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September 10, 2006

Sizemore: King of "Unintended Consequences"

A lot of us have wondered why Bill Sizemore suddenly got worried about insurance companies basing rates on credit history. It is such a departure from the whole taxes and limited government thing, and besides, telling a company how it can conduct its business is so anti-free market. Well, he's finally offered an explanation.

"I heard this was going on...and I couldn't believe it at first because it seemed so illogical."

Classic Sizemore bullshit, but for now let's assume it's true that this man with chronically poor credit never before realized that all those other formerly-bankrupt, borrow-and-never-pay-back types are also beleaguered with high interest rates and, being unlikely to defend themselves (as he further explains), could really use a leader like him to fix their problem for them. Assuming Sizemore is the greatest populist since FDR, then he just might be interested in hearing from everyday people like you about other potential populist ballot measures that he could ask Loren Parks to fund so the two of them could make your life better. His email address is bill@otu.org (it's no secret - you can find it on his website).

Sizemore's past populist measures have consistently been opposed by people who explained the measures were "poorly drafted" and would have "unintended consequences." That was the grand argument against his Measure 47 property tax cut and cap and in favor of the Measure 50 fix. His previous Measure 91, which allowed deduction of federal taxes on state income tax returns, would have unintended consequences (over half of Oregon's taxpayers would have received no reduction in their taxes, while seventy percent of the tax benefits would have gone to the wealthiest 7% of Oregonians), as would his Measure 93, which required a vote before taxes and fees could be increased (requiring people to vote on a lengthy and confusing list of fees, most of which they would not be paying and probably cared little about), and Measure 8, a state spending limit (which would have required the state to turn back billions of dollars in federal funding). Measure 98 would have had the unintended consequences of threatening the Voter Pamphlet. I could go on, but it would really just be redundant. The fact is, you can pretty much predict that will be the argument against anything he puts on the ballot, and this insurance measure is just another example:

"It has many unintended consequences," said Pat McCormick, spokesman for Oregonians Against Insurance Rate Increases, the group fighting the measure. "There are about 60 percent of Oregonians whose rates are going to go up. Those with good credit histories are going to subsidize those with bad credit histories."

Additionally, the companies say credit scoring is done without information about income, race or where a customer lives - not making it possible to target certain minority groups.

Contrary to what Sizemore claims, however, the problem isn't that people keep playing the "unintended consequences" card. Rather, it's that Sizemore's measures consistently do have unintended consequences.

I'll be voting "no" on this measure for two reasons. First, Sizemore is a compulsive liar, in my opinion, and I don't trust his motives. And second, I have a good credit record and don't see why my rates ought to go up just to give people like Sizemore, who think they ought to be able to borrow money and not pay it back, a break on their insurance rates.

Posted by Becky at September 10, 2006 09:25 AM