"Where’s the recall?"
Thousands of people upset over the recently enacted income tax by Lane County commissioners turned out to the "we said no" partition drive in efforts to bring the tax to the voters (again).
"Everybody has wanted to sign a recall," said Mary Pooler, wife of chief petitioner Ben Pooler, as she helped run a petition site underneath tents outside Graffiti Alley on River Road. "I've had people from all parties talk to me ... the public is more upset than even I realized."
Bob Hooker, chief petitioner said he believes that his committee easily cleared the 5,577 valid signatures required to bring the tax to a vote as early as September or November.
"We want to give a message to our county government that no, is no, is no," John Corliss of Springfield said. "It's a message when a lot of us come out on a rainy day like this to sign our concerns about the state."
As the people of Oregon well know from experience, this is not the first time that we voted on a particular subject, only to have our votes ignored and overturned for various reasons or deemed "unconstitutional."
I cannot think of anything more "unconstitutional" then government overriding the democratic process and the will of the people through majority rule.
and they wonder why voter turnout is low.
4 comments:
Seems to me we ended up with more than one Prez. this way. No wonder people don't get out and vote.
Hey Robin
I was there, and the people were hopping mad! I daresay half of them wanted to sign a recall measure.
What fun.
i hope that people realize the issue is not whether we support the tax or not, it is whether our elected officials are upholding the will of the people. when they are clearly not doing what we elected them to do, there should be a recall. if anyone knows how i can get involved in such an effort- please contact me!
it sounds to me like the the message was sent to the county commissioners that the people were mad.
unfortunately, as Bill Dwyer more or less indicated, they do not fear us.
It is what I have been saying for a long time, they can tell us anything they want to get into office... once there, they can do anything they want, and they know that there's nothing that we can do about it.
I think it's time to change that attitude.
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