home rule

Oregon’s Constitution grants to voters of every city and town the power to enact and amend their municipal charter (establish a form of government), to tax, and to regulate public welfare (among other things). This power is referred to as “home rule.” When state laws contradict local laws, the state law will override the local to meet the state's most important social, economic, and regulatory goals and standards. These include basic rights of citizenship and civil rights, for example, as well as some taxes, public health protections, some regulatory powers, and environmental matters. When the Oregon Supreme Court ruled on PECBA, it upheld the application of the law to all public employees--in short, that public employees could not lose their right to organize and negotiate (according to the rules and regulations of PECBA) and benefit from membership to PERS even if their city's local laws prohibited them from doing so. (City of La Grande v. Public Emp. Retirement Bd., 281 Or. 137, 576 P.2d 1204, 1215 (1978).)