Article IX of the Oregon State Constitution deals with "Finance". There are 20 sections in this Article. Some of the are long. We will look at the next 5 sections in this post.
Section 6
This section requires that if the expenses exceed income, then the Legislature has to balance the budget the following year. The language calls for levying a tax. This should also suggest cutting expenditures.
Section 7
This section defines that spending bills can't contain other provisions such as amending laws on voting or other subjects. This is a good thing and would prevent using a state government shutdown as a threat to pass other controversial legislation.
Section 8
This section has a no-nonsense requirement for transparent above board government procurement practices, but it also shows a bit of history. As channeling of money or contracts for supplying paper to the government from local paper mills was such a potentially lucrative business opportunity, they inserted specific language at the level of the constitution to limit any back room dealing.
Section 9
This section prohibits imposing a tax on federally paid benefits. This seems to be logical and straightforward. It is just surprising to have the requirement spelled out at this level rather than as a regular law in the section on income tax.
Section 10
This section requires that government employees provide a contribution equal to 6% to the retirement program.
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