PORTLAND -- The battle between anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore and two Oregon teacher unions is back in court for another contempt hearing on whether Sizemore failed to obey a judge's orders on reporting political contributions.

The Oregon Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-Oregon claim that Sizemore set up a sham charity in Nevada to collect money for political purposes and get around a court injunction.

The unions say the biggest contributors to Sizemore in recent years have been two wealthy Oregon industrialists: Loren Parks, who now lives in Nevada, and Dick Wendt, co-founder of Jeld-Wen in Klamath Falls.

The unions claim that Parks and Wendt have contributed more than $1 million to the charity controlled by Sizemore, who has paid himself more than $750,000.

The two unions won a $2.5 million judgment against Sizemore in 2002 after a jury found that the political organization he founded, Oregon Taxpayers United, filed false campaign reports and forged signatures on initiative petitions.

The jury also found that the Oregon Taxpayers United political action committee had illegally used its companion nonprofit education foundation to accept political contributions secretly from wealthy donors who could write them off as tax deductions.

Greg Hartman, the attorney for the unions, told Multnomah County Circuit Judge Janice Wilson on Thursday that Sizemore is doing the same thing with a new organization in direct violation of the judge's orders.

"What we have here is Oregon Taxpayers United all over again," Hartman said.

The new charity is called the American Tax Research Foundation, which Hartman said consists of a Web site, no paid employees and a small board of directors made up of Sizemore's friends and family members.

Greg Byrne, the attorney for Sizemore, said all funding for the new organization has been done legally. He denied all the union claims.

In interviews since the 2002 jury verdict, Sizemore has repeatedly accused the unions of trying to limit his political activity.

He has sponsored or co-sponsored five successful initiatives this year that were placed on the November ballot, including two education-related measures and a measure to allow all federal income taxes to be deducted from state returns.

But Hartman told the judge that Sizemore put those measures on the ballot with money that was not properly reported.

Hartman said the structure of the Nevada charity allows Sizemore complete control over the finances an organization incorporated in the state of Nevada that does no business there.

In a memo submitted to the court before the hearing on Thursday, Hartman wrote: "Sizemore went to great lengths to set up a sham foundation whose sole purpose was to enable him to move large amounts of money from his financial supporters to his political activities. In this way he hoped to avoid the public disclosure which would have revealed his violation of the court's injunction."

A hearing that began Thursday is expected to last two days.