Oregon ballot measures [View All]

1st, hope you all are planning on voting all the way down the ballot. Lots more at stake than President and Senator. Here's my take on the statewide ballot measures.

M56: YES, YES, YES! This will get rid of the hateful "double majority" clause that has allowed non-voters to kill a measure by NOT voting. Measure 56 simply allows other measures to be determined by the voters who actually vote. Hugely important. Vote YES then arm-twist your neighbor to vote YES.

M57: NO! Increases mandatory minimums for a wide range of crimes, reduces discretion of judges, and promises treatment for drug offenders with no provision for funding. NO!

M58: NO! NO! NO! In a nutshell, it kills the ESL programs in our schools that have been proven to help immigrant children learn English. Por que? Yo no conozco.

M59: NO! NO! NO! Another Bill Sizemore tax break for the wealthy. Would reduce state budget by about 2 billion$. Average break to richest 1%=$15,000. Average break to middle 50%=$1 that's right, one dollar break for most of us. Kill this bill.

M60: NO! We've killed this once, we need to kill it again. It's "performance pay" for teachers. Net effect will be that teachers in wealthy districts will be paid more than teachers in struggling districts. My mom was a teacher, she's spinning in her grave. It should be just the opposite.

M61: NO! NO! NO! NO!@#$%$&* way! One of the worst mandatory minimum bills I've EVER seen. This would explode the state budget, destroy the lives of relatively minor offenders, and has exactly zero provisions for drug treatment, mental health treatment, or education (all of which have been PROVEN to reduce both crime and recidivism). ps...it has no funding provisions, and could cost up to 2 billion per year. That does not include new prison construction that would be needeed.

M63: NO! Yet another loophole law for developers to circumvent environmental regulations.

M64: NO! NO! NO! This would hamper public employees or contractors ability to contribute to political campaigns, while doing nothing to control the huge influence of business PAC's. Yet one more attempt to stifle citizens at the expense of businesses.

So, in a nutshell, YES on 56, NO WAY IN HELL on every other statewide ballot measure.

That is all.
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Richard