Battle Over Oregon Lottery Funds Intensifies; OEA Eyes Jackpot

 

Yesterday, WW reported that serious differences of opinion have arisen over Ballot Measure 76, the measure approved last year by state voters to dedicate 15 percent of Oregon Lottery proceeds (more than $80 million annually) permanently to wildlife habitat and parks.

The Nature Conservancy, which provided most of the measure's $1.4 million bankroll, is now waffling on a previous agreement to refer several changes to the measure to the May ballot. The Nature Conservancy had signed an Aug. 3, 2010 memo along with the Oregon League of Conservation Voters and the Trust for Public Lands agreeing to refer changes to the measure to the 2011 ballot.

In a Feb. 23 email, OLCV executive director Jon Isaacs says that unlike the Nature Conservancy, OLCV is OLCV sticking to that deal it made last year. And Isaacs warns of the prospect that the Nature Conservancy's actions could prompt an all-out war between environmental and education groups. Here's that email:


The import of what Isaacs is saying is this: the Oregon Education Association, which represents nearly 50,000 Oregon teachers, and its allies are considering various revenue-raising possibilities. One of those is a ballot measure that would dedicate effectively all Oregon Lottery funds to education, including those currently earmarked for other uses such as the 15 percent set aside for parks and wildlife. That's what Isaacs is talking about in this sentence, according to Salem sources.


Currently, the Oregon Lottery proceeds (about $1.3 billion in the current biennium) are split as follows: education, including higher ed gets 61 percent; economic development gets 23 percent; parks and wildlife 15 percent and problem gamblers, a measly 1 percent.

If OEA and its allies—who were not crazy about Measure 76 in the first place—get sufficiently angry about the flap over whether and what to refer to the May ballot, things could really get messy. Isaacs and OEA lobbyist BethAnne Darby did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Isaacs says in discussions with the Nature Conservancy and others prior to the 2010 election, OEA raised the possibility of pursuing Lottery funds as a way to augment school funding. Those discussions resulted in OEA agreeing not to oppose Measure 76, provided changes subsequently got made by legislative referral.

"OEA put a state-wide ballot measure on the table last year," Isaacs told WW. "I said then I think a bidding war for Lottery dollars is a bad idea and I still think that's the case."




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