What Else Are You Voting On?

Hoping Prop 30 passes here in CA as otherwise my wife (HS teacher) is going to get stuck with unpaid furlough days.

My sister works for the state supreme court. She has already taken a 10% cut in pay and managed to avoid “retirement” the last two years thanks to others volunteering.

77: You missed the Oregon version of the NDAA. At least they put in a 30 day limit for disaster spending but I’m not buying it, giving the governor that much power. Read the rules they put in for a quorum. Real easy for either party to lock out the other and vote something in. The bit about letting the state go into debt was even better.

79: Voted Yes. Part of my stop potential new taxes mantra.

80: Voted Yes, though almost no because it does create a gov monopoly like the state liquor stores. Go full legalization or go home and no I don’t partake. Though I do enjoy being lambasted by anti-pot folks (from both political sides no less) who drink regularly and call me a teetotaler because I rarely drink alcohol. Yet, I’m a pot head for daring to open my eyes to reality.

82/83: No, for so many reasons. I’d vote yes to help end Indian/State gambling monoply but the laws were badly written. Why should the rest of the state have a say on a Portland casino being built and vice versa.

84: Voted Yes. Make the state stick to a budget. Reform PERS.

85: This will probably pass and within 4-6 years they’ll be going after the individual kicker. Same thing as before, make the state gov stick to its budget. Rainy day funds are a joke because government in general likes to spend all it has. Saving and politicians don’t mix. This one also goes to the general fund and not necessarily to schools.

The state is pushing Prop 30 as being all for the schools but there is nothing in the proposition that requires the money go to schools. Try thinking about how many times your state has passed bills or whatever to help fund the schools and then try to think of where that money has gone and what good it did. California lottery money was designated 100% to the schools, so what does the legislature do, they reduce the school budget to match the amount of money the lottery brings in. That’s how states do it.

I threw pot heads a bone and voted to legalize the reefers.

Props 1 2 & 3 for Idaho all devoted to ‘education reform’ or essentially attacking teachers’ unions and lowering their pay or ability to assume they’ll have work from one year to the next. Hell no.

Some confusing measure to change control over felony probation and parole. Nah.

And the one laughable one wanting an amendment to the state constitution showing that Idahoans have an innate right to hunt, fish and trap. Nopers.

haha, he said Idahoans. :)

Can’t make me any more ashamed to live here than I already am. Ha.

Ugh. Not so fast. R-74: 57% against so far in early count. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Bah, I saw that. Sucks. But it’s still early, yes?

Yes! NBC has called I-502 already as passed.

R74 numbers have flipped as Seattle ballots get added. 53% approved.

Prop 30 is losing by a hair here in CA. WTF, do people hate schools?

If Prop 30 fails then the state will make $6B in reductions to meet the budget, almost entirely from the education system. If 30 passes, then the cuts will not need to be made.

If Prop 30 fails and Prop 38 passes then the cuts are still made - I thought 38 might save the cuts but apparently not.

I think it’s more that people don’t understand that $6B is already going to be slashed from the educational system unless Prop 30 passes.

Well, so far with about half the vote in, Prop 30 is very narrowly winning, 51-49. I got my rally hat on, let’s go Prop 30!

32 and 33 are losing, yay. But the death penalty repeal is also losing. On the upside, the three strikes reform is getting a 69% of the vote. Good news!

Prop 37 is going down, like I thought. And I guess the word got about Prop 40, to vote yes instead of no, and that’s winning handily.

Go go Prop 30!

All the props ended up the way I voted, save for 34, which is a bummer. No one who has ever committed a crime has been deterred by a death penalty.

Every single one of the Michigan referendums failed, which means I’m fairly happy - I voted no on all but #1. The loss of the Emergency Manager law means we’re going to have a lot more wrangling over what to do about financially failing localities, but that’s a minor thing compared to the mess we’d be in if any of the others passed.

Also, I didn’t get to vote on this one, but nearby Grand Rapids passed a marijuana decriminalization proposal.

Wooo!

Question 1 actually received a majority of votes. But the proposal for a constitutional ban on a state income tax needed a two-thirds majority to pass, and it received 57 percent of the vote.

Question 2, dealing with separation of powers and administrating rules at the state Supreme Court, also failed to get the two-thirds support it needed.

Prop 30 made it! Whew.

Also, propositions are a terrible way to govern a state of 38m. Can we please stop this shit someday?

Yaaayy!

And wouldn’t stopping this shit require throwing out our state constitution and starting again? That’s how a lawyer friend explained it to me.