Doing my civic duty

With November 4th not too far off the ads for Question 1, 2, and 3 are everywhere! I actually have an opinion about all of them and I’ll tell you right now how I’m voting.

First, here are the actual questions on the Massachusetts ballot for 2008:

1. State Personal Income Tax
2. Possession of Marijuana
3. Dog Racing

State Personal Income Tax:

This proposed law would reduce the state personal income tax rate to 2.65% for all categories of taxable income for the tax year beginning on or after January 1, 2009, and would eliminate the tax for all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2010.

Reducing and then eliminating the state income tax makes no sense to me. Our public services would suffer drastically. Police, fire, schools, roadway maintenance would all suffer as they rely on this money. The state of Massachusetts would lose more than 12 billion dollars. I’d like to know how you can make up for a 12 billion dollar deficit.

Possession of Marijuana:

This proposed law would replace the criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, to be enforced by issuing citations, and would exclude information regarding this civil offense from the state's criminal record information system. Offenders age 18 or older would be subject to forfeiture of the marijuana plus a civil penalty of $100. Offenders under the age of 18 would be subject to the same forfeiture and, if they complete a drug awareness program within one year of the offense, the same $100 penalty.

My basic thinking regarding this is I’d rather have room in jails for people who really need to be there. I also don’t see how you can view smoking pot any worse than drinking. So I say if you have one legal they should both be legal or both be illegal (I like my beer and don’t like cough syrup so please let’s not do that). This proposed law is not making pot legal it is decriminalizing it if it’s under a certain amount. If you’re under 18 they fine you and send you to a program about the dangers of substance abuse and make you do community service. I don’t think this proposed law will turn everyone into Cheech and Chong.

Dog Racing:

This proposed law would prohibit any dog racing or racing meeting in Massachusetts where any form of betting or wagering on the speed or ability of dogs occurs.

I just don’t believe in racing animals period. It seems the opponents to Question 3’s main argument is that people will lose jobs. Everyday I read the metro and there’s an ad with sad people saying “don’t take our jobs”. Can we put that next to a picture of a sad dog saying “don’t take my life or injure me for money!”

So there are my thoughts. You probably don’t care if you’re not voting in Massachusetts but I actually do care about these issues and well what better place to pimp out your opinion than on the interenets.