Our Oregon Files Slate of Occupy-ish Initiatives

Capitol Currents:

Over the past month, the union-backed group Our Oregon has filed more than a dozen initiative petitions for the 2012 Oregon ballot. Many of them carry subject lines that would sound right at home at an Occupy rally. The group dubbed one petition "Tax the 1%".  Another is called "Millionaires Should Pay Their Fair Share."  Those are among several that would create a new tax bracket for the wealthiest Oregonians. Some of the other petitions take aim at another target of the Occupy movement. This one is entitled "Large Corporations Should Pay Their Fair Share."It's no coincidence that these petitions have Occupy-inspired terminology. Our Oregon spokesman Scott Moore says "The themes that have been brought to the fore by the Occupy movement are what we've been talking about as an organization for 6 years, so it shouldn't surprise anybody that we share in the same goals." Why so many petitions? Moore says the goal at this point is "to get the conversation started about the need for funding for our schools and our basic services."Getting a petition on the ballot is a lengthy and expensive process, and it will be at least a month--and likely longer--until Our Oregon gets the go-ahead to actually start collecting signatures on any of these petitions. You can be sure they won't actually try to get all 13 on the ballot, especially the ones that are virtually redundant. Moore says Our Oregon will consider the "political viability" of the petitions as well as how much revenue their analysts predict the proposals would actually bring in.

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