Newswire
City Attorney James F. Penman and resident Renee Affaitati requested - and received - a new judge to hear their lawsuit challenging sample ballot language in support of Measure C after the original jurist expressed his reticence to get involved in a political case. Measure C is a ballot measure that would give the City Council and mayor authority to appoint the city attorney, city clerk and city treasurer.
The Richard A. Egbert Limited Partnership has filed a claim seeking to overturn a referendum vote by Tetonia city voters that overturned an annexation of 267 acres. Brad Egbert, who represents the partnership, applied for the annexation last year. After a recommendation of denial from the city’s planning and zoning commission and much public debate, the city council approved the annexation in December 2009.
To kick off a campaign to extend a portion of a property tax mill levy benefiting the Summit School District, numerous community members and officials — even a student or two — gathered Tuesday at the Summit County Community and Senior Center. The Summit Board of Education recently voted unanimously to go to local voters with a school funding measure in November. Due to cuts, declines in revenue and new initiatives on the ballot that could further affect school funding, the school district is now asking voters to help make up the difference with a $2.1 million mill levy.
North Dakota’s Supreme Court is hearing arguments about whether a voter initiative on pharmacy ownership should get a statewide vote this fall. Attorneys representing both sides are making their case Wednesday morning. The Supreme Court is expected to rule before Sept. 8. That’s the deadline for Secretary of State Al Jaeger to provide county auditors with a final copy of the November ballot.
With the fall election on people’s minds, this week the Snowmass Sun asked Snowmass-Wildcat Fire Protection District’s Chief Steve Sowles, and Fire Marshal, John Mele, for more information about why they are seeking tax increases in November. Their responses to commonly asked questions follow: Snowmass Sun: What are the Snowmass-Wildcat Fire Protection District’s ballot questions going to ask for this fall?
An outfitters organization has filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent a November vote on an initiative aimed at abolishing outfitter-sponsored nonresident big-game and deer combination hunting licenses. The Montana Outfitters and Guides Association filed the lawsuit in Lewis and Clark County District Court last week contending the signatures to get the initiative on the ballot were obtained using “a statewide pattern of deceptive practices.”
A judge on Tuesday ordered a real estate tax initiative to appear on Missouri’s November ballot, concluding the measure’s supporters submitted enough valid signatures from voters. Earlier this month the Missouri secretary of state’s office concluded that too few signatures were submitted for the initiative to appear. Cole County Circuit Judge Paul Wilson effectively overruled that and ordered election officials to place the measure on the ballot.
The Florida Supreme Court today threw out three proposed constitutional amendments placed on the November ballot by lawmakers. The court tossed an amendment that would have watered down two other amendments put on the ballot by citizens’ petition dealing with redistricting, another designed to give tax breaks to first-time home-buyers and a third passed by lawmakers opposed to federal health care reforms.
A trio of state ballot initiatives aimed at bringing tax relief for state and local taxpayers may be too extreme even for Tea Party-minded Silt Mayor Dave Moore. “I still have some questions that need to be answered, but I’d have to say I’m leaning against them right now based on what I’ve heard,” Moore said of the tax-cutting, government debt-limiting measures that appear on the Nov. 2 ballot in Colorado.
The board of education for Trinidad School District No.1 came out in opposition at its Aug. 24 board meeting to a series of ballot initiatives intended to curtail a number of state and local taxes and fees. The resolution approved unanimously by the board calls the initiatives “unnecessary” due to the state constitution already containing provisions that, “require the state to balance its budget and that give citizens the right to vote on all tax increases and creation of debt.”