While everyone is focused on whether Republicans will win control of the House and/or Senate, there are several issues that voters will directly decide that deserve close attention. Here are the nine initiatives that have caught my attention. I’m probably missing some important ones, so feel free to add suggestions in the comment section.
1. Imposing an income tax in the state of Washington – This is the one I’ll be following very closely. I have a hard time thinking that voters would be dumb enough to impose an income tax, but the Pacific Northwest is a bit crazy on these issues. Oregon voters, for instance, approved higher tax rates earlier this year.
2. Stopping eminent domain abuse in Nevada – This initiative is very simple. It stops the state from seizing private property if the intent is to transfer it to a private party (thus shutting the door that was opened by the Supreme Court’s reprehensible Kelo decision).
3. Marijuana legalization in California – Proponents of a more sensible approach to victimless crimes will closely watch this initiative to see whether Golden State voters will say yes to pot legalization, subject to local regulation.
4. Strengthen rights of gun owners in Kansas – If approved, this initiative would remove any ambiguity about whether individuals have the right to keep and bear arms.
5. Protecting health care freedom in Arizona – For all intents and purposes, this is a referendum on Obamacare. I’m hoping that it will pass overwhelmingly, thus giving a boost to the repeal campaign. There’s apparently a similar initiative in Oklahoma, but it hasn’t gotten as much attention.
6. Reducing benefits for bureaucrats in San Francisco – If one of the craziest, left-wing cities in America decides to require bureaucrats to make meaningful contributions to support their bloated pension and health benefits, that’s a sign that the gravy train may be in jeopardy for bureaucrats all across the nation.
7. Making it easier to increase government spending in California – The big spenders want to get rid of the two-thirds requirement in the state legislature to approve a budget. This would pave the way for even bigger government in a state that already is close to bankruptcy.
8. Reducing the sales tax in Massachusetts – The entire political establishment is fighting this proposal to roll back the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent, and pro-spending lobbies are pouring big money into a campaign against the initiative, so you know it must be a good idea.
9. Controlling benefits for bureaucrats in Louisiana – The initiative would require a two-thirds vote to approve any expansion of taxpayer-financed benefits for government employees.
[…] close today’s column with my predictions, but I’m going to continue my long-standing tradition (2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) of highlighting the year’s most important initiatives and […]
[…] column with my predictions, but I’m going to continue my long-standing tradition (2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) of highlighting the year’s most important initiatives […]
[…] years ago, I highlighted nine key state ballot initiatives and happily reported about a week later that voters generally chose to limit […]
[…] years ago, I highlighted nine key state ballot initiatives and happily reported about a week later that voters generally chose to limit […]
[…] years ago, I highlighted nine key state ballot initiatives and happily reported about a week later that voters generally chose to limit […]
Wow! Nice article. I like it. 😉
[…] week, I highlighted nine ballot initiatives that were worth watching because of their policy implications and/or their role is showing whether […]
CR clearly has never actually seen a review of the costs of a Chapter 40B project vis-a-vis a conventional subdivision. The truth of the matter is that Chapter 40B developments are generally revenue neutral or positive (mainly because the developers, seeking the path of least resistance, agree to restrict the number of bedrooms per unit, thereby reducing the number of school-aged children). Conventional subdivisions, on the other hand, are almost always revenue negative.
Furthermore, regulations have been put in place to prevent developers from using Chapter 40B to ram down conventional subdivisions. If a developer proposes a conventional development without any affordable housing, they cannot file a 40B application for one-year after that development has been withdrawn (including the end of all appeal periods).
Over-regulation is the main factor in the lack of affordable housing in Massachusetts. One way to address this would be to limit the ability of municipalities to restrict the development of housing. Somehow, I don’t think that CR would approve of this. The approach taken by Chapter 40B is to allow limited deregulation only in those communities which do not meet a certain percentage (10%) of deed-restricted affordable housing. There may be reasonable arguments against this approach, but claiming it is a big-government program is simply not true.
In Washington, many years ago we passed an initiative that would limit car tab fees to thirty dollars, today we pay fifty or more. We also passed initiatives in various forms that would require a two thirds majority vote to raise taxes, each time the initiative was overruled in court and just lately, overruled by our democrat controlled legislature! Property taxes are based on property value and should be down due to the failing real estate market, but no! My property value was assessed as increasing 23% even with no improvements and the fact that other places in my area that have managed to sell (very few) had to half their sale price and were lucky if they even broke even. The many houses that have remained permanently on the market haven’t sold because the owners don’t wish to take a huge loss on their investment. In other words, the county/state is over assessing values to bring in even more revenue, that would also be called stealing! I could go on and on but if you are foolish enough to think that our state government isn’t going to jack up your income tax, property taxes, sales taxes and other nefarious hidden taxes after passing I-1098, or that they will actually bend to the will of the voters on limiting taxes (hah) our sordid history proves that you are wrong! Oh, and by the way, have you seen how many exempt plated cars run around in our public employee plagued state? Gee whiz, I guess that we private sector folks get to pay for all of that and their overtaxed gas as well!
mbabbitt, if you don’t like the weather and the politics on the wet side, you could move to the dry side of the state. The weather is better over there, and progressives make up a much smaller percentage of the population.
The idea that Prop 19 will pose a roadblock to for-cause drug screening is ludicrous. If an employee is not performing up to standard, and drug use is suspected, the employer is well within their rights to test. It ain’t ‘discrimination’ if you’re falling down on the job.
As for not-for-cause testing, well, IMHO, there’s this little thing called the 4th Amendment…. Anyway, the employer could test for drug use, but couldn’t deny jobs to candidates who test positive for MJ. Plus, they could still kick people to the curb for use of other drugs.
I have a small business, and I don’t hire people who drink alcohol, FWIW. In our business, use of mood-modifying chemicals is allowed only if prescribed by a physician.
[…] Nine Key Ballot Initiatives to Watch While everyone is focused on whether Republicans will win control of the House and/or Senate, there are several issues […] […]
Paul obviously has not been to town meetings in which developers wave the specter of a 40B development in an effort to force through their developmental plans. Developers love the rule as it simplifies their planning and provides an end run around the objections of the “townies”. I have seen it up close and personal and it is not pretty. Also, the costs for increased services fall squarely on the towns (“affordable housing” yields heightened municipal expenses far above the increase in property tax revenue) which, effectively, makes 40B an unfunded mandate. Meanwhile, the ratio of affordable housing in MA is exactly where it was in 1967 when 40B passed which means that the law is a failure after a generation.
It needs to go.
I’ll second what Mike in Seattle says. The Bellevue and Redmond area just east of Seattle is blanketed with no on 1098 signs. I’ve seen or heard nothing in favor. The progressive core here is much smaller than it is in, say, the San Francisco Bay Area.
And east of the Cascades the measure should pull in approximately zero votes.
We’ve immortalized your list:
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Lists_and_commentary_about_2010_ballot_measures
Aren’t you missing the one ballot measure which truly has cosmic significance? That would be Initiative 300 (see http://www.extracampaign.org):
“Shall the voters for the City and County of Denver adopt an Initiated Ordinance to require the creation of an extraterrestrial affairs commission to help ensure the health, safety, and cultural awareness of Denver residents and visitors in relation to potential encounters or interactions with extraterrestrial intelligent beings or their vehicles, and fund such commission from grants, gifts and donations?”
The Washington Income Tax referendum is the third (at least) attempt at imposing the monstrosity in our state. I expect it to fail. Again. There is a die hard core of ‘progressives’ who keep pushing this nonsense, and they can’t handle the idea that most Washingtonians (both inside and outside of Pugetopia) realize that its a dumb plan.
Don’t fall for the scare tactics of those who wish to repeal Chapter 40B. The problem with affordable housing in Massachusetts is too much local control, resulting in some of the most restrictive land use controls in the country. Chapter 40B essentially is a targeted deregulation of restrictive local rules for the specific purpose of allowing the creation of additional affordable housing.
The bromide of Chapter 40B being an unfunded mandate is simply untrue. While Chapter 40B requires a “subsidy”, this is typically a subsidy in name only, and case law has ruled that the subsidy requirement need not be monetary. The vast majority of developers using Chapter 40B would greatly prefer the subsidy requirement to be eliminated. The real subsidy in Chapter 40B is the increase in density allowed by the statute, which allows the development itself to subsidize the affordable units. In other words, Chapter 40B lets the market create affordable housing by providing relief from restrictive local regulations.
Finally, the repeal is being pushed by a far left-wing zero population growth group.
It seems clear to me that Chapter 40B provides a market-based solution to a government based problem, and I continued to be baffled as to why my fellow conservatives in Massachusetts can’t see this fact.
Whoa, you got Nevada’s “Question 4” just backwards. After Kelo, in 2008 the people of Nevada passed an initiative to stop eminent domain abuse. (It is known as PISTOL: People’s Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land.) Since it is pretty strict, this new effort originated in the Nevada Legislature by business and government interests to weaken the current eminent domain protections. Passing this bad law will not stop eminent domain abuse; it will enable and encourage it.
Yes, I live in WA and the libs in King County are just die hard nuts — they love Jim McDermott and it is one of the places where Barack Obama can show his face and not hurt the Democrat candidates who are running this season; these people would enjoy cutting off their noses to spite their faces and not worry of the consequences. They are Zen Yoga Liberals. But this income tax may go a bit far even for them. (Sometimes I just hate it here in the NW where I moved to many years ago from the East Coast: too numerous drizzly, wet days with liberals who think they are the smartest, most advanced people on the planet. I used to be one of them — till 9/11)
You missed (or skipped) the WA initiative to reinstate the 3/5 legislative supermajority requirement for increasing taxes.
The original law was passed by voter initiative some years ago. The Dem controlled legislature repealled it last year. It’s not back on the ballot.
The income tax initiative is doomed. The more people find out about it, the less people like it. The clause allowing the legislature to extend it to everyone after 2 years is a killer and makes the initiative backers look two-faced. If they don’t mean for the tax to eventually be applied to everyone, why even put that in there?
How about the AZ proposition to get rid of Affirmative Action and racial quotas?
It’s disgusting that we even have to pass a proposition to make this practice illegal.
WA resident here. The only reason the income tax initiative has any chance of passing is its mendacious presentation. Not only will it soak the rich (yay!), but it will also knock a bit off of property and small business taxes. On the face of it, it’s in the personal best interests of a vast majority of the populace.
Of course, only an idiot would believe that the income tax won’t soon be extended to lower income brackets (a simple majority of the legislature can do so after 2 years), and that the other taxes won’t quiety rise again.
This is really a referendum on the critical thinking skills of WA residents.
The problem with CA’s Prop-19 “sensible approach to victimless crimes” is that it has language in it insisting that, “no person shall be discriminated against or denied any right or privilege” for pot use — that invites a lawsuit any and every time an employer tries to require a drug test or screening.
It’s written like a typical Identity-Politics measure, creating victimhood out of self-victimizing stoners.
[…] Show some initiative! Posted on October 27, 2010 by wormme Via the usual source, a roundup of noteworthy voter initiatives. […]
“If approved, this initiative would remove any ambiguity about whether individuals have the right to keep and bear arms.”
There IS NO ambiguity: the Second Amendment speaks clearly, without the possibility of anyone who is not brain-dead misunderstanding. Only those who seek to clamp down on liberty (criminals, politicians–sorry for the redundancy) see anything different.
Judging from the complete collapse in the use of good judgement, the bankrupt government of California repealed the non-victim crime of marijuana usage a long time ago.
In New Jersey, a constitutional amendment separating public employee retirement contributions and gains on those contributions from the state general funds, Keeps politicians hands off the funds and their gains. Also gives public employees assurance that their contributions are safe. That’s necessary as pension plans will probably be sharply modified, with employees forced to contribute.
How about you work out a Ballot Initiative that says that if any Judge overturns a Ballot Initiative approved by the voters, that that Judge immediately and automatically appears on the Ballot in the next scheduled Election under a recall or impeachment measure specifically targeting that particular Judge.
I’m voting YES on 1, 2 and 3.
Whatever the outcome, I’m confident that the legislature will continue to ignore the will of the people as they have in years past.
I should have included that this is a California measure.
There is also an initiative to suspend the insane cap and tax law passed a couple of years ago. The new proposition (23) would suspend the law until unemployment is 5.5 % or less. It is now 17% but the usual suspects are fighting this sensible measure and it may well lose. If Jerry Brown wins and it loses, California is lost.
Bunch, as usual, in FL:
Type Title Subject Description
LRCA Amendment 1 Campaign finance Repeal of the public financing of statewide candidates who agree to spending limits
LRCA Amendment 2 Taxes An additional homestead property tax exemption for members of the United States military or military reserves
CICA Amendment 4 Property rights Requires voter approval of all changes to local comprehensive land-use plans
CICA Amendment 5 Redistricting Amends the current practice of drawing legislative district boundaries
CICA Amendment 6 Redistricting Amends the current practice of drawing congressional district boundaries
LRCA Amendment 8 Education Changes the current “maximum” class sizes to school-wide “average” class sizes
Advisory Federal Budget Question Budgets Asks whether Congress should add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring a balanced federal budget
Another issue in Massachusetts is repeal of MGL 40B. This law allows a state committee to overrule local zoning and planning boards if a proposed development contains a sufficient proportion of “affordable housing”. This law has been used by unscrupulous developers as a bureaucratic cudgel with which to force development in towns against the will of local residents. Repeal would enable far greater local control over residential building within communities and remove a thus far unfunded and largely unsuccessful state mandate.