Article XI, section 11c to 11L of the Oregon State Constitution

In this post, we look at Article XI, entitled "Corporations and Internal Improvements".  Section 11c through 11L deal with property tax rules.

Section 11c

This section states that the taxing limits in 11b are in addition to any other taxing limits in the constitution.

Section 11d

This section states that section 11b does not imply that the limits imposed are minimums or required rates to be applied, especially if there are existing statutes or laws that exempt certain kinds of property.

Section 11e

This section specifies that 11b through 11e which were all included in the same ballot, will not all be invalidated if for some reason one of the sections is invalidated.  This is called severability.

Section 11k

This section invalidates Section 11 subsection (8) which had requirements on participation levels to be able to pass a measure relating to ad valorem property taxes.

Section 11L

This section has 5 subsections.  This section has new rules superseding the rules in section 11 and 11b for bond measures that are for "capital costs".  These rules are written so broadly that pretty much all the other subsections in 11 and 11b regarding rules for bond measures in taxing districts can be circumvented by 11L.

Commentary

Clearly, the area of ad valorem property taxes has been one that has a controversial history.  We see the tracks of several rounds of trying to fix these issues.  Oregon clearly had some high levels of property taxes in some jurisdictions such that the Legislature passed proposed amendments and they were passed by the people in a referendum.  Having moved here from elsewhere in 2010, I have to say I was surprised about how high the property taxes were.
The other thing is how many lettered section 11's there have been.  And the final one has a capital "L" because it would have looked like 111 if it had been a lower case "l".
Section 11 and its lettered cousins are to some extent a result of politics.  Often it is difficult to remove rules, especially rules that are seen to rein in government.  So, instead, layers of rules have been added that create new categories of objects and the trick is that the old objects that were subject to the old rules turn out to be new objects and subject to the revised rules, which I believe in this case are looser.  These sections are confusingly written and proposing to wipe the slate clean by repeal and more clearly written rules on ad valorem taxes would in the end only be a good thing.  The problem is that both sides would attack the new rules because of elimination of stuff they like in the old rules.