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by Free Market Duck

Idaho Voters Asked to Vote Away Their Rights to Vote…Huh?

Oct 04, 2010

Boise, ID – Ya-yess, girl friends, you read that right.  Pull up the floor and pour yourselves another hot cup of Rocket Java.  The Idaho state legislature passed three constitutional amendments to be voted upon at the Nov 2, 2010 elections.

   All three constitutional amendments are requesting that the people of Idaho go to the polls and – believe it or not -- vote to repeal their right to vote on future public indebtedness.  That’s right, girl friends.  You are cleverly being asked to shoot yourself in your own pocketbook and fork over as much money as public airports, public hospitals, and public power facilities feel like spending for whatever the current Flavor of the Day happens to strike their fancy, including:

Amendment HJR5 -- acquiring, constructing, installing, or equipping land, facilities, buildings, projects or other property for public state and regional airports,

Amendment HJR4 – authorization of public hospitals to purchase, contract, lease or construct or otherwise acquire facilities, equipment, technology and real property,

Amendment HJR7 -- acquiring, constructing, installing and equipping electric generating, transmission and distribution facilities for the purpose of supplying electricity and to purchase, share, exchange or transmit wholesale electricity.

   In Idaho, unlike in states like California, the people cannot initiate constitutional amendments.  They must start in the state legislature.  Which they did.  In the last Idaho legislative session, special interest groups and politicians who hate the constitutional requirement of asking the voters to vote for long term public expenditures, introduced and passed the following three amendments, which essentially ask you to go kill yourself, financially speaking.  Are we really that stupid?  I don’t know.

   To help you decipher the following three ridiculous amendments which were written in an extinct Lower Slobovian dialect of the Greek-Serbian language, we summarize each amendment in regular “street talk,” sometimes adding some spice for emphasis because the wording of these three albatrosses is so abstruse you couldn’t decipher it with the Rosetta Stone, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary for Dummies, or an IBM mainframe.

   Hint:  to vote against voting your rights away, simply vote “NO” on each of the following three amendments.  Print this out, stick it up on your refrigerator and take it with you to the polls on Nov 2 so you can be reminded to vote “Uh-Uh, Like Hell No, Dude.”

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TEXT FOR THE 2010 ELECTIONS

HJR 5  AIRPORTS

“Shall Article VIII, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho be amended by the addition of a New Section 3E, to provide for the issuance of revenue and special facility bonds by political subdivisions of the state and regional airport authorities as defined by law, if operating an airport to acquire, construct, install, and equip land, facilities, buildings, projects or other property, which are hereby deemed to be for a public purpose, to be financed for, or to be leased, sold or otherwise disposed of to persons, associations or corporations, or to be held by the subdivision or regional airport authority, and may in the manner prescribed by law issue revenue and special facility bonds to finance the costs thereof; provided that any such bonds shall be payable solely from fees, charges, rents, payments, grants, or any other revenues derived from the airport or any of its facilities, structures, systems, or projects, or from any land, facilities, buildings, projects or other property financed by such bonds, and shall not be secured by the full faith and credit or the taxing power of the subdivision or regional airport authority?”

In Street Talk, “Yo, dummy voters, you wanna vote to allow the public airports to spend your life savings and go into debt without ever ever ever asking you if it’s OK?”

HJR 4  HOSPITALS

“Shall Section 3C, Article VIII, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho be amended to authorize public hospitals, ancillary to their operations and in furtherance of health care needs in their service areas, to incur indebtedness or liability to purchase, contract, lease or construct or otherwise acquire facilities, equipment, technology and real property for health care operations, provided that no ad valorem tax revenues shall be used for such activities?”

In Street Talk, “Yo, dummy voters, you wanna vote to allow the public hospitals to spend your life savings and go into debt without ever ever ever asking you if it’s OK?”

HJR7  POWER CITIES AMENDMENT

“Shall Article VIII, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho be amended by the addition of a New Section 3D to provide that any city owning a municipal electric system may:

(a) acquire, construct, install and equip electric generating, transmission and distribution facilities for the purpose of supplying electricity to customers located within the service area of each system established by law and for the purpose of paying the cost thereof, may issue revenue bonds with the assent of a majority of the qualified electors voting at an election held as provided by law; and

(b) incur indebtedness or liability under agreements to purchase, share, exchange or transmit wholesale electricity for the use and benefit of customers located within such service area; provided that any revenue bonds, indebtedness or liability shall be payable solely from the rates, charges or revenues derived from the municipal electric system and shall not be secured by the full faith and creditor the taxing power of the city, the state or any political subdivision?”

In Street Talk, “Yo, dummy voters, you wanna vote to allow the public power companies to spend your life savings and go into debt without ever ever ever asking you if it’s OK?” – FM Duck

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