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Let The People Waste The Taxpayer’s Money, Not The Elite

By Kleinheider Posted on October 9, 2009 at 9:04 am

The latest on Eric Crafton’s push to get a referendum on the building and funding of a new convention center:

A proposal to have Nashville residents vote on building a downtown convention center would cost Metro more than $500,000 for two referendums, the city’s election administrator said.

But some council members said the idea makes sense because, at approximately $900 million, the convention center and an attached hotel would be the most expensive project in city history. Other council members countered that voters elected them to decide the big issues.

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8 Responses to “Let The People Waste The Taxpayer’s Money, Not The Elite”

  1. Stan Scott writes
    October 9th, 2009 9:10 am

    With three elections in 2010 why are special ones needed for referendums?

  2. Joe Kirkpatrick writes
    October 9th, 2009 9:14 am

    The thing that scares the proponents of the convention center is that when you do not attach a D or an R to a vote, the people usually side with fiscal responsibility. Go Crafton!

  3. Joe Kirkpatrick writes
    October 9th, 2009 9:17 am

    Stan… you know the answer to that… please, however, allow me to sate the obvious. The vested interests cannot manipulate a large election to the same extent as one that goes virtually unnoticed.

  4. Joe Kirkpatrick writes
    October 9th, 2009 9:17 am

    **state

  5. JD writes
    October 9th, 2009 10:06 am

    This idea of sending everything to the voters for referendum is a terrible idea. See the example of California. We have a republican form of government rather than a direct democracy for good reason.

    Having lived through endless ballot measures while living there for 11 years, I have several observations:

    (1) The typical outcome is that the voters vote in favor of spending money on anything that is remotely popular;

    (2) The typical outcome is that the voters oppose any imposition of or increase in taxes;

    (3) when it comes to spending measures, the typical voter has zero understanding of the dollar amounts involved (i.e., what is the difference in impact to the city between a $100,000,000 proposal and a $1,000,000,000 proposal?);

    (4) when it comse to spending or non-spending proposals, the typical voter does not understand the real impact of the proposed statutory language. I am a lawyer and I sometimes read the proposed statutes in detail and still had little idea of how the proposals would play out in reality.

    (1) and (2) above combine to push the situation toward fiscal disaster (which has finally caught up with California with a vengeance). (3) and (4) ensure that the result of the vote does not necessarily even indicate the true preferences of the voters, were they to fully understand the issues.

    Granted, Crafton’s proposals (English-only and $900 million for a convention center) are relatively easy to grasp. Nevertheless, it is a tremendous waste of money to submit everyting to the voters, particularly when the voters tend to come up with either random or fiscally horrible results.

    I am not saying that our elected representatives are smarter than the rest of us. But the rest of us do not have time to parse through these issues with the detail required to make an informed decision. Nor do we have the resources to hire experts to give us advice on the details. Nor are we intimately familiar with the other programs that will suffer if we spend money on something (e.g., $100,0000,000 for firefigthers means closing 2 libraries and 4 schools, or whatever). And then there is the BS and misleading advertising that we are all subjected to during such campaigns (but I guess that is just trading one evil for another - lobbying).

    Nashville should reject this expensive attempt at direct democracy. [And I note further that Crafton's efforts have nothing to do with increasing democracy and everything to do with using every resource available to overturn decisions that he does not agree with.]

  6. GoldnI writes
    October 9th, 2009 10:13 am

    Just for the record, the reason why there would have to be a special election for this is because, as Crafton found out the hard way with English-Only, proposals to amend the Charter can only be on the ballot every two years. Since we had the English-Only vote in January of this year, there couldn’t be another Charter amendment vote until January 2011.

  7. JaStep writes
    October 9th, 2009 10:51 am

    Nashville voters approved the financing for LP field in a referendum.

    But a referendum in this case is a total waste of taxpayer money, actually half of what the convention center will cost. We elect the Metro Council to make these decisions. That’s what representative democracy is all about.

    Also, this isn’t a new issue. It’s been debated for over a decade. All the candidates for mayor supported it and talked about it during their campaigns. The Metro Council has now voted on it 11 times.

    It’s time for the Metro Council to step up and do its job. Vote this project up or down.

  8. The OG Ben writes
    October 9th, 2009 11:01 am

    The ballot initiatives would cost $500,000, not $500 million. That’s not half of the cost of the Music City Center.

    Not that I’m for having a referendum. If we’re going to vote on everything, what’s the point of having a Metro Council. This is obviously an attempt to stall so that some members won’t have to vote against the project.

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