PORTLAND — A pair of crime measures on the November ballot offer voters a choice between mandatory sentencing or expanded drug treatment programs to get more burglars and dealers off the streets.

Both measures will require a big increase on spending for prisons, but the mandatory sentencing measure offered by former Republican lawmaker Kevin Mannix carries a price tag of more than $1 billion.

In the event that both measures pass, as polls suggest, the one with the most votes will trump the other.

Measure 57 is a referral from the Legislature that would increase prison terms for repeat offenders convicted of nonviolent property or drug crimes while expanding treatment and prevention programs.

Measure 61 is an initiative sponsored by former state lawmaker Kevin Mannix that would send first-time offenders to prison for up to a mandatory three years.

Mannix modeled his initiative for nonviolent drug and property crimes after Measure 11, the mandatory sentencing law approved by voters in 1994 for violent criminals.

“I call Measure 61, in my lighter moments, the ‘son of 11,’” said Mannix, who was also the author of Measure 11.

The former Republican candidate for governor said a mandatory sentence for drug and property crimes is needed because so many offenders are given probation that it has become “a joke that’s also an insult to the victims of crime.”

Supporters of Measure 57, however, say the competing Mannix proposal will cost at least twice as much without providing any treatment programs to prevent the most common cause of property crime — drug and alcohol abuse and addiction.

“All the projections show that Measure 57 is considerably less expensive,” said Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote, one of the many prominent prosecutors around the state who have endorsed the legislative referral.

The coalition of supporters for Measure 57 also includes the sheriffs of the state’s largest counties, police chiefs, unions, the Oregon Education Association, AARP Oregon, the Oregon Nurses Association, retired Oregon Supreme Court Justice Betty Roberts, Attorney General Hardy Myers and the man expected to succeed Myers as the state’s next top law enforcement officer, John Kroger.

Neither the Mannix initiative nor the legislative referral provide funding to cover the increased cost, leaving that up to lawmakers.

The state Criminal Justice Commission has estimated that Measure 57 would cost an additional $140 million per biennium while the Mannix initiative would cost between $256 million to $400 million.

Oregon already ranks among the top 10 nationally for the highest costs per inmate.

Supporters of both measures say the actual cost will be less because losses from property and drug crimes will decrease.

“For every dollar we spend, we are saving citizens more than a dollar in terms of economic harm caused to the community,” Mannix said.

But Democratic state Sen. Floyd Prozanski of Eugene says the legislative referral offering drug treatment programs will save taxpayers a lot more than the Mannix mandatory sentencing proposal, which lacks any treatment alternatives.

He said inmate screening shows that drug or alcohol addiction is a problem for more than four out of every five people sent to prison, and there is widespread agreement among prosecutors, law enforcement agencies and corrections officials that treatment programs help reduce the number of repeat offenders.

“I’ve seen it for more than 20 years as a prosecutor,” Prozanski said.

“This is not rocket science. We know that, if you want to make a real reduction in property crime, you have to attack the addiction problem that makes up about 85 percent of the prisoners coming into state facilities.”

Prozanski said the Legislature’s fiscal analysis of the two measures showed that Measure 57 will cost about $150 million less per year compared to Measure 61, and would avoid spending $1 billion to build new prisons and $640 million in interest to pay back construction bonds.

“How is he going to pay for it?” Prozanski said of the Mannix proposal.

Mannix has a companion but unrelated proposal on the ballot, Measure 62, that would carve out 15 percent of Oregon Lottery revenue for the Oregon State Police crime lab, prosecutors and sheriff’s offices.

But none of that money would go to prisons.

The justice commission also estimated the Mannix proposal would boost the state prison population by an additional 4,000 to 6,000 inmates by 2012 while Measure 57 would add about 1,600 inmates.

The prison population has doubled to about 13,600 inmates since Measure 11 was approved in 1994, with much of the increase resulting from mandatory sentencing.

Mannix financed his measures with campaign contributions from Loren Parks, a multimillionaire medical equipment manufacturer who lived in Oregon much of his life before moving to Nevada in 2002.

Parks has spent more than $1 million on proposals for this year’s election, including $175,000 for Measures 61 and 62.