Labor Advocate’s Picks For KC August 5 Issues Ballot

by Bill Onasch

We don’t support any of the boss parties holding a Primary. But the “Issues Ballot” is chock full of measures that are bad news for the workers and farmers of Missouri, along with some just affecting Kansas City.

The five proposed amendments to the state Constitution were submitted by the state legislature very much dominated by ALEC and the Tea Party crowd. Some are strictly ideological, aiming to  usurp powers belonging to the Federal government they so passionately hate, such as Amendment 5 which would give the state supreme power in “protecting” us from any restrictions on guns.

Amendment 8, establishing a Veterans Lottery Ticket, combines a cheap political stunt to curry favor with vets while taking previously promised money away from another target in their sights–public schools.

Amendment 1 for the “right to farm” would essentially free AgriBusiness from any health, environmental, labor, or humanitarian restrictions and is strongly opposed by the Missouri Farm Union.

Constitutional Amendment 7 is a .75 percent Ten Year Sales Tax for Roads and Bridges. No doubt roads and bridges are in bad shape. The legislature chose not to increase fuel tax or fees for trucks but instead pile on more regressive sales tax falling hardest on working people and the poor. It does nothing to promote rail service that could relieve pressure on main highways and offers nil for urban mass transit.

Kansas City Question 1is Renewal of .25 percent Sales Tax Dedicated to the Fire Department.
This keeps an existing tax that would otherwise expire. While we should work to replace all sales tax with taxes on the corporations and the rich, we understand those who say we can’t risk short-changing our Fifefighters until we do.

Kansas City Question A–Transportation Development Tax District
This would establish a district encompassing all of the City south of the Missouri River–except for some silk stocking neighborhoods in the southwest–that would have to pay sales and property tax increases, to be voted on later, to support a development scheme to enrich business masquerading as a transit upgrade. It is in fact part of a broader plan by City Hall politicians to gut present unionized ATA transit service through outsourcing subsidies to private, non-union outfits--destroying middle class jobs. This isn’t the work of the Tea Party–most of those leading the union-busting attack are Democrats. For more details click here. We need transit expansion but this scam isn’t that.

Except for the continuation of the KC Fire Department tax, we strongly urge a No vote for all of the issues on the ballot.