Wild Cards on the Ballots

Referendums on taxes, gay rights and smoking

Disc Jockey Dave Willlford suggested on radio station WBSM in New Bedford, Mass., that his listeners should march on city hall to protest recent increases in property taxes that in some cases amounted to 100%. Last week about 4,000 angry taxpayers mobbed the city's downtown for four hours, scrambling up scaffolding at the city hall, clambering on top of the mayor's limousine and waving signs reading DON'T PAY TAXES! Despite two arrests, the demonstrators refused to disperse until Mayor John Markey appeared at a second-floor window and said he sympathized with them but could do nothing. The crowd soundly booed the mayor, and then went home.

New Bedford's spontaneous protest was fresh evidence of the depth of Americans' anger at taxes--and a sign of how far normally peaceable citizens are willing to go to make their feelings known. On Election Day, Nov. 7, voters across the country will have an opportunity to take matters into their own hands--not by storming government buildings but by voting on tax referendums in 16 states. In Massachusetts, for example, the voters will have their say on Question 1, which would give the state legislature authority to create a classification system for property taxes. It would limit assessments of residential property to 40% of market value, while allowing commercial property to be assessed at 50% and industrial property at 55%. Proponents claim that the change would help protect homeowners in the future from steep tax increases like those experienced in New Bedford.

Nor are the referendums in this election limited to taxes. Increasingly, voters are resorting to ballot questions to vent their frustrations on a wide variety of issues. This year more than 200 referendums will appear on 38 state ballots. Georgia alone will have 36 constitutional amendments on its ballot. In addition, there will be an uncounted number of local ballot questions around the country, such as the votes in 45 counties in Kansas on whether restaurants may serve liquor by the drink. Among the most significant statewide referendums are these:

>Californians face two highly controversial proposals. One would prohibit smoking in most work areas', lounges, cafeterias, sports arenas, theaters and certain areas of bars and restaurants. The proposal has pitted the American Cancer Society and the California Medical Association against the cigarette companies, which fear that the restrictions would cause their sales to drop. The other ballot proposition would require the firing of public school teachers who happen to be practicing homosexuals. The proposal is backed by groups like the Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs' Association and the California Farm Bureau, but is opposed by an unusual coalition of civil liberties organizations and conservatives, including former Governor Ronald Reagan and Senator S.I. Hayakawa, who feels that "so many laws already exist." Polls indicate that public opinion is evenly split on both propositions.

>Miami-area voters will cast ballots on a proposal in favor of homosexuals' rights, 17 months after Singer Anita Bryant led a noisy and successful campaign to defeat a similar referendum. This time, however, backers have dressed up the question as a "full-equality ordinance" that includes prohibitions of discrimination against pregnant women, veterans, students, Hispanics and the handicapped as well as homosexuals. The proposition's chances are rated fifty-fifty. Not so for a second issue on the Florida ballot, which would permit casino gambling on the state's economically troubled gold coast. Hotel owners have bankrolled a million-dollar campaign in its favor, but Governor Reubin Askew has mounted a sort of holy war against the proposition, arguing that gambling would attract organized crime. Polls show public sentiment to be running 2 to 1 against the proposal.

>Alaskans will decide whether the state should give 30 million acres of land to residents. Under the proposition, 40 acres would go to those who have lived in Alaska for three years, 80 acres for five years' residence and 160 acres for a decade or more.

>Oklahomans will vote on whether to ask the legislature to set mandatory minimum sentences for people convicted of their third felonies. There is virtually no opposition to the initiative, and it is expected to pass handily.

>North Dakotans will decide whether they want state officials to limit health-care costs, which nationally have been increasing at about 14% a year, far above the general inflation rate of 7.2%. Chances for passage looked good, until Blue Cross-Blue Shield began campaigning against the proposition. Opponents argue that it would discourage doctors and nurses from coming into the state.

>South Dakotans will vote on an initiative that would reverse the normal practice of giving heavy users of gas and electricity, like industrial consumers, lower rates. Instead, the biggest commercial customers would pay higher rates. At the same time, a minimum "lifeline" rate would be established for the nonaffluent residential consumer so that his basic gas and electricity needs would not soar beyond his ability to pay. The proposal is being pushed by a regional group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

>South Carolinians, concerned about keeping the state's AAA credit rating, will vote on whether to require the legislature to set aside 5% of each year's tax revenues for a reserve against debt. Proponents call the reserve, which would amount to about $63 million this year, a rainy-day fund, while opponents regard it as a slush fund that could be used by spendthrift legislators to underwrite pork-barrel public works projects. The proposition's chances are rated as a tossup.

In many states, the referendums are arousing more interest from voters than the races for public office. A poll in Michigan found that 62% of the voters thought several complicated tax propositions were the most important items on the ballot; only 18% gave top priority to the gubernatorial race. But the Michigan referendums are wild cards in the political deck --as is often the case in other states. The Michigan tax questions are so widely misunderstood (one expert's analysis showed that only persons with college-level reading skills understand them) that the League of Women Voters and the Detroit Free Press have urged their defeat.

Still, the idea of allowing citizens to bypass foot-dragging legislatures on controversial issues has become so popular that there is a movement to apply the referendum approach to the national level as well. A group called Initiative America is campaigning this year in a red, white and blue school bus up and down the East Coast, urging local politicians to support a constitutional amendment that would permit proposed laws to be submitted to a nationwide vote if petitions are signed by 3% of the voters in ten states. The amendment could give special-interest groups and single-issue activists a new way to promote their causes. A Gallup poll found that Americans, by 57% to 21%, favored the idea. -

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