Missouri Prop 2

[Wayne SW/MO]

Should anyone be allowed to buy an amendment to the state constitution

it is what our system is based on and the reason, originally, for separation of church and state, which was to protect special interest groups, namely religions other than the Church of England.

As long as they can only bring the desire to a vote, it still is working within the framework of the founders.

There are often complaints brought about "Special Interest Groups", but all voters belong to that as soon as they find someone with a like agenda.

[hank franklin]

Lilley, the initiative petition process is relatively new in Missouri. IIRC, only about half of the states allow it. I too am thinking it might not be such a good idea anymore. Either that, or the criteria to qualify needs to be made more strict (i. e. require many more signatures than are required now).

The effect of the initiative petition process we have now is to let the hard and difficult issues up to voters, via initiative petition, and not the legislature. The cigarette tax is the best example. By all "best practices" definitions, Missouri's cigarette tax should be higher. Not 80 cents, but certainly more than 17 cents. Missouri has serious health care needs that can't be funded without a tax increase. Many of those needs are due to smoking. Taxing cigarettes makes sense to fund that.

The problem is, no one in the legislature has the gonads to make the hard but sensible choice to raise cigarette taxes. I guarandamntee you a lot of politicians will vote for this in the privacy of the ballot box. But they'll keep singing the no taxes tune publicly. That's BS.

I think the 80 cents a pack proposal is outrageous by the way. But if I'm one of the petition backers, why not? If you have to go to the trouble of putting the thing on the ballot, why not shoot high?

So you've got bad law in the Legislature, which refuses to deal with it, and you got bad law in the initiative petition process, which doesn't lend itself to being particularly sensible.

[crappiefisherman]

I voted ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,can we talk about fish now?

[Wayne SW/MO]

I voted ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,can we talk about fish now?

I agree Crappie.

The discussion did bring up a lot of arguments both ways, so after the smoke clears, people will be able to judge the merits of the voters decision.

[gonefishin]

Works for me. I would rather talk about fishing anyway. Crappie or Redear pereffered. Trout is what a person fishes for when nothing else is biting.

[crappiefisherman]

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont type that outload

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont type that outload

[Phil Lilley]

The vote was closer than I thought it would be. And I didn't think it would follow the senate's race so closely. I didn't think they campaigned that strong on the issue.