The Radical Voter Guide: Ballot Issues 2012

Secretary Of State Gant was apparently too lazy to get both for and against the ballot issues, but the Attorney General (under pressure from many) forced him to put a booklet together, which you can read online here. Note he still didn't get "con" for three of them.

2012 Ballot Questions Pamphlet (SD SOS site)

It's typical that our Governor and  one-part House and Senate don't believe opinions other than their own are important. Given that reality, the inability of SOS Gant to find the time to obtain opposing views to what the Pierre Political Class thinks is not surprising. We've grown to expect it.

Another reason to elect Democrats to the Legislature, no matter what your ideology: one-party rule leads to bad government.

But I digress. Let's get to it.




Constitutional Amendment M
Loosens laws controlling corporations, making them less accountable to shareholders. I vote no.

Constitutional Amendment N
 Legislators should get reasonable travel expenses, this will make it easier for middle-class folks to serve. I vote yes.

Constitutional Amendment O
A Yes vote will preserve the income from the fund for education. I vote yes.

Constitutional Amendment P
Stan Adelstein has passed more state budgets than anyone in Pierre. I trust him when he says P is a bad idea, especially since our state constitution already requires a balanced budget. I vote no.

Referred Law 14
This bill diverted funds from education and Medicaid to give a big checking account to unelected officials in the Governor's office to promote business. The problem is that this money is needed elsewhere. The way to bring business to South Dakota is not graft -- instead we should be improving our schools, colleges, and infrastructure, building cheap wind power, and stop having anti-woman and anti-science legislators in the national news scaring good people away from our state! This is massive corporate welfare, inviting corruption -- a really bad idea. I vote no.

Referred law 16
This law anti-teacher, especially elementary and music teachers. Only science and math teachers get extra $, and this is done by pitting teacher against each other based on their student's test scores -- this has been shown by studies not to work! Lots of good arguments against this at http://madvilletimes.com. I vote no!!!!

Initiated Measure 15
This is a very tough one -- a 1c sales tax to help pay for Medicare and K-12 education that the legislature didn't have the guts to pass, so it was passed along to the voters. However, if it passes, I think we are adding a regressive tax (harder on lower income people) -- just so matching proceeds can be cut from the General Fund by the Legislature and crow about how fiscally responsible they are. I vote no. This is hard one to decide though.

Comments?