Special Series
This Land: Measure 37's Impact on Oregon
In a Series
Measure 37: This Is Huge
There's every indication that Measure 37 is going back to the voters of Oregon this November. Here's the Oregonian:
Democratic legislators decided Thursday that they'll ask Oregon voters to dramatically scale back rural development under Measure 37, rather than rewriting the property rights law themselves.
The full Legislature still has to approve the decision from the Land Use Fairness Committee. But the deck is stacked, with Democrats controlling both the House and the Senate. And sending a ballot measure back to voters this fall would give lawmakers political cover.
"We're giving the voters the opportunity to say, 'Yes, this is what we meant,' or 'No, it wasn't,' " said Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, co-chairman of the committee.
Of course, as Prozanski well knows, in two recent polls, and in numerous wrenching stories, Oregon's voters have made clear their feelings about the measure: it's not what they meant. Now it looks like the majority will have a chance to undo some of the harm of Measure 37 by voting on a more reasonable version of the law. I'll provide details here as they become clear.
In related news, Arizona's new pay-or-waive law (which was modeled on Oregon's Measure 37), is beginning to cause problems...
