The candidates get the big headlines, but the ballot measures can sometimes be even more important. I’m wondering what wacky ballot measures you got to vote on today.
Here in Georgia, there was a ballot measure that would prevent the state from raising the top marginal income tax rate. I’m sure it will pass with huge margins in this red state, and cue budget shortfalls in the future a la California.
We had a proposition that was about changing a big set of city ordinances to:
It seems pretty innocuous, but the devil is in the details, so I’m not 100% sure if it’s literally a technical proposition to true up the language, or whether it’s some sort of back-door way to edit some city ordinances without actually putting them up for a vote.
Here in Cleveland, Ohio, I voted on a city initiative that would require the police to have an officer assigned to every red light and speeding camera - kind of a back-door way to ban those cameras, since the police could never afford that kind of personnel commitment. Although I have some concerns that the cameras are more about revenue than safety, and about the objection and appeal process for mistaken tickets, overall I think they’re for the best, so I voted against the initiative.
South Carolina. Something about the Adjustant General for the state and whether holders of that position get to be considered the equivalent of a Major General instead of a Brigadier General. Also whether the Governer gets to define the roles of the Adjutant General’s job.
Who knew?
Maybe not wacky, but the FOSONE is voting to allow absentee ballots on request, without having a specific reason, which could require validation (e.g., a doctor’s note about inability to get to a polling place on the day).
The vague lingering Calvinism here in mundane laws can be perplexing sometimes.
California has one that would allow an Indian tribe to build a casino outside of its “original land” (it owns the land on which the casino would be built, but I think they bought it from someone else) but much closer to a major freeway. Part of the deal is, it has to give a share of its profits to a tribe located something like 300 miles away which can’t build its own casino as it would be on environmentally protected land.
Other than that, the closest thing to a “wacky” measure is one that would make my city’s treasurer an appointed position instead of an elected one, and this one makes sense when you think, “When was the last time I knew any of the candidates for City Treasurer, or how good of a job they would do?”
That measure also would make the Adjutant General position an appointed one. It is currently an elected post. Still… what does the Adjutant General do?
One more statewide measure… whether to allow charitable organizations to conduct raffles. Currently such are banned as an illegal lottery.
The other local measure was whether to “temporarily” implement a 1% sales tax increase and use a portion for the funds for property tax relief and the rest for various educational expenses. Seems like shifting educational expenses off the property tax base. Once off, will they ever get back on? Seems like a good way to underfund education n the long run.
What’s “FOSONE”?
Generally, they adjutant.
There are five of the damn things. One sneaks term limits out and raises salaries for legislators, one make the whole state wet liquor wise, one raises the minimum wage.
Yah, that one has TV spots with a (presumably) Indian fellow advocating voting NO on that measure, because (presumably) the new casino would be in competition with the casino with which he is affilated. OK, he did not actually say that 2nd part.
Out here, we have a referendum which would require background checks on all firearms sales or transfers, including gun shows, internet sales, and gifts between family members.
We also have a referendum which would ban any background checks on firearms sales or transfers that are not mandated by federal law.
At the moment, the former is favored to pass and the latter to fail. A few months ago, it was somehow the case that both were favored to pass, which would no doubt have resulted in quite a legalistic boondoggle.
We also get to vote for “Cemetary District Commission, 3rd Position” this year; which I found bizarre because I can only vaguely guess at what a Cemetary District Commissioner’s responsibilities are, let alone what would make one candidate better suited to carry them out than the other.
I didn’t know either, so I looked it up. They’re in charge of the state National Guard.
Oh, San Francisco, how I love your wacky ballot measures. Among this year’s 12 measures are a sugary drink tax and a minimum wage hike. But my personal favorites are the two concerning whether we should cover some of the athletic fields in Golden Gate Park with astroturf. They give a whole new meaning (or perhaps an old meaning) to astroturfing the election.
Colorado on letting established horsetracks add slots and poker tables. Of course one track is in Arapahoe Cnty (South Denver) with $$$ going to the schools. The casinos in Black Hawk and Cripple Creek are fighting it because there is something very wrong with making a horse track that allows betting to become a gambling den.
And of course, there are the two “Advisory Ballots,” both of which could be amended to read “The legislature did their jobs. Chew them out for it in an entirely non-binding and generally time-wasting manner?”
Maybe I’m not reading these right, but…
(a) is the “sugary drink tax” really going to be $1.30 on every two-liter bottle? If this passes, then I’d like to have a supermarket in Daly City or Colma, as I have a feeling they’re going to get a lot of business.
Another thing I noticed about it: it doesn’t apply to drinks that are “100% fruit and/or vegetable juice”. (Never mind that anything that is 100% fruit juice is pretty much 1% vitamins and 99% sugar as far as your body is concerned.) However, if that carton of orange juice is “orange juice plus a really small amount of preservatives”, then technically it’s subject to the tax.
(b) the astroturf one looks like it is to prevent putting artificial turf on the fields on the western half of Golden Gate park, as well as banning lights there. I have a feeling this wasn’t the idea of environmentalists as it was the idea of the people who have houses near there.
When the high school I went to had its football field / stands / press box renovated about 10 years ago (among other things, the press box needed an elevator added to it so it could be AADA-compliant), pretty much the first thing that happened was, the people who lived right next to the school ran to City Hall with one demand: no lights. It’s not so much that the lights would be distracting, but lights means Friday night games (and the noise that comes with them) that would last until 10 PM.
According to his profile, it stands for “Fly-Over State Of New England.”
Wonder if there are any more attempted bans on same sex marriage on the ballots today…
Proposition H is to prevent putting in the artificial turf and lights. Proposition I is to allow the astroturf and lights to be put in. The one that gets the most votes takes precedence.
That’s it, thanks. We’re small, we’re weird, we’re retro, we’re Still Revolutionary, but just TRY getting from NYC to Boston without us.