Oregon Ballot Measure 54: This measure lowers the voting age from 21 to 18 for voting in school board elections.

Reporter Opinion: I am almost 100 percent positive that this measure will be passed. 18 year olds are able to vote in all other aspects, and banning them from voting for the school board doesn’t make any sense. This measure will be the most one sided out of all the 2008 Oregon Ballot Measures.

Oregon Ballot Measure 55 Description: Change operative date of redistricting plans to allow affected legislators to finish term in original district.

Reporter Opinion: This measure would amend the Oregon Constitution. What it would effectively do is change how after every state census is taken, state representatives and senators have to move from their district if there was more then one representative or senator in that district. This ballot would make it so that no representative or senator would go through this process of redistricting until his or her full term is up. This measure should pass because many voters don’t want their state representatives to be placed in a district that they weren’t originally voted in by.

Oregon Ballot Measure 56 Description: May and November property tax elections are to be decided by majority of voters voting in the relevant election.

Reporter Opinion: This measure would change the “double-majority” requirement when voting on property taxes. This requirement means that if a majority of registered voters don’t vote on a property tax measure, the measure doesn’t pass. If 49 percent of people that are voters vote ‘yes’ on the measure, and no one else votes, so that 100 percent of voters vote ‘yes’ on the measure, the measure still won’t pass. The reasoning behind this is that the majority of registered voters didn’t even vote on the measure, so they effectively voted ‘no’ on the measure without even voting. This is quite a ridiculous idea, as voters who don’t vote shouldn’t impact a measure, therefore this measure should pass.

Oregon Ballot Measure 57: Measure 57 “Increases Sentences For Drug Trafficking, Theft Against Elderly And Specified Repeat Property And Identity Theft Crimes; Requires Addiction Treatment For Certain Offenders”. This measure is similar but not the same as Measure 61 due to the requisition of treatment for certain offenders and its lower cost to tax payers.

Reporter Opinion: This measure is certainly better than Measure 61 (see measure 61) because it doesn’t automatically put first time offenders in jail. Second, it costs less and provides treatment for certain offenders. However, the state has already increased the money spent on fighting crime and according to The Oregonian, Oregon uses the highest percentage of taxes on locking up criminals. I see the 140 million dollars requested for this measure to be better spent elsewhere.

Oregon Ballot Measure 58: This measure calls to decrease time spent by immigrant learning their own language and calls to increase time spent learning English.

Reporter Opinion: According to studies conducted by Stanford University, literacy in one’s own language enhances learning in a second language, such as English. I agree with this study and also see other issues with this measure. Some students may learn their own language slower than others and won’t be ready to move onto English two years into high school, which this measure requires.

Oregon Ballot Measure 59: Description: Makes federal income taxes fully deductible on state return.

Reporter Opinion: If passed, this measure would reduce make income taxes in Oregon fully deductible on the state income tax return. Oregon would become one of only three other states to pass this law. This measure would reduce the amount of tax money that goes to the General Fund, which helps pay for things like education. Education should not be under funded and money should only be added to these important services, not. This measure shouldn’t pass.

Oregon Ballot Measure 60: Description: “Teacher compensation must be based on classroom performance”

Reporter Opinion: This measure is pretty cut and dry. Instead of seniority affecting a teacher’s pay rise, the performance of their students does. This measure would also mean that the most qualified teachers are to be retained under employment and keeping teachers employed based on seniority would be replaced. A similar measure was voted on in 2000 and was defeated 65-35. This measure will likely not pass as history has shown.

Oregon Ballot Measure 61: This measure, very similar to measure 57, requires mandatory minimum prison sentence to first time certain theft, identity theft, forgery, drug, and burglary crimes.

Reporter Opinion: This measure, proposed by Republican Kevin Mannix, is catchy in it’s title. The title may mislead voters into thinking it is another hard on crime measure. However, the measure is more than that. It requires prison sentences for first time offenders of the above crimes. This leaves no lee way for people who make one mistake and have no room to learn. Furthermore, this measure requires over 125 million dollars and over 50 million more dollars than competing measure 57 (see measure 57). If I were to vote, i’d vote no on this ballot measure.

Oregon Ballot Measure 62: Description: “15 percent of lottery profits for crime prevention, investigation and prosecution”

Reporter Opinion: This measure states that 50 percent of the 15 percent of lottery funds would go towards counties to fund childhood programs, district attorney operations, and sheriff’s investigations The other 50 percent would go towards Oregon State Police criminal investigations and forensic operations. This measure should pass because it would be foolish not to fund childhood programs as well as help the prevention of crime.

Oregon Ballot Measure 63: Description: Allows minor improvements to property without a building permit

Reporter Opinion: This measure would allow home owners to make improvements and modifications to their homes or real estate that cost less than 35,000 dollars without first obtaining a building permit. This measure should pass because many voters will see that getting a building permit is a bit unnecessary to do a modification to your own home.

Oregon Ballot Measure 64: This measure is titled as “Penalizes Person, Entity For Using Funds Collected With ‘Public Resource’ For ‘Political Purpose.’” The basic idea behind this measure is that it disables public unions such as the teacher’s union to use funds to back a certain political campaign.

Reporter Opinion: This measure has been proposed by conservative Bill Sizemore for the past decade and failed every time. It takes away the right of the teachers union, for example, to fund a school funding measure. If a union member is against allowing the union leaders backing a political campaign, that member can fill out a form to keep money from going to that certain cause. Bill Sizemore continues to propose ridiculous measures and evidently continues to force an opposing campaign to spend millions of dollars to make sure the measure is not passed.

Oregon Ballot Measure 65: This measure titled “Changes General Election Nomination Processes For Major/Minor Party, Independent Canidates For Most Partisan Offices” allows independent voters to vote for the US Senator, US Representative, Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and Attorney General. It also allows there to be two canidates of the same party to be nominated for the positions listed.

Reporter Opinion: This measure eases the way for all those registered independents who realize they support all democrats or republicans for office come election time. I support the measure due to it essentially taking away a two party system in most elections besides presidential elections. The two party system has limited voters to one canidate and gives no variety in voting options.