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It’s that time of Year- Voter Guide Review
By Lt. Ripley | October 7, 2008
Aside from explaining many important things about voting, such as bringing your ID, the Secretary of State for Montana 2008 Voter guide gives definitions of each party along with detailing several ballot initiatives.
I’m going to give a brief synopsis of each of the initiatives along with our own MT Pundit opinion.
C-44
This one is about giving the option of investing “up to 25% of of all public funds presently restricted to fixed income investments to be invested in private corporate capital stock.”
From the Proponents-
Through the vote of the people our Constitution has already been amended to allow investments in private corporate capital stock for many of our state funds, generating greater investment returns. This amendment to the Constitution would give us the opportunity to grow all of our investments with existing tax dollars. C-44 adds another tool to the toolbox of investing. This tool allows 0% to 25% of our trust funds to be invested in equities.
The opponent’s main message seems to be that 1) voters have turned this down in the past, and 2) not every Montanan invests in the stock market. Aside from those being asinine arguments, even looking at the current crisis, you can look at it that investing up to 25% isn’t a very large percentage to put at “risk”, and the fact that there are other state accounts currently taking advantage of this and saving at a higher rate.
So, check FOR here. Next…
Legislative Referendum No. 118 (LR-118)
So the University system needs more of your money and we’re being asked to fund it to the tune of 6 mills. What happened to that huge surplus from last session? Why are we being asked to raise our taxes in order to fund this when the State has large amounts of money sitting around? Until these questions are answered to my satisfaction, I’m going to have to turn this one down.
And if you need another reason, the Montana Shooting Sports Association “is urging taxpayers to ’send a message’ to the University System that its gun policies make campuses ‘dangerous victim disarmament zones.’ “
So, check AGAINST here. Next…
Initiative No. 155 (I-155)
Here we’re being told that there’s a current crisis in “lack of healthcare” available to families and children. They’re attempting to pull at our heart strings by telling us tragic stories of sick children and poor, pitiful families. The truth is that this Initiative is an an effort to EXPAND coverage to middle class families and older children. Notice that in the text, they speak about encouraging enrollment. The bill on this initiative is estimated at 20 million, though with health care, this is often grossly underestimated.
So why not? Well, for starters (from the opponents)-
Uninsured middle-class kids are not the biggest problem that Montana faces.
By anyone’s measure the escalating cost of treating unhealthy and chronically ill adults is a much bigger concern. I-155 directs your money to our health care system in a way that has little impact on the treatment of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and strokes are the largest and fastest growing drivers of increased health care costs in this country. Seventy-five cents of every dollar spent in this country on health care goes to treat people with chronic diseases.
In case that wasn’t enough (also from the opponents)-
The problem with the opposition’s argument is that the “children” covered can be up to 25
years of age, and the family can make over $50,000 a year.
So some potential unintended consequences to this initiative include but are not limited to- parents removing themselves from more expensive private care in order to take advantage of state care and abuses due to lax income and age limitations.
And I’m just going to add that though not every child may be insured, that does not mean there are no health care options for those parents. Clinics offer reasonable rates to those lacking means, and the health department will provide immunizations nearly for free. No health insurance does NOT equal no health care.
So check AGAINST here.
Topics: Economy, Elections, Healthcare, Blogosphere, Media, Education, Randomness, Montana |
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October 8th, 2008 at 9:45 am
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