregon website.

Ballot Measure 50: Tax Cigarettes To Fund Healthcare For Kids

This is well worth repeating.

Ballot Measure 50: AMENDS CONSTITUTION: DEDICATES FUNDS TO PROVIDE HEALTHCARE FOR CHILDREN, FUND TOBACCO PREVENTION, THROUGH INCREASED TOBACCO TAX OF (84.5 CENTS/PACK).

This is pretty much a no-brainer. Put an 84.5 cent tax on packs of cigarettes and the money goes to kids. Pretty much only the the tobacco industry is against this measure. You can find out more here at HealthyKids-Oregon.org.

Here is Senate Joint Resolution 4 which is the actual legalese of what Ballot Measure 50 looks like. It's extremely easy to read and very straight forward.

Here is a Legislative Argument in Support of Ballot Measure 50.

Vote yes on 50. Help kids with no healthcare finally get the help they need.