Any good referenda where you live?

[memphis]

We have a few. Most notably, Memphis and Shelby County are voting on consolidation. It wouldn't affect the dual school districts b/c that would make people have a collective aneurism, but it would end some duplication of services. Business (most notably Fred Smith, founder of FedEx) is solidly behind the initiative, with suburban residents overwhelmingly opposed. State law requires seperate majority approval both outside and inside city limits, which guarantees failure of the measure. However, there is a VRA lawsuit pending regarding that statute. The city (which is about 2/3 of the county) is heavily black and the county outside the city is mostly white, so the law supposedly would unfairly discriminate against blacks or whatever. I believe the results won't be released to the public until the lawsuit is settled. Government Unions are also opposed because there would likely be job cuts should the measure pass. They've invited Al Sharpton to town <vomit> and I'm sure he'll lament that the county as a whole is only barely majority black, so consolidation could lead to whites winning. We just elected a new white county mayor a few months ago. In addition to that, we're also voting of whether or not to amend the state consitution to guarantee the right to hunt and fish. I'm not opposed to those things but it seems pretty silly to explicitly put that in the state constitution. We're also voting on whether or not to liberalize the residency requirement for city workers to allow them to live anywhere in the county rather than forcing them to live in the city limits.

[Free Palestine]

Prop 20 would strip the power to draw legislative districts away from the legislature, and give it instead to some sort of redistricting committee, composed equally of Democrats, Republicans, and people associated with neither party.

Everyone knows about Prop 19.

[tpfkaw]

We have a proposition to halve the state sales tax, which is good.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The only one on the ballot:

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I will be voting no.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Morgan covered the important state-level ones. On the city-level, Propositions B & G are pretty good. B would require city employees to pay more into their pensions & G would change the rules governing the pay of MUNI employees (who are currently paid based on the prevailing rate).

[Torie]

California is largely saddled with bad referenda, and Prop 19 is going down to boot.