SALEM - Anti-tax activists are ramping up their signature-gathering drive to ask Oregon voters to approve a tight new limit on state government spending in the November election.

Chief sponsor Jason Williams of the Taxpayers Association of Oregon says extra paid petitioners are being brought in to make a final push for signatures, although he declined to say how many are being hired.

“We're right on target,” Williams said Wednesday. “We feel good that we are going to make it.”

Sponsors will need to have 100,000-plus valid signatures in hand by the July 7 deadline to win a spot on the statewide ballot this fall.

If it does qualify, the spending limit is expected to ignite a major campaign battle between tax foes who want to restrict government spending and those who say such a limit would cripple schools, public health and other key state services.

It's an issue that also plays into the governor's race, with Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski urging voters to reject the spending limit and Republican Ron Saxton saying it would encourage more fiscal restraint.

Today, Kulongoski is scheduled to meet with a Colorado woman who traveled to Oregon this week to talk about her state's experience with a spending limit and to urge Oregon voters to reject a similar proposal.

Kristi Hargrove, a self-described Republican fiscal conservative and “PTA mom” from Crested Butte, Colo., said a 1992 spending limit “left a mess” in Colorado that prompted voters to suspend the spending limit last fall.

“We were suckered in with promises of big tax refunds that never came,” Hargrove said. “Instead our schools were cut, our bridges and roads went without repair, and the state couldn't pay for basic services.”

Hargrove was invited to the state by the Defend Oregon Coalition, which is comprised of labor groups and advocates for education, public health and public transportation programs who argue that the proposed initiative will decimate public services.

Patty Wentz, spokeswoman for the coalition, said the spending limit campaign is being bankrolled by out-of-state conservative groups who have hired a California consulting firm to ensure that the Oregon spending limit qualifies.

“Indications are that they are sending an army of signature gatherers to Oregon to make sure this gets on the November ballot,” Wentz said.

The proposed initiative sponsored by Williams' group would limit state spending to the percentage change in inflation plus the percentage change in population growth. Any override of the limit would require a two-thirds vote from both the House and the Senate and the approval of Oregon voters in a statewide election.

Oregon currently has a state spending limit, which is tied to Oregonians' income, but Williams says the current limit is so loosely drawn that it doesn't really curtail state spending.