Description of The Measure
Ballot Measure 48 would have restricted the amount of money the State could spend in its annual budget. It proposed to limit state spending by amending the state's constitution to provide that, unless approved by a 2/3 vote of both the Oregon House and Senate and a subsequent approval by a majority of the voters, spending for state services in a two-year period cannot exceed the amount spent in the previous two-year period plus the combined rate of the increase of the state's population and inflation in that same, previous, two-year period.
If passed, the amendment would apply to spending of aggregate revenues collected from a variety of sources including but not limited to: income tax, lottery receipts, tuition, professional licensing and other taxes and fees. The measure would not have applied to revenues from the following sources: federal funds, voluntary donations to state agencies, proceeds from the sale of bonds specifically approved by the voters and proceeds from the sale of real property at real market value to non-government entities.
The measure would not apply to money spent for the following purposes: tax and "kicker" refunds or money placed in an emergency fund or a "rainy day" reserve fund. (Money placed into an emergency or "rainy day" fund would not be available for state spending in excess of the spending limit without a 2/3 vote of the House and Senate and approval by the voters.)
The Legislative Fiscal Office estimated that the measure's effect in the 2007 biennium would restrict spending of approximately $2.2 billion out of approximately $35.6 billion in revenues estimated to be subject to the limit.
If it had been passed and put into effect, the Legislature could refund the restricted funds to taxpayers, place them in the funds noted above, leave them in the treasury and/or, with a 2/3 vote of each house of the legislature refer to voters a plan to spend them on state services.
Read more about this topic: Oregon Ballot Measure 48 (2006)
Famous quotes containing the words description of the, description of, description and/or measure:
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“God damnit, why must all those journalists be such sticklers for detail? Why, they’d hold you to an accurate description of the first time you ever made love, expecting you to remember the color of the room and the shape of the windows.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“I do seriously believe that if we can measure among the States the benefits resulting from the preservation of the Union, the rebellious States have the larger share. It destroyed an institution that was their destruction. It opened the way for a commercial life that, if they will only embrace it and face the light, means to them a development that shall rival the best attainments of the greatest of our States.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)