Daily Archive
Stories Posted on September 12, 2008
Ballot measures the Mackinac Center would support
Category: Government Accountablilty · State: Michigan · Source: Detroit Free Press
The Michigan Supreme Court ruling that keeps the Reform Michigan Government Now proposal off the ballot has focused attention on the ballot measure process itself. RMGN — rejected by the court for technical reasons — was extraordinarily bad public policy, but that doesn’t mean citizen-led initiatives are bad. The right ballot measures would let voters bypass legislators who are unwilling or unable to fix Michigan’s urgent problems. Here are eight ballot measures that would each offer voters a single, honest, straightforward opportunity to fix the fundamentals. A Right-to-Work Measure. A right-to-work law means that employers cannot agree to fire a worker for not supporting a union. While unions would retain their monopoly bargaining status, right-to-work protection would be a sure step toward workplace fairness and state economic recovery. From 2002 to 2007, Michigan lost 5% of its jobs while the 22 right-to-work states increased their payrolls by 9%. State Spending Limitation. Allow state spending to increase, but only in proportion to growth in population and inflation. If a version of this plan had been in effect, it would have returned about $8 billion to Michigan taxpayers between 1995-2007 and built a $2.5 billion rainy day fund. Universal Education Tax Credit. This option would leave intact the constitutional prohibition on vouchers while allowing parents to choose the safest and best public or private schools for their children. The tax credit would be available for income earners, property owners and businesses that support the education of a child attending the school of his or her choice. The credit would be limited to half of the state’s per-pupil spending allotment, which we estimated would have saved the state’s School Aid Fund more than $500 million in the 10 years prior to 2008.
Washington Supremes Put Error-Filled Initiative Back On Ballot
Category: Corruption · State: Washington · Source: Blockbuster Democracy
An initiative to boost training for long-term health care workers has been put back on the ballot by the Washington State Supreme Court. The initiative is sponsored by the nation's largest union, the Service Employees International Union, as part of a strategy of organizing such health care aides. The idea is that by requiring training and imposing other regulation of such aides, the union can leverage government influence to convince such aides to join the union.
Payday-lending foes will get another crack at killing referendum
Category: Property Rights · State: Ohio · Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
A group campaigning to keep a new payday lending law intact will get another opportunity to try to get an industry-backed referendum booted from the November ballot. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she will appoint a hearing officer to decide whether consultants hired to collect signatures to get the payday lending measure on the ballot properly filed the petitions with her office. If they did not, Brunner could invalidate the signatures and strip the referendum from the ballot. Her decision is expected by Sept. 25. The referendum seeks to repeal a law capping interest payday lenders can charge on loans at 28 percent and revert to previous practice, which allowed the lenders to charge rates and fees that amount to a 391 annual percentage rate.
Eyman wins court battle with county over ballot issue
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Washington · Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Fresh from a court victory Thursday, initiatives guru Tim Eyman predicted defeat in November for a ballot proposal he opposes that would make it harder to amend the King County charter by initiative. "They just put a stake in the heart of this thing," Eyman said. "There's no way the voters will vote for this now." The measure -- itself a charter amendment -- would double the number of signatures that initiative backers need to collect to bring proposed charter amendments before voters for ratification, raising the total from a number equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the previous election for county executive to 20 percent. But the ballot wording chosen by county officials to describe the measure didn't say the requirement would be increased: It would have simply asked voters if they wanted to adopt a new amendment procedure with a 20 percent signature threshold.