Michigan's Prop. 06-1

On election day this coming November 7 (that's a Tuesday, y'all), in addition to the candidates, there are a couple propositions on the Michigan ballot. I didn't know much about them, so I did a little poking around to see what I could learn. This is the first installment in a short little series.

Proposition 06-1 would amend the state's Constitution to guarantee various DNR fees would supposedly only be used for their intended purpose, and not diverted to the state's general fund. The Chamber of Commerce supports the proposition, as do a variety of tourism-related businesses. I guess their logic is that if the money is guaranteed to be spend on Michigan's outdoor resources, it's good for their businesses directly or indirectly. The Saginaw News ran a completely unbalanced news article about the issue on Oct. 5 ("State chamber leader pushes Prop 06-1"). Paul Wyche must have been too busy to write a real article that day, because it doesn't appear he even looked for an opposing point of view.

I don't feel strongly about the Proposition, as I support the general thrust of it. But I do find the reasoning behind Flint Journal's opposition ("No on Prop 06-1") pretty solid. Their basic argument is, don't amend the state's Contitution over something like this. While I support the good intentions behind the proposition, I tend to agree that we don't need to go amending the Constitution with pet legislation, so I'll vote "No."

It's Proposition 06-2 that gets people really fired up, so I'll try to tackle that in the next couple days.