From the Mind of Trevor Stone

I'm in favor of Amendment 50, except for this clause: "require statewide voter approval for any gaming tax increase if new gaming limits are adopted by any gaming town." What the hell is this supposed to be? We need a statewide referendum if one little casino town wants to increase taxes by 1/10th of a percent? Seems like the casinos are trying to sneak through bullshit, packed up with other stuff I support. If this clause did not exist, I would support this one. With the clause, down it goes.

I'm a little more conservative than you are with respect to Amendment 51. It's not that I don't feel bad for retarded people, and I do think we as a society have a responsibility to take care of them. I just think this is the wrong way to do it - feels like a special interest handout. Also, I don't like that it's a sales tax. If someone came to me and said, "Care to bump our state income tax $30/yr to help the retarded?" then I'd say "hell yes." But sales taxes are regressive as they disproportionally tax people of lower income. Good idea, bad implementation.


And just to say it again, as so many people have before, Amendment 48 is madness. It would define ectopic pregnancies as legal people. Meaning, saving the life of the mother would be equivalent to murder. I'm half expecting these idiots to put a measure on the next ballot giving sperm person-hood...