 photo by STEVEN LANE |
BY PATTY WENTZ |
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A 1997 study said
Oregon's promotion of gambling "creates an unacceptable conflict with
the state's traditional role of protecting the social and
Measure 66 is pegged for capital expenditures like maintenance and buying land for new parks. Even if it passes, the user fees in state parks will not be reduced or eliminated.
According to
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Long-time activist Lloyd Marbet
is used to being one of the lone voices in the wilderness. Whether he's
raising it to shut down the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant or to defend Oregon's
initiative system, Marbet never hesitates to take a contradictory stance.
Even he was surprised, though, to find that he was the only person to file an argument against Measure 66 in the Voters' Pamphlet. The popular initiative would earmark 15 percent of Oregon Lottery proceeds for two purposes: funding the state's Parks and Recreation Department and paying for restoration of the state's watersheds and wildlife habitats--to the tune of more than $46 million a year. Disparate groups from the Sierra Club to the Oregon Forest Industries Council have endorsed the measure. With the Parks and Recreation Department operating under a $110 million maintenance backlog, everyone agrees the department needs money, and fast. The measure also provides funds for habitat restoration and watershed protection to help prevent future listing of endangered species. The problem, according to Marbet, who chairs the Clackamas River Basin Council, is that the measure increases the state's need to feed from the fat pot of lottery dollars, which is a tainted trough. "To prey on our weakest citizens for something that's a civic responsibility is unfortunate," he says. "We're setting it up so the Legislature abdicates responsibility to fund the workings of the government." Over the past few weeks, Marbet's dissension has caught on. Outspoken lefty Greg Kafoury is not only against Measure 66, he's already prepared to bankroll an initiative in the year 2000 that would outlaw video poker--the most insidious and addictive form of state-sponsored gambling. Kafoury charges that in the chase for greenbacks, the greens have left behind their moral center. "A lot of progressives have lost a sense of right and wrong," he says. "Creating and exploiting human weakness is an evil thing to do." Like most issues in Oregon politics these days, Measure 66 is the spawn of a series of earlier initiatives. In 1984, a measure well-funded by the gaming industry brought state-sponsored gambling to Oregon. In 1990, Measure 5, the property-tax limiting measure, guaranteed we'd become addicted to it. It may already be too late to quit cold turkey. Gambling money is second only to income tax as a source of revenue to the state. Most of the several hundred million dollars the lottery takes in every year goes to Oregon public schools. With taxpayers unwilling to shoulder the burden of education, we've had to rely on the "stupid" tax taken from people trying to make a fast buck. In 1995, 15 percent of lottery funds were permanently earmarked for education. Last biennium that came to more than $90 million. It wasn't nearly enough, however, so using its discretion to split up the rest of the lottery money, the state Legislature sent an additional $450 million to schools. The remaining lottery money went to economic development, transportation and natural resources, along with $2 million a year for gambling-addiction treatment. Since the games were approved in 1992, profits from video-poker slots make up 75 percent of the state's lottery take. Found in taverns and restaurants around the state, rows of video-poker machines have become a gambling addict's nightmare. Estimates are that between 3 and 5 percent of gamblers are addicted. Patricia McCaig, spokeswoman for the Measure 66 campaign, says the Legislature's refusal to fund parks has left environmentalists no option but to turn to the lottery, and voters have long ago left behind the ethical dilemma of funding public services with gambling money. "That is a luxurious intellectual argument," she says. Over the past 18 years--since the state Legislature eliminated the gas tax as a source of stable funding for state parks--the state's contribution to the department's budget has dropped from 70 to 8 percent. In that time, the state population has grown 22 percent. Without an infusion of capital, parks and watersheds could deteriorate to the point where the state would become a natural resources ghetto. "We didn't arrive at it lightly," McCaig says. "It was after years of looking at other avenues and years of asking for help and not getting it." Gov. John Kitzhaber has also come out against the measure because it signals an increasing dependence on lottery dollars, but he does agree that parks need money. Last session the governor tried unsuccessfully to convince the state Legislature to consider a bottle bill that would dedicate an increase in deposit fees to the parks department. While environmental groups have signed on to the measure, many have done so while holding their noses. "The lottery is not a good way to raise money," says Regna Merritt of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, "but we don't have time to do it any other way."
originally published September 23 , 1998
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