Government Structure Failed General Election
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PEAPAC Recommends: YES

Restores representative government; unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t make laws.

Summary

Allows citizens to petition the legislature to review and potentially veto administrative rules.

Biblical Reasoning

The right to be governed by elected representatives of the people is a fundamental biblical political truth that we take for granted. (See Acts 6:3, Numbers 11:16 and Deut. 1:13) But that liberty has been increasingly eroded through bureaucracies.

Acts 6:3 — “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”

Election Results

48%
52%
YesNo

Voters rejected the legislative review of rules (52% No).

Full PEAPAC Analysis

PEAPAC Explanation: This Measure would force the Legislature to review and then approve or disapprove of an administrative rule if enough people are upset by that rule. (The Legislature, elected by the electorate, pass laws. The bureaucracy passes rules to administer the laws.) We strongly endorse this Measure and urge a Yes vote

PEAPAC Commentary and Recommendation One of the great dangers to the biblical liberty that representative government affords us is the growth of the power of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. Each year, thousands of new rules are adopted by the state bureaucracy, all of which have the force of law. For example, in 1990, the Oregon State Board of Education came close to virtually outlawing home schooling in Oregon. They didn’t do it by trying to pass a bill. No, they tried it through their rule-making authority, by writing proposed new standards that would have virtually made it illegal to home school in Oregon.

Another example are the administrative rules adopted by the bureaucrats in charge of the Oregon Health Plan. As a result of these rules, your tax dollars have been used to pay for abortions, and even sex-change operations! Such uses of tax dollars would never have made it through the sort of legislative review that this Measure would implement. The examples abound. Land use decisions, fees and various unnecessarily restrictive regulations of small businesses, and much, much more. Many areas of our lives are controlled more and more by these bureaucrats and their rules. Because of this, of all the Measures that have been voted on in the Nineties, this one could arguably be seen as one of, if not THE, most important. The right to be governed by elected representatives of the people is a fundamental biblical political truth that we take for granted. (See Acts 6:3, Numbers 11:16 and Deut. 1:13) But that liberty has been increasingly eroded through bureaucracies. Its time to rein in the bureaucrats, and a Yes vote on Measure 65 will go a long way to doing just that.

← PreviousMeasure 64 (1998)