Tuesday election affects students, school districts

The deadline to vote on Measure 101 is 8 p.m. Tuesday.

It is too late to vote by mail, but ballots can still be left in drop boxes. The Secretary of State’s Office provides an Oregon drop box locator.

Measure 101 is a referendum on House Bill 2391, a temporary tax on hospitals, health care organizations and insurers that pays for health insurance for approximately 350,000 low-income Oregonians. A yes vote keeps the law as it stands, and nothing changes for families on the Oregon Health Plan or school districts’ budgets.

OSBA endorsed the measure because students are better able to succeed in school when their health needs are met.

A no vote would repeal part of the tax and cost the state $210 million to $320 million in revenue and as much as $960 million in federal matching funds, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. The Legislature would have to either remove people from the health plan or find the money elsewhere. The Legislature could create new taxes or cut the money out of 2017-19 budgets, including the State School Fund.

- Jake Arnold, OSBA
jarnold@osba.org