Just a few observations about Oregon voters approving M 49 and defeating M 50 (which I’ll come back to later in more detail).
I find it ironic that the most populous portions of the state–Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Marion, Lane, and the People’s republic of Benton County passed Measure 49 because they didn’t want ticky tacky housing taking up the valuable farm land; plus they didn’t want Ma and Pa Kettle on the farm to build more than ten houses on their thousands of acres. Victoria, why is this ironic? Because in voting in favor of Measure 49, they have voted in favor of the very principles they supposedly abhor. The people who brought you M 49 are the VERY SAME PEOPLE (1000 Friends, Robert Liberty, Democratic Party) who required the Urban Growth Boundaries resulting in CRAMMING THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE TOGETHER in smaller and smaller spaces in these same counties. Those counties don’t like the very things they have just endorsed in this vote. Plus, if the urban growth boundaries are so sacrosanct, then why do these pro M 49 folks allow some of the most valuable farm land in the world (Tualatin Valley) to be covered in their ‘smart growth.”
The other irony that never seems to be brought up is the fact that the pro M 49ers talk about the millions of dollars it would take to refund land owners for taking value from their land. They never acknowledge that if they hadn’t taken the land owners’ land in the first place they wouldn’t have to pay it back.
By the way, not one STICK of housing, building etc has been built under M 37.
There will not be any commercial development allowed. Goodbye jobs, entrepreneurship, etc —unless the central planners allow it.
One more noteworthy mention: The ZERO, the ‘newspaper of record’ in these parts, admitted, finally, today that M 49 “gutted” M 37. Which goes to prove once again that the ZERO will tell you what it wants you to hear only when its politically efficacious for them to do so.
In Washington State, R 67 was passed. This bone to trial lawyers to require judges to assess lawyers fees (what lawyer has trouble getting paid from a settlement?) and to declare open season on insurance companies is just a plan for court gridlock. There’s no love lost for insurance companies, but looking at this on a macro scale, voters have just said yes to more lawsuits and hundreds of millions of dollars in premium increases when society should be going in the opposite direction of tort reform. It’s easy to hate insurance companies. That voters gave themselves what’s tantamount to a $200 price increase per year to stick it to–THEMSELVES–just proves it.
Elsewhere, to the right, is a picture of some Sierra Club guy smiling and hugging King County Executive Ron Sims. Why?
Sims, we thought, had seen the light on the wastefulness of light rail spending, its lack of flexibility and had come out against the largest tax increase in Washington State history. Now we know why. Those two are hugging because in defeating the light rail monies they also defeated building new roads and improving the old ones. (from the PI: King County Executive Ron Sims embraces Mike O’Brien, local chairman of the Sierra Club, which had been vocal in its opposition to Proposition 1 because it directed billions of dollars toward new roads. Sims also came out against the measure.) Oh…. cue Lucy and the Football.
This funding initiative was 5 years in the making.
Tim Eyman’s curb on tax increases, requiring 2/3 of the legislature to approve it before sticking it to the taxpayers is passing.