May 11, 2003
Nine Days Until 26-48
Continuing the coverage of the final days leading to the May 20 special election, there are several items from today's Sunday Oregonian worth mentioning.
One the front page, the paper details just what hinges on this election:
Multnomah County residents can be certain their vote will count in this month's election.
It will determine class sizes and jail capacities.
Supporters of the ballot's tax measure say it will determine whether Portland middle-class parents stay. Critics say it will determine whether Portland businesses go.
It will determine whether Multnomah County is ready to part ranks with the rest of the state and find its own source of school money, a move that could trigger similar local efforts elsewhere and aggravate rural-urban divisions.
"As Portland goes, so does the rest of Oregon," says Russ Dondero, a political science professor at Pacific University in Forest Grove. "There is a lot at stake here not just in Portland, but in the entire region and state."
It goes on to outline many of the ramifications of both passage and failure of Measure 26-48, and recaps the positions staked out on both sides of the campaign.
Meanwhile, associate editor Susan Nielson wisely exhorts voters not to use a vote on the survival of the county's public schools as a means to "send a message" to Salem (something many Oregonians are often tempted to do):
This is admirable. No one fools an Oregonian, never. But it is also helping to kill our state, as people try to cram every feeling they have about government into a single vote. If voters want to reverse Oregon's death spiral, they have to express their opinions in more useful ways than simply voting "no."
In other words, stay mad if you're mad. Demand change. Lobby leaders for spending reforms. But for pity's sake, only vote against local tax measures if you really mean it.
...
"People don't get to vote on the big issues," said Portland-based campaign consultant Liz Kaufman, who is working to pass Measure 26-48. She added, half-joking, "So they get to take out all of their anger on their local neighborhood schools."
Meanwhile, David Sarasohn (echoing some of the above concerns) attempts to explain that "nobody's going to rescue" the people of Portland and Multnomah County except the people of Portland and Multnomah County:
Salem is talking about baseball, about parking meters around the Capitol, about finding ways around popular votes to raise the minimum wage and manage wildlife. If you're a cougar, Salem is interested; if you're a Gresham middle school student, Salem wishes you luck.
In the words of a recent headline in The Oregonian about the governor's visit to a Portland high school: "Schools are on their own."
Anyone who argues against the local tax measure because it lets Salem off the hook should realize that Salem barely notices there is a hook.
More than this, though, Sarasohn reminds Measure 26-48's opponents -- and any voters inclined to listen to them -- that their demands that various interests take sacrificial action before there are any tax increases don't bear much resemblance to the realities of recent history:
This school year was rescued only by a local business surtax -- local business, which has had its own disappointments with Salem, didn't even complain much -- and a bold offer from the Portland teachers union to work 10 days without pay, about a 5 percent pay cut. That offer -- another realization that something big had to be done locally -- stirred the city and county to do something, and kept Portland's summer vacation from starting this Friday.
So when Multnomah County asks its average taxpayer to pay about $250 a year to support corrections, social services and schools -- and to avoid cutting 650 teachers in Portland Public Schools, 40 in Gresham-Barlow and 20 in Parkrose -- it's worth remembering that 3,000 Portland teachers have each tossed between $2,000 and $3,000 of their own salaries into the pot.
Emphasis above added because I think that little nugget of information is a cogent and immediate reminder of what local interests have already accomplished so far.
This vote on Measure 26-48 is not occurring in a vacuum. Salem has all but abandoned public education, and local interests have already stepped up to the plate to make the beginnings of the necessary sacrifices.
In essence, many of the parties involved in this issue have already taken a hit in order to protect the county's public schools.
Now, it's the voters' turn.