AG’s Opinion Raises Questions About Transportation Tax Repeal

The opinion, dated Nov. 13, 1935, is about  a bill lawmakers passed that year related to student fees at Oregon colleges. Before the measure went into effect, however, citizens gathered enough signatures to send it to the ballot for voters to decide.

Then-Gov. Charles Martin asked then-Attorney General I.H. Van Winkle whether lawmakers could simply repeal the bill rather than engage in a ballot fight.

The answer Van Winkle gave, based on case law from Oregon and numerous other states: No.

“The right of the people to a referendum vote on a statute enacted by the Legislature can not be defeated by a subsequent repeal of the act referred,” Van Winkle wrote, quoting a Missouri case.