Ballot could be littered with pocketbook votes
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State House News Service: Voters beset by the worst recession in decades and smacked with a variety of new taxes are turning to the 2010 ballot for several different ways to reverse Beacon Hill wallet grabs - measures that, if successful, would leave state government gasping for funds. Proposed questions filed by Wednesday's deadline and with a shot at making the November 2010 ballot include a safeguard for local aid to cities and towns, the lifting of state caps on charter schools, sales tax rollbacks, eliminated turnpike tolls, and a repeal of the recently enacted alcohol sales tax. Another topic mired in fiscal complexities - guaranteed access to quality health care - was also filed in the form of a constitutional amendment.
Questions were also filed to authorize secret ballots for the election of the House Speaker and Senate President, to mandate "whale-safe" fishing practices, prohibiting the "commercial harvesting of wood in land owned by the Department of Conservation and Recreation," banning the use of state funds for energy projects that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, limiting carbon emissions, legalizing and taxing Internet poker, and a petition to guarantee human rights in Massachusetts should the country ever enter into a "global federal union." The pocketbook-issue pattern of the changes to state law pushed by a variety of interest groups reflects larger discontent with the state's economic and jobs picture and government's reaction to the recession. Unemployment here hit 8.6 percent in June and the state is down more than 100,000 jobs from a year ago. Taxes and fees have surged, while local aid, health care programs, and a broad menu of other popular state services have seen cuts. Unlike the most recent round of ballot questions, which sought to change or reverse long-standing state government policies in areas like marijuana possession and dog racing, the slate of proposals aimed at the 2010 ballot are largely reactionary or complementary measures to recent Beacon Hill developments, including elevated tax rates, a push from Gov. Deval Patrick toward more charter schools, and deep slices into municipal funding.
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