By Taxpayers Association of Oregon / OregonWatchdog.com
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One of the most important legal authorities in Oregon is the Legislative Counsel Office in the State Capitol, which provides legal advice for the Legislature. That office previously said Governor Kotek could push a bill to strike down the gas taxes/DMV fee hikes/wage tax that voters protested with a referendum, and therefore by striking these taxes down, it would remove it from the November ballot. Now Legislative Counsel said that lawmakers cannot remove voter-led referendums on the ballot simply because lawmakers change the law under it. This change came from a new 1935 Attorney General Opinion, which addressed this very issue. That opinion said that when voters take issues to the ballot with a referendum, those issues become pending law (awaiting vote at the ballot) and cannot be thwarted by legislative action by changing existing law. This protects the constitutional rights given to voters. In 1935, the governor agreed.
So, we now have a standing Attorney general opinion and the current Legislative Counsel opinion saying that Kotek cannot interfere with the people’s vote when it comes to a referendum.
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