To vote, or not to vote. What does it all mean anyways? It seems to be just one big fraud being perpetrated on the public. In the end, your vote means nothing. No matter what Blaska tries to say.
County Board Chair Scott McDonell was right to call these referenda “phony”. It’s been pointed out many times, that it is very difficult to know what a yes or no vote means. I don’t have to make a decision on how to vote, but I think I’d vote no. I don’t want to pay a half cents sales tax for commuter rail. I want an RTA. But I also want them to have a solid transportation plan that includes improved bus service first and foremost and a variety of regional transit options. I want to see the plan, details matter and I want the RTA to earn my vote and my increased sales tax.
The questions as worded leave so much up to interpretation, I don’t know how they will know if people voted against commuter rail as a concept? Or that the half cent sales tax was too high? Or . . . If you wanted to ask a question that meant something, Monona Doug has some better ideas for questions to ask on the ballot:
If you wanted to know whether voters want commuter rail, you could just ask them that exact question:
Do you want commuter rail?
Or you could ask, Should the RTA spend any money on commuter rail?
Or, Should the RTA spend part of the sales tax on trains and part on buses?
Or, Should the RTA spend part of the sales tax on trains and part on buses and part on park and ride lots and part on bike paths?Of course, it is hard to decide what the right question is, let alone the right answer, before the RTA produces its transit plan.
No matter how much Big Baby Blaska and his cronies want to say this is about letting people have a voice, it just isn’t so. A voice that says what? It’s just meaningless noise because the leaders in this debacle care more about scoring political points than doing what is right – Asking a question that would be relevant so that the voices of the people would be heard AND understood. Scott’s right, its just phony and they’re playing games with the voters. Channel 3 does a good job of pointing out some of the issues with the referenda. When its all said and done, we’re just going to do it again, and do it correctly next time, hopefully.
Note: I usually don’t all people names, but since Blaska does it all the time, I figure its ok.
No, Brenda, this is the only vote there will be on RTA. It’s too bad that the County Board did not permit the voters of all of Dane County to vote on this issue but they chose not to. They could have worded it the way they wanted.
I would like to think that I have that much influence that I could persuade 46 communities throughout Dane County to hold, at their own expense, referenda for their own voters. But I don’t. The people who formed the tea party did not ask for my permission, either.
But we will get a new Legislature and Governor come January and I have been assured by the likely occupant of the East Wing that he will accept the will of the people in Dane County.
This isn’t a vote on the RTA. It’s a vote on a half cent tax for commuter rail – completely different.
And you, dear Madame, are a hatchet-faced nutmeg dealer!
I can always count of you for substance and facts . . . gee, thanks. /sarcasm
I should have known how this discussion would end!