Daily Archive
Stories Posted on September 3, 2008
Cole Co. judge upholds tossing out petition signatures
Category: Eminent Domain · State: Missouri · Source: KWMU St. Louis
A Cole County judge has upheld Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's decision to toss out thousands of signatures on two eminent domain ballot petitions. Judge Richard Callahan ruled that petition circulators must be properly registered with the Secretary of State's office; otherwise, the signatures they collect cannot be counted. The decision affects around 4,300 signatures from the St. Louis area. Laura Egerdal is Communications Director for Carnahan. "You know, at this point, (the) statute is very clear that we are prohibited from accepting signatures that were collected by unregistered circulators," Egerdal said. Ron Calzone, who chairs the group Missouri Citizens for Property Rights, disagrees.
Drink tax is kept off ballot
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Allegheny County Board of Elections yesterday ruled that both referendum questions on the 10 percent drink tax should not be placed on the November ballot because they are illegal according to county and state law. In a ruling that seems to be a bigger blow to the restaurateurs and bar owners than it is to the county, the three judges temporarily serving as Board of Elections members unanimously declined to certify either ballot initiative. Bar and restaurant owners wanted to decrease the drink tax to 0.5 percent from 10 percent. The county wanted a referendum to offset a loss in drink tax revenues with a property tax increase. The county judges, appointed to replace the regular board members because of their public positions on both measures, cited established case law -- Hempfield School District v. Lancaster County -- to knock down the referendum petition by the group Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation, called FACT. FACT is composed of restaurateurs and bar owners who have opposed the drink tax since it was proposed together with a $2-a-day tax on car rentals to fund mass transit. It submitted 44,598 petition signatures to the county elections office last month in support of a ballot initiative to ask voters whether they want a reduction in the drink tax.