As we hit the home stretch in the mid-term election campaign, the GUARDIAN position on preserving the right of citizens to vote as detailed by the constitution and the supreme court seems in jeopardy.
Editor-activist-blogger Dave Frazier has been labeled a GADFLY, ROTUND, ANTI-TAX MAVEN by media and proponents of three amendments on the ballot, HJR4,5, and 7. A church leader in Pocatello claimed Frazier was funded by business interests aiming to take away revenue generating entities from local government. All the major daily papers in the state have endorsed the measures, often repeating statements from proponents that minimize and distort the truth.
One editor told us with regard to HJR7, the Public Utilities Commission watches over city-owned power companies. The companies are EXEMPT from PUC scrutiny. Uninformed opinion.
Hospital ads favoring HJR4 talk about Washington interference, property tax rates, and preserving your right to vote with a “yes” on HJR4. They are simply not true and none of the media will check it out or report the truth.
HJR5 makes claims of jobs, economic prosperity and the website raises the specter of a National Guard and BLM without bases to from which to operate without approval. Absurd.
We will all lose if the amendments pass
Voters do not need to vote on every debt issue. I am happy to give up my right to vote on these three areas and defer to those calling the shots.
ReplyDeleteMr. Frazier has done a disservice with the 2006 Frazier v. Boise. Government should be able to go into debt without our voting on all issues of debt.
Anonymous commenter,
ReplyDeleteYou are misinformed. According to the Idaho Constitution, Article VIII, Section 3, a two-thirds assent vote of the people or judicial confirmation is required only when "...any indebtedness, or liability, in any manner, or for any purpose, exceeding in that year, the income and revenue provided for it for such year ..."is to be incurred.
"Judicial confirmation" statutorily prescribes the process for determining what meets the "ordinary and necessary" provision of the Constitution.
The Frazier decision, if I recall correctly, also clarified "ordinary and necessary". It is not a determination left up to elected officials to determine what is or is not "ordinary and necessary".
ReplyDeleteThat clarification is what nailed the Canyon County Commissioners in their purchase of the Jerome property and the Supreme Court decision granting access by all citizens to Article 8 section 3. in Koch v. Canyon County.
These two decisions made it clear voters have a constitutional right to affirm long term debt. Now we have the merchants of debt trying amend the constitution so they can go back to business as usual and bypass voters and consensus building with the electorate.
The result of all this is banks, and bond underwriters are skittish about giving money to just any government entity (except Urbarn Renewal agencies) without voter approvals.
Here's a portion of a comment left on the Boise Guardian by "KAPPA TA" a journalist in the print media..
ReplyDelete"For media outlets to endorse amendments that rob voters of their constitutional rights doesn’t wash. The proposed amendments to the Idaho Constitution are bad for Idaho in its struggle to hold the line on government spending and to help the state recover from the current economic crisis.
We need to FOCUS on JOBS for ALL Idahoans and on improving this state’s nationwide laughable reputation and its low standings on quality of life issues, such as personal income.
Please consider the overlooked Tenth Amendment, which states:
The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791.[1] The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution’s principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted to the federal government nor prohibited to the states by the Constitution of the United States are reserved to the states or the people.
The Idaho Constitution prohibits spending public monies without voter approval. The Idaho Supreme Court upheld voter rights in the FRAZIER LAW."
Looks like big government wins again. We are doomed
ReplyDelete