Election 2018 – Some Thoughts – The Burlingame Voice

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Election 2018 – Some Thoughts

October 23, 2018

I'm not sure anyone but commenter J. Mir cares what I think about the items on the ballot this time around and those who read the Voice regularly probably already know where I stand, but because I promised J. Mir I would post my thoughts, here they are:

Governor: If you want to save $100 billion or more of taxpayer money just on HSR (see post directly below), Cox is your guy. The most hopeful thing to say is perhaps Newsome will kill HSR as well, but he will spend all of that and more elsewhere.

Superintendent of Public Education: Marshall Tuck all the way. See here.

Prop. 1 – "Affordable Housing": Nope. $4 billion down the drain to build unaffordable housing that we have no school capacity, infrastructure or water to service anyway.

Prop. 2 – Housing for those with Mental Illness: Nope. Takes from the left pocket (existing services) to put in the right pocket (housing).

Prop. 3 - If you thought I was going to recommend against all the bond measures, you were wrong. We are in Big Trouble up and down the state with regards to water security. There hasn't been any additional storage capacity in generations. Existing dams like Oroville are aging. Rules for protecting fish (which I support) mean the water needs to come from somewhere, so while the goals of this Prop. should be met with existing revenues, they ain't. Read the tale of woe here and vote Yes.

Prop. 6 - The Gas Tax repeal: Yes. This is like giving heroin to an addict in a dirty needle. Road quality stinks and is getting worse, but we already are #2 in gas taxes (behind Hawaii who at least has an excuse and hardly any roads to begin with). Force the Legislature and the new Gov to Do Their Job without more taxes.

Prop. 10 - Rent Control: Not only No, but heck No. This Prop is even worse than the one we defeated two years ago in B'game. That one went after some landlords–this one goes after everyone who may ever decide to rent out anything and removes some pretty fundamental limits on rent control. Besides rent control is a failure anywhere it is tried, so why enable more of it?

Measure W – 30 year 1/2 cent sales tax in San Mateo County ostensibly for roads: Nope. We just did Measure K which raised sales taxes a 1/2 cent and that money could and should go to the roads, but that ain't where our Supes' priorities are. More heroin in a dirty needle. This measure shows the hypocrisy of people who decry the cost of living in the county.

The rest of the ballot is left to the reader to decide over the next two weeks. Have at it.

Posted in Elections

7 responses to “Election 2018 – Some Thoughts”

Cassandra

October 24, 2018

The entire peninsula should come out and vote for Cox to stop high-speed rail.
Sally Meakin

October 24, 2018

If Joe says no, that’s how I’ll go.
Joe

October 24, 2018

And it looks like Jon Mays at the DJ agrees on Measure W being wrong-headed:
As part of this process, SamTrans spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a public outreach campaign to gather input on what regular folks would like to see. As a result, we have a wide-ranging plan that would provide half — an estimated $40 million a year — to SamTrans, with the rest — an estimated $40 million a year — going to a variety of possible projects including highway congestion, potholes, bike lanes and more. The amount is not small potatoes, but adds a half-cent sales tax to everyone in San Mateo County for projects that largely should already be paid for out of the gas tax and even part of the $3 toll increase voters just passed. Additionally, Caltrain is moving toward asking for an eighth-cent sales tax increase as well in a future election. This surely spells voter fatigue when there has been very little evidence of improvements from the tax revenue that is already collected. Sure, the auxillary lane program was good for Highway 101, but that was years ago. And the baby bullet was also good for Caltrain, but that too was years ago.
One of the primary concerns of the respondents in SamTrans’ polling was the State Route 92/Highway 101 interchange. It doesn’t take a traffic engineer to know adding lanes to the eastbound exchange will do much to ease congestion both on Highway 101 and surface streets. And yet that improvement project was pulled from the State Transportation Improvement Program before the gas tax passed.
https://www.smdailyjournal.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-no-on-measure-w/article_5219f670-d720-11e8-a84f-1b7809d5a2e7
Peter (Motorcycle Guy) Garrison

October 24, 2018

Ditto Daily Post
Joe

October 25, 2018

One section of the ballot that I always find difficult is the judges. They don’t campaign, don’t debate and we seldom know how they rule. So I was thrilled to get some recommendations from a trusted friend who is an attorney and did substantial research on each of them via Westlaw. Here is his take:
Carol Corrigan NO
Leondra Kruger NO
James Humes YES
Sandra Margulies NO
James Richman YES
Marla Miller NO
Peter Siggins NO
Jon Streeter Yes
Alison Tucher NO
Barbara Jones NO
3 “yes’s” and 7 “no’s” pretty much summarizes the state of the Bay Area bench.
Hollyroller

October 25, 2018

“Say it ain’t true Joe, say it ain’t true.”
Joe

November 9, 2018

I’ll update this post when all of the results are in, but that could take another week for the State Supe’s race. Measure W is dangling by less than a percent short right now.

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