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Supporters and opponents of Spokane City Proposition 4 will go at it Friday morning at a breakfast debate sponsored by Greater Spokane Inc.
Prop 4 is the ballot number for a proposal that’s AKA The Community Bill of Rights. It would amend the charter in various ways, including changes for health care, wage requirements, apprenticeships, neighborhood control of development, and establishing rights for the environment.
Greater Spokane Inc. is on record of opposing it. (If pressed, some members of GSI would probably say this is about the worst thing since the bubonic plague. They might prefer a debate on whether it is slightly worse or significantly worse than the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.) So Envision Spokane, which drafted the proposal, can probably be listed as the Away Team for this one.
But it should be entertaining, and probably enlightening. It starts at 7:15 a.m. at the Champions Room, 720 W. Mallon. Tickets range from $30 for GSI members to $55 for non members. Call Marcia Vandervert at 321-3629 or click here to sign up on-line
Jim Camden is a veteran political reporter for The Spokesman-Review.
Jonathan Brunt covers Spokane City Hall for The Spokesman-Review.
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gmorton on October 08 at 9:29 a.m.
From a post on my blog:
Most of the considerable opposition which has emerged to date to Proposition 4, the so-called “Community Bill of Rights” which will appear on the November general election ballot, has focused on the measure’s fiscal implications for the City and its implications for the local economy. These are certainly serious concerns. Indeed, the measure is likely to have adverse impacts even if it fails, unless it is defeated overwhelmingly. A narrow defeat will still discourage investment (and encourage disinvestment) in the city of Spokane, because investors and entrepreneurs will worry that Prop 4’s leftist backers will soon try again. It will stigmatize Spokane as a risky place to do business.
But an even more compelling reason for rejecting it is the moral one.
This “Bill of Frights” (a “fright” being a fiat right) declares that persons have “rights” to “affordable” health care, housing, energy, to be paid a certain wage, and various other goodies on every leftist’s wish list. The trouble here, of course, is that all these goodies must be provided by other persons — health care workers, builders, energy producers, employers, *et al*. So a claim to a “right” to such things entails a claim to the services of other people — to their time, talents, energy, and the fruits of their labor.
More here:
http://www.freespokane.net/?p=174
Lindy on October 08 at 12:29 p.m.
The City and it’s business leaders have a lot more to worry about than Prop 4. If I-1033 passes this City won’t have the resources to support or encourage business…..new or otherwise.