My View on Colorado's Ballot Initiatives.

I'm voting NO all but one ballot measure. Here's a brief rundown of why:

-Amendment 46: Banning Affirmative Action. My vote: NO
I'd be all for getting rid of any kind of racial preferences or quotas as I think they wind up hurting those that they are intended to help. This is not, however, something I'm particularly passionate about. If this bill passes it will most likely mean a long court battle culminating in the Supremes declining to hear it, having already ruled in the University of Michigan case, and the state will have spent a lot of taxpayer money in the meantime.

-Amendment 47: "Right to Work". My vote: NO
I don't believe the state should be allowed to tell unions and businesses what kind of agreements they can or cannot enter into.

-Amendment 48: Redefine "Person" to Refer to Any Fertilized Egg. My vote: NO
In my view this goes way to far, not just banning abortion but perhaps birth control, stem cell research, etc. Also, this will likely be struck down by the courts after a long, expensive battle as being in conflict with federal law. Couple this with the fact that we are about to elect a president who is somewhere to the left of Kruschev on this issue, and clearly believes in more control by the central government (I'm going by actions here, since his actions and words do not match each other on this issue).

-Amendment 49: Allowable Paycheck Deductions. My vote: NO
This one is intended to weaken the unions of public employees. I'm against this one because it can be argued that unions are even more necessary to public employees than those in the private sector since the government often faces no competition for the services it provides. This makes it more necessary for the employees to have a strong organization on their side. It's not like firefighters, police officers, etc. can go work for a competitor (not without relocating anyway).

-Amendment 50: Raising the Stakes Limits in Colorado's Gambling Towns. My vote: YES
I view gambling and lotteries as taxes on the poor and the ignorant, for the most part. This amendment will raise the betting limit on blackjack and other table games from $5 to $100 (There are other provisions, but all minor issues). If people want to lose their money faster, I'm all for it. The extra revenue will go to community colleges and the towns themselves, so it's win-win as long as people keep going up there to lose.

-Amendment 51: Raise Sales Taxes to Help the Developmentally Disabled. My vote: NO
I feel kind of like a heartless bastard on this one. However I'm used to it because one of the more fun things about being a conservative is being treated like you are evil (Nazi, racist, imperialist, etc.). Some people can't handle this but I enjoy it, particularly because of the absurdity of the claims, i.e. checking identities is racist, less government spending is racist, every other policy I support makes me morally equivalent to past practitioners of genocide, you get the idea. The real reason I am voting against this is in favor of a county measure just like this one, and voting for both would be a larger increase than I'd favor. The county measure is a bigger increase but goes towards public safety and a new jail. As long as there are people who need to be locked up, I will support funding the facilities needed to do so.

-Amendment 52: Using Severance Tax Revenues for Highways. My vote: NO
This is a detailed measure that would shift money to highways from other areas. There are about 5 or 6 pages of details that don't hold my attention. For that reason, and because it could lead to less flexibility in spending, I'm voting no.

-Amendment 54: Limiting Contributions from Government Contractors. My vote: NO
Why single out one group of corrupt political contributors?

-Amendment 58: Severance Taxes on the Oil and Natural Gas Industry. My vote: NO
This one would raise taxes on people customers of the oil and natural gas industry. It says it will raise them on the companies, but those taxes (just like all business taxes) will be paid by the customers. Since I don't view the prices as being too low right now, I am voting no.

-Amendment 59: Education Funding and TABOR Rebates. My vote: NO
Again, I'm evil so I have to vote against education and for tax rebates. I agree TABOR has been a major disappointment, but one thing that annoys me lately is the unwillingness of some to call a tax increase a tax increase. The preferred euphemisms are "end tax breaks" ,or "close the loophole", or whatever phrase is most useful to obfuscate what is really happening. This amendment would raise taxes by not giving taxpayers rebates, but would use the money on education (P-12) spending. So, combining the tax increase factor with the bad wording of the amendment, I can't vote in favor of it.