Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Election Day Observations
In Texas we have constitutional amendments proposed to us all the time. For example, one of the more recent ones was an amendment to define marraige which I voted against, but this post is not about the pros and cons of that issue.
We had another 11 amendments proposed to us today which will undoubtedly pass; all seemed basically unnecessary to me.
The highlight is Proposition 11 which is an attempt to restrict the government's eminent domain or the right to buy your property and turn it into a highway offramp. They have always been able to do this but recently eminent domain has been stretched to include property that could improve urban areas and increase tax revenue for the state. So in some situations around the country, they have been able to force grandma to sell her house so they could gentrify the neighborhood and open an Anthropology next to a Starbucks because that improves tax revenue etc.
Well the Proposition proposed to us was supposed to prevent such property seizure by private enterprise, but they included some deliberately flexible language that allows certain organizations to essentially seize property:
"entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination of urban blight"
This is troublesome and even my friends at the Libertarian party of Texas, who would normally be all over limiting eminent domain, couldn't make up their minds about it. (I would paste a link in here, but every attempt I've made to paste in this post has simply done nothing?)
I chose to vote for Prop 11, thinking that some regulation on this sensitive topic is probably better than none. At least some claims will be thrown out immediately and someone's property will be protected.
I chose not to vote on 2 other propositions (3 and 5) that seemed written in such a way that no one could possibly understand their intent unless they were standing on the floor of the legislature helping to write them. I don't use this internet abbreviation lightly when I type - WTF!
I went with the Libertarian recommendations on most of the propositions, but split from them on Prop 7. Call me paranoid of military dictator overlords, but I think that if you're in the military you should retire before you run for elected office.
There was one item on the ballot other than the 11 amendments and even though I was a political science major and am actively interested in local politics, I still don't really know what the school board does. I mean, I know they make decisions about the budget appropriated to them and probably sanction texbooks as well as appoint the superintendant, but how am I supposed to choose who would be best at that job? The shool board election is a bit of a political 'foot in the door,' and the job would probably be done better by an actual career educator.
I did not cast a vote for School Board.
Also, I'm running for Dallas School Board next year
Not really
We had another 11 amendments proposed to us today which will undoubtedly pass; all seemed basically unnecessary to me.
The highlight is Proposition 11 which is an attempt to restrict the government's eminent domain or the right to buy your property and turn it into a highway offramp. They have always been able to do this but recently eminent domain has been stretched to include property that could improve urban areas and increase tax revenue for the state. So in some situations around the country, they have been able to force grandma to sell her house so they could gentrify the neighborhood and open an Anthropology next to a Starbucks because that improves tax revenue etc.
Well the Proposition proposed to us was supposed to prevent such property seizure by private enterprise, but they included some deliberately flexible language that allows certain organizations to essentially seize property:
"entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination of urban blight"
This is troublesome and even my friends at the Libertarian party of Texas, who would normally be all over limiting eminent domain, couldn't make up their minds about it. (I would paste a link in here, but every attempt I've made to paste in this post has simply done nothing?)
I chose to vote for Prop 11, thinking that some regulation on this sensitive topic is probably better than none. At least some claims will be thrown out immediately and someone's property will be protected.
I chose not to vote on 2 other propositions (3 and 5) that seemed written in such a way that no one could possibly understand their intent unless they were standing on the floor of the legislature helping to write them. I don't use this internet abbreviation lightly when I type - WTF!
I went with the Libertarian recommendations on most of the propositions, but split from them on Prop 7. Call me paranoid of military dictator overlords, but I think that if you're in the military you should retire before you run for elected office.
There was one item on the ballot other than the 11 amendments and even though I was a political science major and am actively interested in local politics, I still don't really know what the school board does. I mean, I know they make decisions about the budget appropriated to them and probably sanction texbooks as well as appoint the superintendant, but how am I supposed to choose who would be best at that job? The shool board election is a bit of a political 'foot in the door,' and the job would probably be done better by an actual career educator.
I did not cast a vote for School Board.
Also, I'm running for Dallas School Board next year
Not really
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The proposed constitutional amendments along with Libertarian recommendations - http://tinyurl.com/yf8wbr6
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