To date, 128 initiative petitions have been filed with Oregon’s Secretary of State office for possible consideration on the 2004 General Election ballot. The signature gathering process continues until July 2, 2004 when petitioners must submit the necessary number of qualified signatures in order for the petition to appear on the 2004 General Election ballot. A petition proposing a statutory change requires a total of
75,630 signatures, while a constitutional change requires a total of 100,840 signatures.

Oregon’s initiative petition process allows for the introduction of a wide variety of ideas about how to balance the budget, distribute the tax burden, pay for schools or fund health care programs. The following are just a few petitions that may be of interest to ONSA members and that you may be hearing more about as the signature gathering season proceeds.

Petition #2 – The Oregon Liquor Anti-Monopoly Act of 2004

This is a proposed change in the state Constitution prohibiting the state from selling,
distributing, warehousing, or pricing alcoholic beverages and requiring the licensing of
private liquor stores.

Petition #48 – Oregon Taxpayer Fairness Act I
Proposal to require corporate income and excise tax rates to be the same as personal income tax rates.

Petition #62 – Oregon Children’s Health Care Program Proposal to establish a program to provide all Oregon children with access to health
care benefits and taxes all employers with a 2% payroll assessment on wages paid.

Employers may reduce the amount owed for the Children’s Healthcare Assessment based on the amount they spend for health care of their employees’ children.

Petition #109 — Minimum Wage Protection Act
This is a proposed change in the state constitution to require a majority vote in statewide election to reduce employees’ minimum wage and prevailing wage protections.
Currently, the Oregon Legislature is authorized to amend the minimum wage and prevailing-wage statutes. This measure would prohibit the protections granted to employees by Oregon current wage laws from being reduced except by a majority vote in a statewide election.
For anyone interested in reviewing a petition or tracking the initiative process, you may access the Initiative, Referendum and Referral Log on the Elections Division Home Page on the Secretary of State’s web site: www.sos.state.or.us •