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PAGE 4, OCTOBER 13, 2008, THE ISLANDER
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2008
This November's Top 10 Initiatives
By Paul Jacob
President Bush and Congress just
agreed to borrow $700 billion to bailout
insolvent financial firms. Your share in
this wager is $2,292.60. For a family of
four that comes to $9,170.40
And you didn’t get to vote on it.
If you’re unhappy about that, you
get to choose from two major party can
didates for president who both voted
for the bailout. (All the minor party
and independent candidates, both left
and right, were against the bailout.)
Compare our federal dysfunction to
the menu of real choices awaiting vot
ers at the state and local level — espe
cially in the 24 states that enjoy a pro
cess of initiative and referendum.
Here’s my list of the Top 10 issues
on state ballots this November:
10. Washington State 1-985, The
Reduce Traffic Congestion Initiative.
The Seattle area is home to some the
nation’s most horrendous traffic. This
initiative promises to kick out those
jams by requiring synchronized traf
fic lights, opening up high-occupancy-
vehicle lanes and mandating a higher
proportion of current funds be spent to
reduce road congestion.
The measure is promoted by the
state’s leading initiative activist, Tim
Eyman, who has passed eight initia
tives in the last ten years - to enact tax
cuts, spending restraints and produce
performance audits of government. I-
985 is ahead in early polling. If it
passes and succeeds in easing gridlock,
frustrated commuters in other initia
tive states will want to travel this same
route.
9. Colorado Amendment 46, Civil
Rights Initiative. Ward Connerly’s
efforts to end racial and gender prefer
ences - so-called “affirmative action”
programs - have been fiercely fought.
Yet, the measures have won in every
state where voters have gotten to
choose: California, Michigan and Wash
ington. Though campaigns of harass
ment against petitioners in Arizona,
Missouri and Oklahoma helped block
the idea from gaining a spot on those
state ballots, the issue will be voted
on in Colorado and Nebraska. It is
expected to pass in both states.
8. California Proposition 4, Abortion
Waiting Period and Parental Notifica
tion. Prop 4 requires a minor to wait
48 hours after a physician notifies a
parent - or in the case of alleged paren
tal abuse, an adult relative - before an
abortion can be performed. Similar
measures in 2005 and 2006 failed, but
those initiatives lacked the alternative
of notifying a relative rather than a
parent. The third time may be a charm
— a recent Field Poll shows the mea
sure narrowly ahead.
Abortion is also at issue in Colorado,
with Amendment 48, which defines
“personhood” as beginning at “the
moment of fertilization,” and in South
Dakota, with Initiated Measure 11,
a ban on all abortions, except in the
case of rape, incest or a threat to the
mother’s fife.
7. Massachusetts Ballot Question 2,
The Sensible Marijuana Policy Initia
tive. This measure would make the
possession of less than an ounce of
marijuana a civil offense, punishable
by a $100 fine, rather than a crimi
nal offense. In an interesting twist,
it appears that 11 district attorneys
broke Massachusetts campaign finance
laws by spending money against this
measure before forming their Coalition
to Save Our Streets. Campaign finance
laws are so byzantine that even the
DAs can’t follow them.
Michigan voters will decide Proposal
1, a measure to permit the medicinal
use of marijuana, and Californians face
Prop 5, the Nonviolent Offender Reha
bilitation Act, which would move the
state even further toward a policy of
treatment, rather than incarceration,
for drug offenses.
6. Arkansas Proposed Initiated Act
1, Unmarried Couple Adoption Ban.
This statutory measure bans unmar
ried couples from adopting children or
serving as foster parents. State govern
ment policy had restricted same-sex
couples from becoming adoptive or fos
ter parents, until the policy was chal
lenged by the ACLU and overturned.
This initiative would set a broader
state policy whereby no unmarried
couples — heterosexual or homosexual
— could adopt children or be foster
parents.
If it passes, it is likely to be repeated
in other states. If it fails, along with
likely failures of same-sex marriage
bans in California and elsewhere, sexu
al orientation politics may begin a new
chapter.
Arizona’s Proposition 102 currently
leads in the polls, but is relatively
close. It’s similar to Proposition 107,
which in 2006 became the first same-
sex marriage ban to be defeated by vot
ers in any state. But Proposition 102,
unlike its predecessor, doesn’t prohibit
domestic partnerships or civil unions.
Marriage amendments also face tough
tests in California, where Prop 8 is far
behind, in part due to a controversial
ballot title by Attorney General Jerry
Brown, and in Florida, where Amend
ment 2 is polling well over a majority
but short of the 60% super-majority
now required for enacting state amend
ments.
5. Colorado Amendment 47, Right
to Work. This amendment would allow
any employee in a unionized Colorado
workplace to freely choose whether or
not to join the union. It is now being
opposed by a united big business/labor
coalition with a campaign war-chest of
nearly $15 million, after a long nego
tiated deal whereby business inter
ests agreed to help fund the campaign
against this measure in exchange for
organized labor withdrawing four
initiatives (Amendments 53, 55, 56,
and 57) that would have tilted policy
toward labor.
The business/labor coalition is
also opposing Amendment 49, which
stops state and local government from
deducting union dues from employees’
paychecks, and Amendment 54, which
prevents recipients of government
no-bid contracts (totaling $100,000 or
more) from making political contribu
tions.
Colorado was poised for a fierce bat
tle between business and labor inter
ests until last week’s agreement. Now,
these three measures face a multi-mil-
lion dollar onslaught from the state’s
most powerftd political players.
4. North Dakota Measure 2, A Cor
porate and Personal Income Tax Cut.
Proposed by the North Dakota chap
ter of Americans for Prosperity, this
statutory initiative would reduce state
income tax for individuals by 50% and
the corporate income tax by 15%. For
mer Governor Ed Schafer has endorsed
the initiative, while the American Asso
ciation of Retired Persons (AARP) and
the North Dakota Farm Bureau oppose
it.
A different tax battle rages next
door, where the Minnesota Sales Tax
Amendment, referred to the ballot by
legislators, would raise the sales tax
rate by 3/8ths of a cent to fund natural
resource protection and cultural heri
tage programs. The Taxpayers League
of Minnesota is leading the opposition,
along with the state Chamber of Com
merce and Farm Bureau.
These two states may help set the
mood on taxes as economic times get
rougher. But a number of other tax
measures await voters in other states.
For instance, Arizonans will face the
“Majority Rules Initiative,” Proposi
tion 105, that would require any ini
tiative increasing taxes or requiring
greater spending to be passed not just
by a majority of those voting, but by
a majority of all registered voters, a
Turn to Page 7 -
November initiatives
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