From Portland Afoot

As reported by The Oregonian, the 2012 Clackamas County rail initiative would require a majority of Clackamas County voters to green-light a prior $25 million commitment by county leaders to help pay for the Orange Line, which would connect the northwest corner of the county to the MAX system.

Unless blocked from the ballot, the vote would occur in a special election Sept. 18. A similar issue in the City of Milwaukie has also been gathering signatures, and anti-rail activists in Clark County are planning to oppose an unrelated MAX expansion initiative in Vancouver.

[edit] Legal risk for Clackamas County

As reported by the Oregonian, Clackamas County's lawyers wrote in a June 2012 memo warning that TriMet would have strong legal grounds to sue the county for breaking a contractual commitment to pay for $25 million of the $1.5 billion rail project.

"'The Ballot Measure goes beyond mere legislation and impermissibly intrudes into the general administrative and executive functions of County governance,'" the memo said, according to the paper. "If the measure passes, it could still be challenged as an unlawful impairment of a contract. Both the U.S. and Oregon constitutions prohibit governments from passing laws that allow them to escape previously agreed upon contractual obligations, the memo says."