Corporate initiative – Charter withdrew I-172, but has it set a precedent?

"I have never heard … of a specific institution, organization, corporation or individual seeking to have their tax liability amended downward by a vote of the people," Feaver says. "I mean, this is a totally unprecedented act. The only way to look at this is, well, if Charter can actually get away with spending a gazillion dollars qualifying this petition for the ballot and then is able to convince voters that, somehow or another, it shouldn’t pay the taxes it’s required by law to pay, and if that passes, well then what’s to prevent other corporate bodies from doing the same thing?"

By Ted McDermott

Full Story: http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/corporate-initiative/Content?oid=2058057

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Early elimination
A ballot fan laments the premature end to initiative season

Blanketed with A) volunteers collecting signatures on behalf of health insurance for poor people and B) paid weirdos mumbling about the cable bill, would Montanans really choose team A?

Would the same AG who complained that Healthy Montana Initiative hid the true cost of free money from the feds allow Charter’s end run around the judiciary? And when the machinery of democracy geared up, would we really vote against cheap help for the poor and in favor of an expensive win for the cable company?

By Dan Brooks

http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/early-elimination/Content?oid=2058072