07/31/2014 - 20:39 Please remember to vote this Tuesday Aug 5th and pull a Libertarian ballot. If you have trouble obtaining a Libertarian ballot, please contact us [email protected] or call 877-868-3487. There are five proposed amendments to the Missouri Constitution on the August 5th Primary Ballot. All of these proposed amendments came from the legislature, not from direct citizen petitioners. See article on How Stuff Gets on the Ballot at LPMO.org. Information on the proposed amendments and the Missouri LPs positions on each one follow. To view the ballot language for all amendments, with links to the full text of each amendment as it would appear in the Constitution, go here: sos.mo.gov/elections/2014ballot/ NO No. 1 The right to farm amendment. The Missouri LP is opposed to this amendment. See full article with ballot language at LPMO.org YES No. 5 The gun rights amendment. The Missouri LP is in favor of this amendment. This proposed amendment states that the Missouri Constitution shall be amended to include a declaration that the right to keep and bear arms is a(n) unalienable right and that the state government is obligated to uphold that right. If passed, this amendment will give Missouri the strongest constitutional gun rights of all the states, and in principle it would prevent Missouri from submitting to federal laws that are more restrictive. Both of these are good things. And as for the clause about felons and mentally ill people, with this amendment, the individual will in principle get due process, versus the current situation wherein decisions can be unilaterally made by a doctor. Whether this amendment will make these benefits actually happen in reality is another matter, weve seen political grandstanding and pandering politicians before. However, some good folks were behind this, and skepticism on motives aside, we can support measures that are a step in the right direction. NO No. 7 The road tax amendment. The Missouri LP is opposed to this amendment. This proposed amendment states that a ten-year temporary sales tax of 0.75% shall be enacted solely for the benefit of the Missouri Dept of Transportation. Libertarians opposed to a tax, whod a thought? J Irrespective of if one thinks that government should be in charge of roads, and if so, does MO DOT really need more money, or do they need to use what they have more effectively, there are many reasons for concern about this amendment. We have learned from our friends at Drone Free St Louis, that $4MM of this tax is slated for a camera monitoring surveillance center in the St Louis Police Dept HQ . While MO DOT would like voters to believe this is all for repairing roads and bridges, we are confident this is not an isolated expenditure for surveillance activity as part of this new tax. In the full language, one finds that were allowing the money to be used for public transportation facilities such as, but not limited to, aviation, mass transportation, transportation for elderly and handicapped persons, railroads, ports, waterborne commerce, intermodal connections, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements. Although this is called temporary, there is a provision to automatically put it to a vote every ten years, so it will be in effect until voted down. And why does a ten year tax hike to pay for roads belong in the Constitution? If MoDOT feels they need more money, they should make that case to the Legislature. The Legislature is in the position to study the numbers and take money from general revenues to pay for special projects or put a gas tax increase to the voters if the revenue stream provided by gas taxes is insufficient for the general maintenance of the highway system. Its not good enough to simply make the claim were using less gas so MoDOT needs more money for ten years. If you were around in 1992, you may remember a 15-year plan that accompanied a 6 cent tax increase. It isnt hard to find editorials on the unsatisfactory results of that plan. See a related article on this topic at LPMO.org. Neutral No. 8 The veterans lottery amendment The Missouri LP does not take a position on this amendment. The proposed amendment creates a Veterans Lottery Ticket with the proceeds used to pay for projects and services related to veterans. The sales of these tickets could detract from the sales of existing tickets which allegedly fund education. Libertarians generally are opposed to the government being in the gambling business and monopolizing it, and to laws restricting gambling, and to government having more money in general. As a way to extract funds, however, the fact that it is voluntary makes it a cut above taxes, or at the national level, the Fed printing money and robbing us through inflation. As far as how the proceeds are used, we are generally disgusted by the class and intergenerational warfare that is created by government taking our money and then deciding how to divvy it up. At least this way, if you actually trust what they do with the money, you can direct it to an extent through which type of tickets one purchases. If this passes, we would expect more proposed lottery tickets for other interest groups. YES No. 9 The electronic privacy amendment The Missouri LP is in favor of this amendment. This proposed amendment states that the Missouri Constitution shall be amended so that the people shall be secure in their electronic communications and data from unreasonable searches and seizures as they are now likewise secure in their persons, homes, papers and effects. In the big brother on steroids era we now live in, an amendment to the Missouri Constitution on electronic privacy is certainly in order. Hopefully this will be more than symbolic political grandstanding. Government will rob us of liberty to the exact degree that we the people let them. Words on a piece of paper cant protect us if we are not vigilant in holding the state accountable to those words. If politicians voluntarily obeyed constitutions, we wouldnt be living under the largest and most intrusive state apparatus in history.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 01:55:19 +0000
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