Oregon Measure 29, State Indebtedness for Pension Liabilities Amendment (September 2003)

Oregon Measure 29
Election date September 16, 2003
Topic State and local government budgets, spending, and finance
Status Approved
Type Legislatively referred constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

Oregon Measure 29 was on the ballot as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in Oregon on September 16, 2003. It was approved.

A "yes" vote supported authorizing the state to incur debt for savings on pension liabilities.

A "no" vote opposed authorizing the state to incur debt for savings on pension liabilities.

Election results

Oregon Measure 29
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		360,209	55.25%
No		291,778	44.75%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Measure 29 was as follows:

“

AMENDS CONSTITUTION: AUTHORIZES STATE OF OREGON TO INCUR GENERAL OBLIGATION DEBT FOR SAVINGS ON PENSION LIABILITIES. RESULT OF “YES” VOTE: “Yes" vote authorizes state to incur general obligation debt for savings on pension liabilities. RESULT OF “NO” VOTE: “No" vote does not authorize state to incur general obligation debt for savings on pension liabilities. SUMMARY: This measure amends the Oregon Constitution to authorize the State of Oregon to incur debt to finance pension liabilities of the state at a lower cost to the state and to pay costs of issuing and incurring indebtedness. The measure authorizes the Legislative Assembly to enact implementing legislation. The measure specifies that indebtedness authorized by the measure is a general obligation of the state, backed by the full faith and credit and taxing power of the state, except ad valorem taxing power. The measure limits the amount of indebtedness outstanding at any time to one percent of the real market value of property in the state. ESTIMATE OF FINANCIAL IMPACT: This measure has no direct financial effect to state or local government expenditures or revenues. However, general obligation indebtedness provides the lowest cost alternative among financing mechanisms. To the extent that the State of Oregon uses the authority to issue general obligation indebtedness rather than using more costly financing mechanisms, the State of Oregon should experience lower financing costs.

”

Full Text

The full text of this measure is available here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Oregon Constitution

A simple majority vote is required during one legislative session for the Oregon State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 31 votes in the Oregon House of Representatives and 16 votes in the Oregon State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

See also

2003 Measures

• 2003 Measures
• State and local government budgets on the ballot
• spending on the ballot
• and finance on the ballot
• 2003 legislative sessions

Oregon

• Oregon ballot measures
• Oregon ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Oregon Voter Guide (September 2003)