What is the most important bill your local jurisdiction needs a vote on?
 

Outside of a president, what bills and or propostions are coming up in your local area for you to decide on?

In MD, the slots issue is coming up once again. In Prince Georges county there is a bill that is coming that could drastically increase taxes on cellular phones.

I hear in Californina that Proposition 8 will determine whether LGBT people will be able to marry.

What's important in your area?

There's going to be a vote in CT on whether or not to have a Constitutional Convention. As far as I know, that will be the only question on the ballot, beyond the votes for President and state reps.

ETA: The Convention would be on this issue, regarding direct voter initiatives: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...,5613287.story

In Florida, there's a proposition to define marriage as existing between one man and one woman. There's also another initiative to allow the state to prevent illegal immigrants from owning or inheriting property.

Our biggies are:

Proposal 1: To legalize marijuana for medical use

And we have a really big one that has generated tons of bizarre ads against it...

Proposal 2:
A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO ADDRESS HUMAN EMBRYO AND HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH IN MICHIGAN

The proposed constitutional amendment would:

* Expand use of human embryos for any research permitted under federal law subject to the following limits: the embryos –

– are created for fertility treatment purposes;

– are not suitable for implantation or are in excess of clinical needs;

– would be discarded unless used for research;

– were donated by the person seeking fertility treatment.

* Provide that stem cells cannot be taken from human embryos more than 14 days after cell division begins.
* Prohibit any person from selling or purchasing human embryos for stem cell research.
* Prohibit state and local laws that prevent, restrict or discourage stem cell research, future therapies and cures.


I bolded the part that has some people worried, even those who are all for continued embryonic stem cell research. Even *I* have concerns about that last line. I'm honestly not sure what to do about that one.

The ads against it are ridiculous though. One ad talks about how much money this will cost tax payers (for the research, apparently). One shows office buildings with names like EmbryoPro and stuff, as if there will be embryo factories as a result of this being passed. Another talks about how someone could merge human and animal embryos and they show someone raising their "hoof" in an audience.

what state is this for?

Michigan

Seeing as it is a "A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO ADDRESS HUMAN EMBRYO AND HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH IN MICHIGAN," I'm going to guess Nebraska or Florida. :D

Even when AGDee's location says "Michigan"? :p

I'm glad I live somewhere that voter propositions don't go on the ballot. No constitutional amendments or bond referenda this year.

I think we have about the most worthless Constitutional Amendment I've ever seen up on the ballot this go-round.

Section 36. A. All citizens of this state shall have an inherent right to engage in hunting, trapping, fishing, and taking game and fish, free of state laws which explicitly or implicitly effectively prohibit the ability of citizens to engage in such activities. Hunting, trapping, fishing and the taking of game and fish are a valued part of our heritage and will forever be preserved for the people. The Wildlife Conservation Commission shall be vested with the power and authority to approve methods, practices and procedures for hunting, trapping, fishing and the taking of game and fish.
B. Nothing in this section shall:
1. Be construed to prohibit reasonable regulation of the hunting, trapping, fishing and taking of game and fish; or
2. Operate to repeal or invalidate any laws or rules in existence on the effective date of its adoption.

Oh, that's soooooooo 2004. ;)

Wait - uhhh, so it basically prevents a ban of hunting, but cedes the (likely already extant) right to regulate?

So, like . . . status quo?

we have a couple of issues in ohio this year - mostly money related

the first is whether or not to approve a resort casino and the other is whether or not to impose limits on check cashing/payday loan businesses (time periods, percentage rates, and amounts loaned)

eek. as for the resort casino, the proposition is so loosely worded that i wonder how its even on the ballot (there are like NO regulations mentioned) and the payday loan concept is a little iffy to me as well - some people use them responsibilty and some people don't.

- m

I'm really not sure what their aim was... our legislature is filled with a bunch of minimally educated numbnuts who generally dance to the beat of the lobbyists' drum.

My guess here is that a pro-hunting group proposed this, perhaps as a means to preempt any anti-hunting animal rights legislation proposals. Maybe they felt the need to fire an opening salvo in the legislative battle that doesn't exist.

So yeah... like... status quo.

Did I mention just how very much I hate all but a handful of my legislators? These guys are bona fide morons. Rednecks and Bible thumpers all around. Thank God we have a governor who is smart enough to veto the unconstitutional crap which comes out of that body.

Just yesterday, there was a news article on Yahoo about the use of fat cells to develop into brain cells. I knew I should have copied it! When you think of the amount of liposuction going on (or should be done), you could have enough fat cells for several Einsteins!

And DS, FWIW, we've had slots here for little over a year. The rise in the number of compulsive gamblers has gone through the roof in that time.

Is it a proposition (offered for a vote from the legislature), or an initiative (offered for a vote from private citizens)?

We always have plenty of interesting things on our ballots up here, but this election is a big one for us. Not only are we voting for president and governor (the same two candidates that were only separated by about 150 votes six years ago), but we're also voting on a "Death with Dignity" initiative similar to what Oregon has. There's also an initiative from a guy who's made it his mission to take down any tax in our state.

Oh, and we had a trapping initiative or proposition several years ago in Washington. Most types of trapping are illegal now here.

couldn't find that article either but studies have been going on for a LOoooonnnnng while....


As far as slots are...look at it like this,,,it is money coming from 2 ends...you spend it to play and then your insurance spends it to wean you from playing....

This comes from the legislature. We do have the initiative petition, but we don't have any of those this time 'round.

The next ballot should be interesting. We have something called the "HOPE" Act. Something which would force the legislature to appropriate about $1,100+more per pupil in our schools than they presently are, i.e., raise funding from ~$6,900 per student to the regional average which rings up at ~$8,000 per student.

That, coupled with a current on-the-books part of the Oklahoma Constitution which requires a vote of the people to raise taxes should lead our state government into instant fiscal disaster.

Should be fun to watch!

Issue 6 - A casino down by Dayton -- can't tell which side is lying
Issue 5 - Limiting how much interest Pay Day lenders can charge -- VOTE YES, OHIOANS!!!!

I'm curious about this casino prop/initiative. What is it they're asking the voters to decide? We have sooo many casinos here due to all of the indian reservations, but I've never seen anything up for vote on them before.

Indian casinos are - I think - legal everywhere since they are considered to be on land belonging to the Indian nation and not technically part of the state. To have casinos on non-Indian land you have to either legalize casino-style gambling in your state overall or pass an exception for that specific place (or type of place if you're voting to allow slot machines at horse/dog tracks or something).

CB: I believe that for Indian Casinos to be legal, the tribes have to compact with the state. While the states don't usually exercise direct regulatory authority, they usually have as a contractual obligation of the compact the payment of certain taxes and fees (which is fair because the casinos take a helluvalot of infrastructure to get going.

I know that there's at least one casino in southern Oklahoma which is currently raking in huge profits because Texas hasn't compacted with its tribes.

Another interesting thing the tribes can do is buy regular land, i.e., a downtown city block, and deed it into a certain kind of trust administered by the feds. That has the effect of making that land the same as tribal land.

In Oklahoma City right now, a landless tribe, the Shawnee I think, bought a very well-situated piece of land right off of I-35, between Edmond and Oklahoma City (Edmond, being a suburb to the north of OKC, generally a pretty well-off place). They've been trying to deed that land into a trust so that they can build a HUGE resort/casino, complete with a performance hall, bowling alley, casinos, hotel, etc. Very controversial stuff.

Ooh, not that people weren't motivated to vote already, but both those are doing to drive people to the polls. The first always gets the evangelicals out.

It will be interesting to see how they go with what's expected to be a big turn out. Maybe it will moderate the vote.

Could they at least name this amendment after the SNL Mother-humping Moose?

You'd probably have to come up here to understand, but we've got casinos right next to the freeways in all the major metropolitan areas and in all the major cities' limits. The tribes run them, but as far as I know, the land is no longer owned by the tribes. Some are little casinos, some are big resort casinos.

Like in many other places, there is a marriage protection amendment. I plan to vote NO on it.

Found it! Stem Cells From Fat Create Beating Heart Cells.

"Melbourne scientists recently discovered that stem cells isolated from human fat could be made to turn into beating heart muscle cells when cultured with rat heart cells...."

That is incorrect. The Narragansett Indian Tribe can't open up a casino on their land.