There is one amendment on the Nov. 7 ballot. I am appealing to you to vote NO.
It is bad government to put such a poorly crafted amendment into the constitution. It is far better to return the topic to the state legislature for clarification and the passage of legislation that clearly will address the issue. The topic does not require an amendment. The only reason the amendment is on the ballot is the governor and the legislature were at political loggerheads and couldn't agree on governmental priorities last year. Send it back to them for another try, perhaps with a new governor.
The issue? Transportation or mass transit, road construction and repairs. The amendment says "up to 60 percent" but no more of the tax money in question can be used for road construction, and it could be 0 percent. A minimum of "40 percent", but up to 100 percent of the funds could go to mass transit, probably most of it to the two biggest cities in the state. Confusing? Unclear? Why lock this mess into the constitution?
Transportation already receives all the gas tax money and all the license plate tab/registration money. Now people want to siphon off all the sales tax money received from the sale of motor vehicles. Currently almost half of that money is allotted to the general fund which is used for the critical purposes of schools, law enforcement, health care, and other necessary governmental purposes. The legislature has allocated the other half of that sales tax to transportation.
The amendment doesn't indicate how the general purpose needs would be addressed if the money now used for them were directed to transportation. We cannot let our schools and other human services suffer further loss of funding. Send the issue back to the legislature and governor to resolve. Don't settle for such a flawed constitutional amendment which will be difficult, if not impossible, to change. Vote no. Don't get us into the mess like a big state on the west coast by starting to govern by amendment. Continue government by legislation.
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Jim Mahler
