Albuquerque voters have had their say on a variety of issues and ballot measures. And, while voters don’t always get the best information and make decisions out of ignorance, I can’t find too much to argue with in terms of the results.
Getting rid of the red light cameras as 53% of voters supported seems like the right move. Hopefully, City Council will heed the intent of the voters’ and get rid of the cameras. In terms of traffic safety, it would seem that voters prefer to have real, live, police officers enforce safety and violations rather than cameras. Kudos to Councilor Dan Lewis for his leadership on this issue.
In terms of “ABQ The Plan,” voters said “no” in a resounding 62-42% vote. I believe this was largely because the “Sportsplex” idea was not well-thought out and voters did not like being asked to “buy” the Sportsplex and the Paseo Interchange at the same time.
I firmly believe that the Paseo/I-25 interchange would have won in a landslide if it were on the ballot by itself and hope that the Mayor and City Council will set aside resources for that project rather than allocating money for higher salaries for public employees.
In terms of the other bond measures, they all won overwhelmingly. I’d like to see some of these fail every once in a while just to show that voters won’t blindly support them, but that’s a mere quibble.
Paul, You are spot on.
Thanks Nancy, I hope all is well!
If I remember correctly, the Mayor wanted several issues on the Ballot, but City Council rolled the Sportsplex into the Improve the Interchange issue.
So, give the City Council full blame, or is it credit, for the NO decision.
George, thanks for that info. I was blaming the mayor. This tactic in legislation is known as “log rolling” and should be banned. Maybe this incident will be enough to be a “teaching moment” to the politicians. I used to traverse the Paseo/I25 interchange daily when I lived there and can not believe it has not been addressed already. I left in 1998.
The bond issues would NOT pass if the elections were held as part of a General Election in November. The government and school employees are pushed to the polls to vote for them, while working people not part of the government elite don’t get time off to vote or any encouragement to stop the tax gravy train.