The Portland, Ore., man who wants studded tires off his state’s roads has gotten the Oregon Supreme Court to sign off on the wording of the ballot, which allows him to start gathering signatures to place the issue up for vote in 2012.
Faced with the task of getting 80,000 signatures from registered voters to get the measure on the November 2012 ballot, Jeff Bernards said he will launch a $375,000 signature gathering effort in a few weeks, according to The Oregonian. “I’m going to go for 110,000 to make sure we can compensate for any fake ones,” he told the newspaper. “The signature sheets will be ready in a couple weeks.”
The paper reported that for the past seven months, Bernards has haggled with Gallatin Public Affairs, a Portland-based lobbying firm hired by Les Schwab, over the language. The firm has “repeatedly challenged revisions to the wording of Bernard’s proposed studded-tire ban,” the report said.
While Bernards referred to the process as “one delay tactic after another,” court records show the original wording he submitted did not “sufficiently” inform voters of the proposed changes to Oregon law.
The Oregonian reported the firm’s petition also objected to the suggested ban on retractable tire studs, which it argued were “not available to motorists” in the state and shouldn’t be listed. The court ruling last week denied their objections.
Should Bernards gather enough signatures to see the issue in the ballot, a “yes” vote would mean a ban on the use of all studded tires. Currently, studs are allowed from November to April in Oregon, and when the state’s department of transportation extends that time frame due to continued inclement weather, as was the case this spring.
Annually, studded tires are used by about 16% of Oregonians but cause more than $40 million in damage to roads, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation.
According to Bernards, asphalt roads built to handle 12 to 15 years of traffic are barely making it past seven. Concrete roads built for 35 to 40 years, meanwhile, have their lifespan cut in half by studded tires, he said. These figures can be found on a legislative fact sheet.
The Oregonian reported Bernards remains convinced that tire retailers will put up a fight if the studded-tire ban makes the ballot. In the past, he said, the Northwest Tire Dealers Association has successfully worked through “intense lobbying efforts” to ban proposed bans and per-tire fees in Washington and Oregon.
Bernards, a landscaping business owner, said donations are already coming into his website, preservingoregonsroads.org, and he is working with a professional fundraiser on the ballot initiative.
To view the article by The Oregonian, click here.
