Gerhard,

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:05:57 -0700, Gerhard Fiedler wrote:

> Mike Hord wrote:
> 
> > OTOH, when you look at what happens with direct democracy (for example,
> > referendum voting in California), the results can be just as bad... 
> 
> Some results might be different if each voted issue to the ballot was
> coupled with a tax increase/decrease based on the estimated cost/savings

Hertfordshire County Council did issue an "opinion gathering" voting sheet a couple of years ago, which they 
weren't bound to follow, but which gave the impression that they were asking people what they wanted.  It had 
three or four "bands" of increase in Council Tax, with the associated actions that would be financed by them.  
But it was a masterpiece of asking "When are you going to stop beating your wife?"-type questions.  It started 
with an increase of 6%, with few extra goodies and some being cut back.  

Then for 9% you could have extra "eco-friendly" features, like planting more trees, improvements to public 
parks, more speed-bumps ("sleeping policemen" as they're known here), and lower speed limits outside schools. 

Then for 12% things like correcting the gender-imbalance in pay for council workers.  Since this last one is a 
legal requirement anyway, it's not something they can't do!

There was no option to vote "Reduce the council tax and stop wasting money on unnecessary changes to road 
layouts" or whatever, which is what I would have liked to vote for!

They have been talking about making voting compulsory (as I believe it is in Australia) - but if they do then 
in my opinion they *must* include an option to vote: "I do not support any of these candidates".

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, Herts


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