Growls

Most people know the American people voted last Tuesday for the presidential candidate who promised “hope and change.” Less well know, however, are the many “ballot issues” that were on ballot all across the nation. According to the National Taxpayers Union, their analysis shows “voters often chose prudent stability -- not radical change - when it came to matters affecting their pocketbooks.” NTU reports that:

“At the state and local level, election results likewise revealed no sudden enthusiasm for a new wave of tax-and-spend policies. Measures to abolish the income tax in Massachusetts and reduce income tax rates in North Dakota were soundly defeated, but in Colorado voters upheld the strictest tax and expenditure limit in the country. Known as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), the law holds the growth of taxes and spending to the annual change in inflation and population, refunds excesses to taxpayers, and requires voter approval for higher taxes. NTU and its allies faced at least a 20 to 1 funding disadvantage against teacher unions and several business interests who backed a measure to gut TABOR, but prevailed when voters rejected the harmful changes to TABOR by a 55 percent-45 percent margin.”

A few more examples, according to NTU include:

• Arizonans defeated a proposal to require consent from a majority of registered voters in an affected locality -- not just a majority of those showing up at the polls -- to enact a tax hike. However, they passed a measure that will permanently ban the imposition of any transfer tax on property such as homes.
• Minnesotans gave the nod to a 3/8-cent sales tax increase for outdoors and arts programs, but Coloradans nixed a 2/10-cent sales tax hike for aid to the developmentally disabled.
• In Florida, citizens gave a thumbs-down to a plan that would have provided cities and counties greater latitude to propose local-option sales taxes. More than halfway across the country, Nevadans said "no" to allowing the state to make changes to sales and use tax laws without prior voter consent.
• Taxes that officials thought were easier to "sell" proved not to be. In Maine, a measure to repeal taxes on alcoholic and other beverages that helped fund the state's health care program passed by a 2 to 1 margin. A major hike in Colorado's severance taxes on oil and natural gas, designed to stoke resentment over energy firms' profits, failed overwhelmingly at the polls.
• Although bond issues on state ballots tended to pass, there were some notable close calls for high-speed rail in California, for libraries in New Mexico, and for water sanitation in Maine. A $5 billion plan for renewable energy projects actually lost by a wide margin in California.
  

Guess one can say there is not as much hope for change as the Left would like to think.