Force Legislature to get it right

On Dec. 10, 2009, the Gresham Barlow Board of Directors adopted a resolution supporting measures 66 and 67. I was the lone dissenting vote. While I cannot and do not speak for the board, I think I can safely say that all of us are alarmed by cuts to education already enacted and by the threat of even more cuts should these measures fail.

It’s important to note that there is no actual state ‘budget gap’ that needs filling by new taxes. After increasing spending by more than 25 percent in the previous biennium, lawmakers increased spending by more than 9 percent in the current biennium. Yet even though the state had more money, legislators chose to cut schools, a constitutionally mandated priority, by $461 million while increasing spending for other, non-mandated, priorities and new programs by as much as 30 percent, all on the backs of our children.

Clearly, our school funding problems are rooted not in under taxation, but in legislative malfeasance. I am voting ‘No’ on measures 66 and 67 because I took an oath to uphold Oregon’s Constitution. Enacting the largest tax increase in Oregon’s history while inflicting significant cuts to schools sends a clear message to our lawmakers that they are free to continue ignoring their constitutional obligations.

We are being told in our district that, should the measures fail, we will be forced to either cut 17 school days or lay off 73 teachers. Let’s be very clear about what’s happening here. It is tax-increase proponents, not the opposition, who are specifically threatening children and teachers if they don’t get their way.

I’m perhaps biased, but I think the Gresham-Barlow School District has the finest staff in the state, and I’m not willing for any of them to lose their jobs, especially when the state has demonstrably enough revenue to restore school funding to the levels of the previous biennium.

Note that not one dime of revenue raised by these tax measures is specifically allocated for education. For the threatened cuts to occur, education will have to be specifically targeted in subsequent legislation. As noted above, tax-increase proponents have already threatened to do so.

We don’t allow bullying in our schools, and we should not tolerate it from our so-called leaders. We must stand up to those politicians, bureaucrats and public employee unions who feel entitled to increase state spending (while the rest of us tighten our belts) and to use force of law to take an ever-increasing percentage of the earnings of Oregon’s working families and the companies that employ them.

Please join me in voting ‘no’ on measures 66 and 67. Then join me in urging our lawmakers to go back to Salem and get their priorities in line with the Constitution, restoring adequate funding for our schools.

Dan Chriestenson, is a Gresham-Barlow School District board member, position 7, at-large.

(Article Originally Published on Jan 16, 2010 in the Gresham Outlook – Republished with permission)