Constitutional amendment to free the weed in Michigan

[Virgil]

The process to get an inaiative on the ballot on November 2nd to amend the Constitution of Michigan to free the weed has begun. This will require 318,000 signitures to make it to the ballot where a majority of voters are needed for its passage.

You can count on this story not be reported in the advertising papers in Michigan that are deceptive enough to call themselves news papers. This is news and the informational blockade is there to keep news like this out. They need volunteers and people to take to the messageboards and break the informational blockade. Here is the homepage- http://www.apublicservice.com/index.html The link to the words of the petition is on that page- http://www.apublicservice.com/The%20Petition.htm

[Lefty48197]

1. Of all the stupid things we waste money on in this country

prosecuting marijuana users has to be the stupidest.

[RoeBear]

5. Wonders never cease...

...I agree with you. :hug:

[1a2b3c]

2. Michigan is living in a dream world.

Although the inititive process is the way to go, i am sure that some politician would figure out a backdoor scheme to shut this down even after it passes. Washington had a car tab inititive that passed easily but it was also easily shut down by the money hungry politicians. Good luck Michigan.

[Virgil]

3. Not really

This is a no bones about it withdrawal from enforcing prohibition on the state level. The federal government could still do their arresting that over steps their constititutional powers before the 10th amendment can push them back.

This iniantive to amend the Constitution would mean the state drops out of prohibition. It would be the highest law of the state- the Constitution.

How did the USG ever get so wound up over laughing grass? It is reefer madness.

[Dolomite]

4. One would hope...

...that the politicians that don't have the cajones to introduce something like this on their respective legislative floors, but still see the idiocy of marijuana prohibition clearly for what it is, would use this as a vehicle to get some common sense laws on the books.

It's a start.

[iverglas]

6. idly curious as I am

I wondered what a "car tab" is, and what Washington's "car tab initiative" might have been.

So I asked Google. The very first thing I got (from 1999):

http://www.researchcouncil.org/Briefs/1999/PB99-12/30CarTabInitiative.htm

$30 Car Tab Initiative Threatens Highway Improvements, Handcuffs State and Local Governments

Initiative 695, dubbed by its authors the "$30 Car Tab Initiative," does two things, both unreasonable. First, it repeals the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET), replacing it with a single $30 license tab. Second, it makes every tax and fee increase – state and local – subject to voter approval.

In other words, it would gut transportation investment and impose an asinine restraint on representative government. Backers of I-695 are gathering signatures now.

Huh. What's this researchcouncil.org?

http://www.researchcouncil.org/home.htm ... a quick browse ... some pretty heavy corporate hitters on that board, but not an obviously politically right-wing front. Need some more info ...

http://www.mrsc.org/subjects/finance/695/articles/ap721.aspx

The plan would reduce the state car-tab tax to a flat $30 a year per vehicle, rather than the current 2.2 percent of the vehicle's value. It would apply to cars, pickup trucks, motorcycles, sports utility vehicles and RVs, including motor homes.

Besides the tax cut of more than $1 billion in every two-year budget period, the measure includes a sweeping provision for a public vote on all state and local tax and fee increases.

... The tax cut would amount to more than $500 million a year, cutting money that goes for highway construction, local government criminal justice budgets, transit, and other programs.

Hmm. The principle doesn't seem too bizarre -- there's a flat annual vehicle licensing fee here in Ontario -- but the fact that it isn't revenue-neutral (surely it could easily be?), and in fact would have the effects referred to ... well, one can't help but wonder whether those aren't the actual intended effects, and the real reason for the initiative. Cutting a half-billion dollars from money available for spending on highway construction, criminal justice, transit and other programs; hamstringing elected governments in their spending decisions -- parts of a traditional Democratic agenda?

http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/Misc/PNMooneyInitiatives2002-13.html

The second major change this initiative would make is to eliminate Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs). An RTA is an agency approved by the voters in a defined area to collect additional taxes for the purpose of providing high capacity transportation service. Initiative 776 would eliminate taxes that fund RTAs and repeal the provision in state law that allows voters to create new RTAs.

... Initiative 776 would end much of the funding for Sound Transit, which would most likely result in the elimination of the agency. It would also end the ability of voters in other parts of the state to create new RTAs.

Hmm. Eliminate public transit / funding. Now that sounds pretty Democratic to me ...

http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/aboutus.html -- kinda a small-time right-wing think tank, it seems.

In any event: http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2003/02/10/daily8.html

Initiative 776, the statewide car-tab initiative passed by voters in November, addressed two separate subjects, rendering it unconstitutional and unenforceable, according to a ruling by King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu.

Sponsors said the initiative's single purpose was to lower taxes and fees collected on car tabs to $30, but Yu said in her decision that language in the initiative also encouraged a revote on Sound Transit's controversial Link Light Rail project, violating the state's single-subject initiative rule. The light-rail project gets some of its funding from a fee above the normal $30 collected on car tabs in the central Puget Sound counties of King, Snohomish and Pierce.

... Initiative 776 was the second $30 car-tab initiative passed by voters in general elections; and the second to be ruled unconstitutional for violating the single-subject rule.

Is it accurate to say that something ruled unconstitutional by a court was "shut down by the money hungry politicians"?

One individual's perspective: http://students.washington.edu/ruckus/vol-3/issue-1/i695.html

The "yes" campaign claims that I-695 is a tax cut for the "little guy," and that the loss of $7 billion in state revenue won¹t affect you at all. But the "yes" crowd is living in a fantasy world. To bring everyone back down to earth, here are five sobering reasons to vote "no" on I-695:

--I-695 is a huge tax break for the wealthy.
I-695 kills one of the only progressive taxes in Washington state. ...

--I-695 will choke our roads.
In addition to funding badly needed road improvements, the MVET also funds transit and ferries, thus providing alternatives to the automobile. ...

--I-695 is environmentally unsound.
One of the targets of I-695 is the $2 per vehicle Clean Air Excise Tax, which generates almost half of the state's air quality funding. Also, as transit service is reduced, more people will be driving, ...

--I-695 hurts local government.
Some of the MVET revenue goes to local governments for public health and safety, criminal justice, and sales tax equalization. I-695 will eliminate this funding. ...

--I-695 could increase your tuition bill.
Interestingly, I-695 has two exceptions to the "vote on everything" requirement: criminal and civil fines, and higher education tuition. ...

Tsk. The Washington State Labour Council didn't mince its words: http://www.wslc.org/reports/Rep-0205.htm

The WSLC Executive Board has previously voted to oppose two other initiatives now in the signature-gathering phase: I-776 is yet another effort by discredited anti-tax profiteer Tim Eyman and his company to reduce car-tab fees, this time targeting for repeal all local-option vehicle excise taxes.

Goodness, I'm learning all about state politics in far-flung places ...

http://www.bushbacklash.com/NewFiles/seapol.html

This is the heart and soul of the Republican. It is all about money...for themselves. It is about screwing people. Tim Eyman is only different in that he admitted it.

This guy was the adored child of every Republican in the region, they ALL loved him, and they are all just like him. They don't belong in a position of policy making for the population. They should have a seat at the table, but no more.

Huh again. That car-tab thingy just isn't sounding like a Democratic thingy at all.

And from this brief review, I just can't see this initiative being one that *I* would support. And I can't quite see what connection it might have to a campaign to stop enforcing prohibitions against marijuana (something I would support).

But I guess I should get back to work.

.