Sizemore’s foot soldier tells all

Prosecutors watch suit that may lead to more charges Former employee targets more than Oregon Taxpayers United

By Don Hamilton

The Portland Tribune, Sep 17, 2002, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Not long ago, Becky Miller was the top officer in Bill Sizemore’s political legion.

She helped plan ballot measures, plot strategy and carry out the agenda of Oregon Taxpayers United and its spinoffs. She was a true believer in the mission of lower taxes and less government.

But Miller, protected by state and federal immunity, now has delivered a series of body blows to Sizemore and his political operations by taking the stand in a civil lawsuit being heard in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Distraught, saddened and struggling against tears, Miller provided a detailed insider’s look at the operations of Oregon Taxpayers United during 1 1/2 days of testimony last week. She said under oath that:

• Sizemore disguised the source of contributions by soliciting donations for Americans for Tax Reform, which in turn sent money back to Oregon Taxpayers United. The scheme, she said, was intended to hide the identity of his local donors.

• Sizemore approved her omission of political discussions from the minutes of a meeting by the board of the Oregon Taxpayers United Educational Foundation. The group is a nonprofit, which means it’s restricted in its political activity. The minutes were included in documents given to the Internal Revenue Service as part of an audit of its tax-exempt standing.

• She signed Sizemore’s name to checks, often with his permission.

• Sizemore lived what she called a “luxurious lifestyle,” with travel and purchases for his home financed with money that she said should have gone to his perpetually cash-strapped operations.

Last year, Miller quit the organization in disillusionment Ñ not with its politics but with its methods.

Sizemore said he never broke the law.

“She went beyond spilling her guts and misrepresented me,” he said outside the courtroom. “There was nothing illegal or even close to illegal.” He testified last week and is likely to take the stand again. The trial is expected to end sometime next week.

No criminal investigations are under way against Sizemore or Oregon Taxpayers United. But federal and state prosecutors are carefully watching the trial.

“We are monitoring the progress of this case,” said Kevin Neely, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Justice. “At some point we’ll make a determination whether there’s any action merited by the department.”

Judge Jerome LaBarre issued a gag order Monday, prohibiting all participants from talking with the media outside the courtroom.

Unions want money back

Miller was the star witness in the first week of the civil suit filed by the Oregon Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. The groups claim that Oregon Taxpayers United used forgery and fraud in placing measures 92 and 98 on the November 2000 ballot and seek nearly $1 million to recover the cost of defeating them.

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