ENDORSEMENTS

If you would like to endorse Healthy Kids Oregon please click on the link below, complete the form, and fax it to 503.232.0180.

Healthy Kids Oregon Individual Endorsement Form

Healthy Kids Oregon Organization Endorsement Form

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The Oregonian, Salem Statesman-Journal, Eugene Register-Guard, Medford Mail-Tribune, The Willamette Week, Corvallis Gazette-Times, Daily Astorian, Ashland Daily Tidings, Beaverton Valley Times, Clackamas Review, Forest Grove News-Times, Gresham Outlook, Local News Daily, Portland Metro Parent, Portland State University Daily Vanguard, Portland Tribune, Tigard Times and the University of Oregon Daily Emerald have all endorsed Measure 50. Here are just a few reasons why these newspapers agree that a Yes vote on Measure 50 is the most important thing you can do on November 6:



The true face of Measure 50
The Oregonian
October 21, 2007


Confused about Measure 50?The tobacco industry is counting on it. The makers of Camels and Marlboros have spent a staggering sum in a cynical bid to keep voters from passing the cigarette tax increase Oregon needs to provide health care for more than 100,000 uninsured children.

Cigarette makers in faraway states have jammed Oregon airwaves with a $10 million barrage of increasingly disingenuous ads. They show adult actors pretending to fume about constitutional amendments and “unsustainable government programs,” while carefully avoiding what Measure 50 is really about. More…

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Yes to kids, yes on Measure 50
Portland Tribune
October 19, 2007

Oregonians should reject an onslaught of cynical tactics being utilized by the tobacco industry and instead approve ballot Measure 50, which would raise the state’s cigarette tax to pay for health coverage for up to 117,000 uninsured Oregon children.

The tobacco industry is spending millions of dollars — $9.2 million so far — to convince voters to reject the measure in the Nov. 6 vote-by-mail election.

But what tobacco interests are trying to buy with their money is simply confusion. More…

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Measure 50: YES
Daily Astorian
October 18, 2007

Raising tobacco tax to cover children makes good sense

Measure 50, What is it?

This constitutional amendment would increase the cigarette tax and dedicate that revenue to programs related to children’s health and tobacco use prevention. More…

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Reject Big Tobacco: Support Measure 50
The Gresham Outlook
October 16, 2007

It’s ironic, but hardly surprising, that in its effort to defeat higher cigarette taxes, the tobacco lobby would resort to a smokescreen.

There are some legitimate arguments against Ballot Measure 50: It raises the price of a product that is disproportionately used by the poor; it builds a state program atop a shaky revenue foundation; and it sticks one group of state residents with a bill that we all rightly should share. More…

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Blank checks? No. Health care for children? Yes
Medford Mail-Tribune
October 18, 2007

Measure 50 foes distort the truth to campaign against it

Behold the power of the political spin. Which interest group is calling itself “Oregonians Against the Blank Check” this fall?

No, it’s not one intent on reining in runaway government spending. It’s the campaign fighting a proposed 84.5-cents-per-pack increase in Oregon cigarette taxes. A campaign created by and financed with millions of dollars from — you guessed it — big tobacco companies.

Measure 50, a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot, would use most of the nearly $100 million raised annually from the increased taxes to pay for health insurance for 100,000 uninsured Oregon children, including 5,000 in Jackson County. More…

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Despite flaws, Measure 50 is necessary
Corvallis Gazette-Times
October 17, 2007

We agree that Measure 50’s critics have some legitimate gripes.

Boiled down, it’s an 84.5-cents-a-pack additional tax on a pack of cigarettes that is expected to generate enough money to provide health care of Oregon’s uninsured children younger than 19. It also expands the health care to lower-income adults.

We do have some qualms about the fact that the 2007 Legislature was unable to get this passed as the Healthy Kids Initiative because not enough Republican legislators supported it. So, it is now back before voters as a tobacco tax to raise money to aid more than 100,000 youngsters in Oregon who have no health insurance. More…

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Ballot Measure 50: Yes
Willamette Week
October 17, 2007

What it would do: Increase state tobacco taxes from $1.18 to $2.025 per pack to pay for children’s health insurance and other programs.

Imagine you’re lost in the desert, nearly dead from dehydration. You stumble upon a fetid puddle with a dead bird floating on the surface. The water you slurp down ain’t Perrier, but it keeps you alive. This measure is that water.

Measure 50 would add 84.5 cents in taxes on a pack of cigarettes, now taxed at $1.18 per pack. And, within three years, the revenue will provide health insurance to an estimated 92,000 uninsured Oregonians under the age of 19. More…

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Here are 10 million reasons for yes on 50
Salem Statesman-Journal
October 14, 2007

Hey, buddy, can you spare a dime? How about $10 million? You can if you’re the tobacco industry. Three companies — Philip Morris USA, Reynolds American and Altria Corporate Services Inc. — have contributed more than $10 million toward defeating Oregon’s Measure 50.

Now, why do you suppose they’re trying to sway the Nov. 6 election?

We suspect it’s not simply because they’re fine, public-spirited corporations that believe in an enlightened electorate. Led by $5.8 million from Philip Morris, the tobacco industry’s contributions have demolished previous records for ballot-measure spending. That’s even when the figures are adjusted for inflation. More…

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Measure 50 is an easy one
Ashland Daily Tidings
September 28, 2007

Welcome to ballot measure hell.

Two of the dastardly creatures are guaranteed to attract countless dollars paying for countless propaganda to sway voters in countless ways. Changes to land-use laws will certainly attract more attention than anyone wants, but at least this measure is hotly debated within the state of Oregon.

Not so for Measure 50, which already has a marketing campaign more visible than Peyton Manning. The onslaught has begun, with television ads, flashy print packages and any number of gadgets and gimmickry to confuse the issue. More…

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A growing stench from tobacco
The Oregonian
September 26, 2007

Cigarette makers issue a blank check to their hired guns in a big-bucks effort to defeat Oregon’s Healthy Kids Plan

Hold your noses, Oregonians.

Big Tobacco’s campaign against uninsured children in Oregon is turning from merely smelly to downright malodorous.

Two weeks ago the industry launched a $4.5 million TV and radio blitz trying to confuse voters about Measure 50, the cigarette tax increase that would help provide health care to more than 100,000 Oregon children. But the highly misleading ad campaign may be only the beginning of a much bigger onslaught, on the heels of a welcome court ruling.

Tobacco makers, using every weapon at their disposal, had bankrolled a lawsuit seeking to throw Measure 50 off the ballot. However, Marion County Judge Paul Lipscomb sensibly rejected every argument in the suit. More…

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Smoke and mirrors and healthy kids
The Oregonian
September 7, 2007

The tobacco industry coughed up its first big blast of vile smoke on Oregon’s airwaves this week, trying to cloud a measure to provide health care for uninsured children in the state.

Beginning at 5 a.m., the 30-second spot made its debut on television stations across Oregon.

The very first words set the mendacious tone: “HMOs and health insurers are behind Measure 50,” the narrator intones against a backdrop of sinister-sounding music.

How contemptibly misleading. Yes, insurers support the measure, but they’re not its authors or chief sponsors. Measure 50, which would help more than 100,000 uninsured Oregon kids by raising cigarette taxes, is the result of months of work by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, enlightened legislators, hospitals, medical providers and a host of public health and child welfare advocates throughout Oregon. More…

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Seeking a fall crop of kids’ insurance
The Oregonian
August 31, 2007

A political battle in D.C. and a ballot fight in Oregon

Even with the new surveys out this week on uninsured children, it’s hard to know exactly how many Oregon children have to get by without medical protection. We know that it’s more than 100,000, that it’s at least one in eight, and that the number isn’t getting smaller.

And that decisions made in the next few months will affect the number, and the prospects of Oregon’s kids, enormously.

New U.S. Census figures, and the state’s own Oregon Population Survey, report that the number is at least not improving and may be getting worse. Two battles this autumn will bolster or block the state’s opportunity to protect its children. More…

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