Oregon Public Broadcasting

Measure 64 on this year’s Oregon ballot is yet another round in the ongoing battle between conservative activist Bill Sizemore and the state’s public employee unions.  

This skirmish is an attempt by Sizemore to cut the funding base for his chief opponents.  Salem correspondent Chris Lehman explains.

The bell at Colton High School in Clackamas County sounds like one of those buzzers that ring when you get the question wrong on a TV game show.

Allen Bruner teaches a psychology class at Colton High School

It’s a good metaphor for what many public employees want to do to Measure 64.  That includes Colton teacher Allen Bruner, who’s teaching psychology here to a classroom of seniors.

Measure 64 would prohibit public employees from using state resources to collect money for political purposes.  In practical terms, that means people like Bruner could no longer contribute to their unions’ political causes through their payroll deductions.  

Bruner says it wouldn’t just affect teachers.

Allen Bruner:  “Measure 64, I believe, unfairly targets nurses, fire fighters, people in the public sector who need a voice in the political process.”

Unions raise millions from paycheck deductions.  Bruner says his share is about $700 dollars a year.  

Measure 64 wouldn’t prevent him from making political donations to his union.  It would just make it harder.  That’s because payroll deductions are simple.

Allen Bruner:  “Bluntly, it does provide a convenient service which makes it a lot easier for those of us who are active and want to see our funds go towards those causes we believe in”

Bruner, a 20-year teaching veteran, says he would continue to contribute even if paycheck deduction was no longer an option.  But clearly unions are afraid many of their members would not make that choice.

This ad paints a dire picture.

Voiceover From Ad:  “64 would limit nurses from advocating for safer staffing, undermine firefighters’ ability to help in emergencies”

Of course, the only way the measure limits those things is by making it harder for unions to raise money.  The initiative doesn’t change what the unions can do with their cash once they have it.  

Chief petitioner Bill Sizemore says it’s simply a matter of getting government out of the business of collecting money for unions.

Bill Sizemore: “All this measure does, it says that hey if public employees want to donate money to a political cause, they’re free to do so.  They can just write a check just like everybody else does.  But they cannot use public employee time on the job, public buildings, public equipment and supplies, to raise money that’s used for politics.”

Sizemore admits that the government doesn’t actually spend much time and money collecting political contributions. To Sizemore, it’s just the principle of the thing.

Bill Sizemore:  “It’s something government ought not to do.  It’s something I’m actually shocked that we allow. And it’s resulted in the public employee union having way more money than anybody else.”

In fact, the Oregon Education Association has contributed more than two million dollars to a group fighting Measure 64 and several other ballot measures.  University of Oregon Labor Professor Marcus Widenor says in a way, that means that Bill Sizemore has already won, regardless of whether this measure passes.

Marcus Widenor:  “If the institution has to spend all their money fighting a ballot initiative, which is about a narrow institutional concern like the use of union dollars, they don’t use their dollars in the political process to back candidates or to back other initiatives.”

Opponents of Measure 64 say it could have an unintended consequence.  Charitable organizations worry the initiative could make it difficult for them to raise money through payroll deductions.  That’s because some charities also lobby in support of political issues.  

Oregon voters are seeing a version of this measure for the fourth time in recent years. They rejected the first three.

Online:

Information about Measure 64