Oregon voters overwhelmingly rejected new and increased taxes in election campaigns AFP-Oregon took an interest in this November. Statewide, Oregonians rejected a 68-cent-per-pack increase in the state's already-high cigarette tax. The higher taxes were allegedly going to be used to pay for health care for other people's children, but voters were unconvinced, due in part to the failure of the previous government health care scheme. Known as "The Oregon Health Plan," the original plan was sold to Legislators and taxpayers as one that would require no dedicated funding, would compete with all other general fund programs for support, and would cover all Oregonians needing health care. The unique aspect of the plan was the creation of a ranked "priority list" of health care services. The State would annually set a line somewhere on this list based on available funding. From procedure #1 to whereever the line was set would be funded for all OHP "clients." The State would not fund those procedures above the line. Unfortunately, the federal government has steadfastly refused to provide the waivers necessary to use the line to deny services, and the plan has enjoyed dedicated cigarette tax revenue virtually from its inception. Mistrust over this bill of goods was in part responsible for the failure of the Governor's "Health Kids Plan" this month.

AFP-Oregon also opposed several local gas tax increase measures on the ballot. Eugene sought to increase an already-existing rate, and Junction City and Sandy were looking to add a new gas tax. With gas prices at or near all-time highs, and voters skeptical that transportation agencies are spending current tax revenues wisely, all three measures were crushed at the polls.

The only loss came with the passage of Ballot Measure 50, which tightened government control of the use of private property. All the votes had yet to be counted, however, before supporters and opponents began public discussions of things that needed to be "fixed" in the Measure. AFP-Oregon has an interest in returning control of land use to local communities and property owners, and will be following developments in this area closely.