Meals tax
Kevin picked up on my post from yesterday about the proposed meals tax clearing its legislative hurdles to make it onto the ballot this fall.
I'll have a lot more to say about the tax itself as we get closer to Election Day.
For now i want to follow up a bit on the politics.
Dr. Lavonia Allison, head of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, made it crystal clear at the recent county Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting that DCABP would be opposing the tax on the ballot this fall. Floyd McKissick, who basically owes his seat in the State Senate to the group, has been instrumental in getting the referendum on the ballot for the fall. I'll be very curious, now that his work is basically done, to see how much energy he puts into its passage. I know there are regulations regarding how much an officeholder can say about a tax initiative*. But savvy politicians, of which Floyd is definitely one, know how to work around that.
Even more interesting will be Mayor Bill Bell's public pronouncements. At the same meeting, the mayor took great pains to remind those present that the action this week was merely to put the option on the ballot. He wasn't even sure he was going to vote in favor of it in November, he said.
Yeah, right.
Anyway, here's what i think is going to be a key issue. That's the actual, physical ballot itself. As we saw during the primaries, an awful lot of people are going to turn out in November to vote for Barack Obama in Durham County. Ballots in North Carolina have a curious feature. You can vote a straight party ticket. But not for president. You have to vote separately for the presidential candidate of your choice, even if you vote the party line. Thank the Dixiecrats in 1972 for that. They were afraid that too many Democratic Party line votes would go to George McGovern, so they separated the Presidential candidates from the rest of the party in order to allow more votes to go to George Wallace. And no one has ever gotten around to changing things back. So there are two worries. First is that a lot of people who come out to vote for Obama in November will not realize that they have to check a separate box for a party line vote, or for each individual candidate if they prefer. The second is that people voting the party line will not realize they have to also check a box to vote for Obama. Either way, the possibility of losing votes, either at the top of the ticket, or downballot, exists.
What does this have to do with the referendum? Well, that will be even further down the ballot, on the back most likely, after all of the "non-partisan" judge races. (That's a whole 'nother issue.) Lots of people are going to miss this on their ballot. The question is, will they be supporters or opponents of the tax.I'm pretty sure that in order to pass, a majority of those voting on the tax is needed, not a majority of those who vote in the county. In other words, lets say 125,000 people vote in Durham County, but only 85,000 of those actually check yes or no on the meals tax. 42,501 is the magic number, not 62,501. I'll confirm that with Mike Ashe at the Durham County BoE. But it adds a dimension to the campaign this fall that is likely to divide supporters of Obama and other Democratic candidates.
================
* The notion that elected officials who lobby to get a tax option on the ballot are then prohibited by law from speaking in favor of that option's passage seems to me, on its face, to be absurd. I wonder why no elected official has challenged this on First Amendment grounds?
I'll have a lot more to say about the tax itself as we get closer to Election Day.
For now i want to follow up a bit on the politics.
Dr. Lavonia Allison, head of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, made it crystal clear at the recent county Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting that DCABP would be opposing the tax on the ballot this fall. Floyd McKissick, who basically owes his seat in the State Senate to the group, has been instrumental in getting the referendum on the ballot for the fall. I'll be very curious, now that his work is basically done, to see how much energy he puts into its passage. I know there are regulations regarding how much an officeholder can say about a tax initiative*. But savvy politicians, of which Floyd is definitely one, know how to work around that.
Even more interesting will be Mayor Bill Bell's public pronouncements. At the same meeting, the mayor took great pains to remind those present that the action this week was merely to put the option on the ballot. He wasn't even sure he was going to vote in favor of it in November, he said.
Yeah, right.
Anyway, here's what i think is going to be a key issue. That's the actual, physical ballot itself. As we saw during the primaries, an awful lot of people are going to turn out in November to vote for Barack Obama in Durham County. Ballots in North Carolina have a curious feature. You can vote a straight party ticket. But not for president. You have to vote separately for the presidential candidate of your choice, even if you vote the party line. Thank the Dixiecrats in 1972 for that. They were afraid that too many Democratic Party line votes would go to George McGovern, so they separated the Presidential candidates from the rest of the party in order to allow more votes to go to George Wallace. And no one has ever gotten around to changing things back. So there are two worries. First is that a lot of people who come out to vote for Obama in November will not realize that they have to check a separate box for a party line vote, or for each individual candidate if they prefer. The second is that people voting the party line will not realize they have to also check a box to vote for Obama. Either way, the possibility of losing votes, either at the top of the ticket, or downballot, exists.
What does this have to do with the referendum? Well, that will be even further down the ballot, on the back most likely, after all of the "non-partisan" judge races. (That's a whole 'nother issue.) Lots of people are going to miss this on their ballot. The question is, will they be supporters or opponents of the tax.I'm pretty sure that in order to pass, a majority of those voting on the tax is needed, not a majority of those who vote in the county. In other words, lets say 125,000 people vote in Durham County, but only 85,000 of those actually check yes or no on the meals tax. 42,501 is the magic number, not 62,501. I'll confirm that with Mike Ashe at the Durham County BoE. But it adds a dimension to the campaign this fall that is likely to divide supporters of Obama and other Democratic candidates.
================
* The notion that elected officials who lobby to get a tax option on the ballot are then prohibited by law from speaking in favor of that option's passage seems to me, on its face, to be absurd. I wonder why no elected official has challenged this on First Amendment grounds?
Labels: 2008 elections, local politics
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3 Comments:
Elected officials are not under any restriction with regard to advocating for a referendum item. That only applies to government staff and the spending of taxpayer money. Bill, Floyd, Mike, et al. can say anything they like at any time in any forum.
By
Frank Hyman, at 5:39 PM
Thanks, Frank. i seem to remember our County Commissioners saying lat year that if they put the land transfer fee on the ballot that they wouldn't have been able to advocate for its passage.
By
Barry, at 8:56 PM
Barry, one of the few things I miss about voting in The Empire State (NY) is the visual symbols on the ballot for each political party.
I wonder if that was done to help less literate voters and union members?
It didn't do squat for the socialists or communists, though...
By
Tony, at 8:54 PM
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