Amendment 48: Defining a person in the Colorado Constitution as any human being from the moment of fertilization [of an egg], and giving said person all rights under the Colorado Constitution.

Sigh. Yet another poorly thought out plan by extreme pro-lifers to undermine abortion. The only goal of this statute could be to prevent abortion. It makes even a few fertilized cells equal in rights to the woman that carries them.

Here’s a scenario this stupid amendment could create: say a pregnant woman gets into a car accident. She needs emergency surgery, but the doctors CANNOT do anything that could also harm her fetus, because said fetus is a separate person. Her emergency health care and the long-term health of the fetus are artificially set up as oppositional. Depending upon its stage of development and what they needed to do, perhaps the woman would have to be denied morphine or anesthesia during surgery for fear of harming the fetus. As a result, the mother is unnecessarily crippled. If the fetus does die as a result of efforts to save the woman’s life, the doctors may come up for manslaughter or murder charges. Good law, right?

Vote NO on 48.

Amendment 50: Proposes amending the Colorado Constitution to allow residents of the gaming cities (currently only Central City, Black Hawk, and Cripple Creek, not counting casinos on reservations) to extend casino hours, add games, and increase the maximum single bet limit. Increased revenue would be put toward enforcing gaming laws, with the remainder going toward each community to “help address the impacts of gaming” and community colleges across the state.

This amendment seems like a win to me. If it is passed, the gaming communities have the ability to decide how to better control the casinos for each community – which does not necessarily mean they will hold a vote to change anything now, just that they might. If they do make changes, the tax on the increased revenue will fund not only local projects, but improve the lot of community colleges across the state. Considering how Colorado has been slashing financial support for higher education for years, community colleges will soon be the only way for poor students to access higher education, so a reliable method of support should be in place for them.

Now, the concerns about this amendment are not frivolous. For one thing, casinos on reservations might feel the need to change their regulations in order to compete, and this law does not take into account the negative effects this might have on those communities. For another, more opportunities to gamble may increase the number of compulsive gamblers in the state. And finally, the new money generated will be limited to a certain kind of use.

Of these concerns, only the first is valid, though I don’t know enough about reservations with gaming in Colorado to make an assessment of how this law could affect them. As far as increasing compulsive gamblers: well, maybe. Certainly changes will attract compulsive gamblers from other states, but I’m not sure that it would create new ones. Someone who is gambling for fun is not going to suddenly become addicted just because the casino closes at 3 a.m. instead of 2 a.m., while a compulsive gambler will not be deterred if the place keeps the 2 a.m. closing. I don’t mean to downplay the harm that gambling addicts cause to themselves and to their families, but the kinds of changes being proposed are relatively small. I believe that they could only affect the rate at which a compulsive gambler ruins his/her finances, not that they would create more of them. I could be wrong.

And the concern that this law doesn’t allow for budget prioritization – what, are community colleges never going to be a need? The funds will make a difference to community colleges, and they won’t be subject to limitations under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Vote YES on 50.

Amendment 51: Proposes to raise taxes in order to eliminate the waiting list for services for people with developmental disabilities, and prevents reducing revenue for this purpose by any means.

Providing long-term care for developmentally disabled citizens is an example of a time when only the government can provide what is needed. It’s nice and all to depend upon non-profits like churches to feed the homeless and whatnot, but long-term care for needy adults with challenging disabilities requires a reliable paycheck. And only the government has reliable funding on a great enough scale to ensure that no one falls through the cracks.

However, people DO fall through the cracks, because the budget priorities are different each year while the need for services remains the same. Again the challenging nature of the clients means that the private and non-profit sectors won’t be able to (and they do not) effectively cobble together a response. The government is never going to spontaneously decide to meet this need or else it would have done so already, so we need to force it to by this method instead. Neither will voters prioritize this use of tax dollars based on what revenues will already have, when there are potholes to be fixed and police to be paid.

The sales tax increase is equivalent to only one penny per $5, which is hardly backbreaking enough to claim our economy would be ruined. (If you spent $5,000, you would only notice a $10 increase due to this tax on that purchase. Other sales taxes, of course, still apply.) But without that penny, we will spend much more money in the future when the kid with cerebral palsy has degenerated due to a lack of preventative health care. No one denies that the kid should be treated when sick, but to prevent the kid from getting sick – oh, man, that’s going to ruin the economy! That view is short-sighted and I daresay ethically bankrupt. It treats a nearly unnoticeable increase in taxes as more important than the welfare of a developmentally disabled person.

Vote YES on 51.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Politics, Politics & Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.