Hey, maybe we should have a vote on whether emissions control checks should be implemented in some kind of pollution control district that encompasses both Ada and Canyon County. Do you think Ada County would be likely to do the same thing to their neighbors to the west — much like they “forced” them to locate a community college within the boundaries of 2C plate land? And that wouldn’t even require a property tax increase in either jurisdiction!

Why complain about Ada County forcing its vote down Canyon County’s throat when, crunching the numbers, 13% of the registered voters have forced 87% of the rest of the registered voters in the Treasure Valley to pay higher property taxes for a government school district? As a percentage of eligible voters, the Democratic Minority Rule drops down to about 5% of the adult population who can vote controlling 95% of the rest of us.

It seems the voting mechanism, a majority or super majority of those who showed up to vote determines the outcome, rather than a majority of super majority of those who are REGISTERED to vote, is in direct opposition to the concept of inherent individual rights in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The onus should not be on the NO voters to have to show up to continually protect themselves from the tax collector or from continual attempts at infringements upon their freedom of speech or freedom of religion or freedom of association but rather on the YES voters to show up as a majority or super majority of at least REGISTERED voters in a bond or tax election.

My right to retain my private property from confiscation by a minority of the population should be inviolate. I should not have to “discover” secret “special elections” by “special interest” Pub Ed lobbyists who know how to manipulate Idaho’s Absentee Ballot mechanism for their own purposes in order to continually protect my assets from socialist exterior decoration projects.

Clearly the political system is broken and legislation needs to be passed to prevent 5% or 10% of the population to “game” the system. The solution is not for more NO voters to show up to vote. The solution is that the NO voters shouldn’t have to show up to vote. The onus is on the YES voters to get a majority of REGISTERED voters to show up, not the other way around.

Otherwise, let’s just throw out the Bill of Rights which is founded upon the concept of protecting infrginements upon inalienable rights rather than the granting of special privileges. The Constitution is a “prohibiting” document, not a “granting” document.

Last Tuesday’s Community College election results are a direct violation of your private property rights in more ways than just Ada County voting Canyon County a property tax increase. Take it to its reductio ad absurdum and ask why 13% get to tax 87% of the population.

DT II

Hey Deepthroat: You either show up and vote for or against something or you don’t vote at all effectively removing yourself from participation. The people that didn’t vote obviously didn’t care enough make their voices heard and chose to allow others to make the decision for them.

If you had it your way we would never have an election on anything because not enough people would show up to the polls. I voted for the community college district because I feel it is important for our community and am willing, in this instance, to pay up. If people are complaining about this topic but didn’t bother to vote then I don’t really feel sorry for them.

To RiverCity:

You missed the point. We are discussing concepts RE how things ought to be, not how they currently are, which is history. If one wants change, one does not reiterate the status quo but rather comes up with new ideas. Stay on subject, which is: how and why we need to change Idaho’s voting procedure.

If one agrees that Democratic Majority Rule, according to some formula defining DMR, is a legitimate method of confiscating the property of others, then the recent Community College Absentee Ballot debacle may well point the way to a solution: vote by mail for everybody, as they do in Oregon. And since in Idaho one can register to vote at the polls, we should send vote by mail pamphlets not just to already registered voters but to all eligible voters. In this way, EVERYBODY gets to vote from home, not just those selected by a politically-targeted, well financed mailing campaign.

As for your “ends justifying the means” rationale in which you think robbery by voting is OK and it’s just tough luck for those who refuse to play Pirates of the Caribbean, you should re-think your moral epistemology that just because the politicians made it “legal,” that doesn’t make it morally correct.

DT II

Ed, I think that DH is the one that you need to be telling to relax. Whew, what a post. I don’t even know where to begin, so I won’t.

If the developers paid real impact fees, the bill to taxpayers would be less. Why shouldn’t new development help pay for the CC? Obviously they use the CC idea as a selling point for moving into their beige particle board ghetto cribs. Perhaps taxpayers could swallow the increase for civic amenities if the folks who benefit from the idea paid their share of the cost.
The “high paying jobs” training really frosts my dog butt, like welding. You are lucky to get $10-12.00/hr at a trailer factory or some other metal fab job here in the Treasure Valley. That’s a high paying job? I guess those workers will need cheap housing and a Wal*Mart nearby to survive. Oh, I almost forgot the lucrative, “prison guard” job training. How are CC students supposed to afford transportation and parking fees at the Meridian complex with the local price of gas?
Wouldn’t building a viable public transportation system make more sense than funding a CC? Now it will be harder to pass more tax levys to support public transit.

The name of the game is total non-representation of the people by local governments. Governments get as much tax payer monies from people as possible… using every trick in the book.

That’s fairly easy when a majority of people in Ada/Canyon don’t vote,don’t know or care who their Reps are and ,in their own words ” are proud of it.” Gerrymmandering special districts, creating one-party requirments for the primary’s, or turning your own Bureaucratic creation into a money wasting useless construction hole i.e. ” CCDC” is very easy in view of the above.