Article XI of Oregon State Constitution

In this post we are going to start looking at Article XI of the Oregon State Constitution.  This Article is entitled "Corporations and Internal Improvements".  This section has a lot of different administrative items in it, for example, property tax rules, government debts at the State and lower levels and other things.  There will be quite a number of posts on Article XI since some of the sections are quite long.

Section 1

This section prohibits the establishment of a State Bank, that is a bank that is a part of the government.  Also this section prohibits that any currency is issued by any bank or banking company that is established in Oregon.  The idea here is to ensure that only the Federally issued currency is used and to ensure that there is no involvement of State Government in questions of currency.  And if you think that local/special currency or script or notes are a historical artifact, have a look at Canadian Tire Money.

Section 2

This section first defines that the Legislature can issue general laws regarding corporations and municipalities, and not special laws.  This repeats Article IV, section 23.  Next, provided a charter complies with the constitution and all laws currently in force, the Legislature cannot change it, it can only be changed by the people.  I ran across this news story which claims that in the 2016 session, the Legislature has overstepped their bounds and violated this clause of the constitution.  I personally, don't know.  Also with regards to municipal charters, I have created this page which has links to some charters.

Section 2a, subsection (1)

This subsection provides for two towns to merge and become a single entity.  However, the Legislature, or the people need to write a law defining the specifics for the merger and mechanisms.

Section 2a, subsection (2)

This subsection provides for the possibility that the city and county governments can become a single government if a county has a city with more than 300,000 inhabitants.  This would only apply to Portland.  It is a general law that is crafted in a way as to become a special law.  I don't know if Portland and Multnomah county have in fact merged, I do not believe this to be the case.  One of the issues is that the city of Portland extends outside the boundaries of the county.  I will say at this point, that I have often wondered why do we need to have county government in the first place.  Clearly, there is history here and never really having lived in a rural area, maybe I am missing something fundamental, but for those people who complain about government waste, do we need 4 levels of government (federal, state, county, city)?

Section 3

This section probably belongs in some other section or only as a law, but we do see that everywhere in this document.  Anyway, it first states that stockholders are only liable up to the amount invested in a company.  However, stockholders in a bank or banking company are liable for double the amount invested, unless the bank has been FDIC insured, in which case the stockholder liability reverts back to the first case.