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SATURDAY February 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels February 4, 2004 Voters crush tax hike plan For second time in as many years severe budget cuts loom ahead PORTLAND - Oregonians overwhelmingly rejected a proposed tax increase on Tuesday, setting the stage for another round of spending cuts for schools, courts and other programs already reeling from earlier slashes. With 49 percent of the vote counted, the $800 million measure trailed 58 percent to 42 percent. Photos by Satsuki Doi | Ashland Daily Tidings Urging their peers to vote, Danielle McNeill and Ryan Heihn (ABOVE) inform students Tuesday was the last day of dropping ballots for Measure 30 at SOU Stevenson Union. "The margin of defeat is larger than expected," said Kevin Mannix, state GOP chairman and opponent of the tax package. "It's not just a defeat. It's a swift kick in the pants to business-as-usual politicians who have ignored the need for reform," he said. Gov. Ted Kulongoski has said he is "not inclined" to convene a special session of the Legislature to consider retooling spending cuts already designated for implementation should the measure fail. But he is under pressure from Republicans to do just that. "I will insist a special session be required should it go down," Mannix said earlier Tuesday night. The voting was conducted by mail over the past couple of weeks, with Tuesday the deadline for ballots to be turned in. In January of last year, Oregon voters rejected a $310 million income tax increase. As a result, the school year was shortened, state troopers were laid off, and thousands of poor people lost state health insurance. Then, last August, the Legislature narrowly passed an $800 million tax package in a bid to balance the budget and protect schools, welfare and law enforcement from further cuts. But opponents quickly gathered enough signatures to hold a repeal vote Tuesday. The tax package contains a temporary surcharge that would amount to about $36 a year for a household with the state's median annual income of $41,000. Opponents said that Oregonians could not afford more taxes and that raising taxes would hinder economic recovery in a state that has had the nation's highest jobless rate for much of the past two years, in large part because of the downturn in high technology and manufacturing. As of December, unemployment in Oregon stood at 7.2 percent, the nation's second-highest rate, behind Alaska's. Voter rejection of the tax package would automatically trigger $544 million in spending cuts. Schools would take the biggest hit - $285 million. The Oregon Health Plan, which extends health insurance to poor people and once was touted as an example for the nation, would lose $182 million, meaning nearly 50,000 of the working poor would lose their coverage. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: The new search is here! Click here for more information. .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams