Source: Associated Press Pubdate: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 Propositions Roundup By Michelle Boorstein, Associated Press Writer In a relatively sleepy ballot measure season, Washington state provides a wakeup call. Voters there will contemplate a particularly lively ballot Tuesday, with proposals to ban workplace discrimination against gays, further restrict gun ownership, legalize marijuana for medicinal use and dramatically expand choice of doctors in health plans. It's an offyear election, with only 43 statewide propositions in nine states. Nevertheless, the questions on state and local ballots tackle meaty issues, including assisted suicide in Oregon, affirmative action in Houston, bilingual education in Orange, Calif., and voting rights for the mentally ill in Maine. Sports arenas figure on ballots in two states. Voters in 13 counties surrounding Pittsburgh are being asked to ante up an extra halfcent per salestax dollar to build separate stadiums for the baseball Pirates and football Steelers. But Minneapolis, residents wary of campaigns to build private arenas with public dollars hope for passage of a proposition that would require public approval of any plan to spend more than $10 million on a stadium. The Navajo Nation, after watching other tribes rake in rich gambling profits, will decide whether to build casinos on the nation's largest reservation. And Mainers are considering, for the second year in a row, strict limits on clearcutting in their vast forests. Of the 43 statewide propositions, just seven were put there by voters a pittance compared to last year's recordsetting 90 citizen initiatives. The rest are the result of legislative action or constitutional mandate. New York, for example, requires that voters be asked every 20 years whether they want to call a convention to change the state constitution. This is one of those years. Offyear elections can produce strange results, say some legislative experts, because so few people go the polls. On the other hand, some initiative authors aim for off years in hopes of attracting a certain kind of voter, says Ken Mulligan, research director at Free Congress Foundation, a Washingtonbased think tank. "It's hard to draw generalizations, but the people who turn out on off years are the more committed voters, wealthier, more upscale," he says. "They have more sense of civic commitment. They have jobs that allow them to leave to vote. They have a higher education." Interest in the clearcutting proposition is intense in Maine, a state where logging is a vital part of the economy and forests cover 90 percent of the state. The measure has drawn $1.5 million in support, mostly from the paper industry, a barrage of radio and television ads from both sides and the formation of 13 political action committees. Last year's ballot featured three separate forest management plans, including an outright clearcutting ban, but none gained a majority. The timber industry got behind this single resurrected proposition, hoping to avoid stricter restrictions down the road. In Washington, where one in five people own guns, voters will decide whether gunowners must pass an exam or take a safety course to get licenses and whether guns must be sold with trigger locks. The National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups are traveling the state, warning that proponents' hidden agenda is to eventually register and confiscate all handguns. Other propositions on the Washington ballot: Outlaw job discrimination against homosexuals. Gay rights advocates hope the measure staves off accusations that they want special rights by specifically stating it does not require preferential treatment, quotas or partner benefits. If the measure passes, Washington would become the 12th state to bar such discrimination. Legalize marijuana, heroin and LSD for medical use. Opponents warn the measure is a covert first step toward acrosstheboard legalization. Similar measures passed in Arizona and California last year, although Arizona legislators gutted theirs. Permit patients to keep their doctors even if they switch jobs or health plans. Opponents say the costs of such "choice" would drive up already steep insurance costs. Choice of a different kind is on the ballot in neighboring Oregon, where voters in 1994 passed the nation's only law allowing assisted suicide. This time, a proposition seeks to repeal the law, which has been stalled in court and never implemented. Legislators put the repeal measure on the ballot, pressured by the Roman Catholic church and antiabortion groups, but polls show the same narrow support for assisted suicide that existed three years ago. A proposition on Houston's ballot would end its 13yearold affirmative action program, which requires city contractors to try to give 20 percent of their work to women and minorities. Public opinion appears to be running against the measure, and four of five leading mayoral candidates say they oppose it. Bilingual education is splitting residents of Orange, Calif., where schools got a oneyear exemption from a state requirement that nonEnglishspeaking students be taught in their native language. On Tuesday, voters will asked whether they want to resume bilingual education, though it's simply an "advisory" vote that officials can ignore. Voters in tiny Castlewood, Va., meanwhile, will decide whether to vote the town and the attendant town taxes out of existence. In Cincinnati, zoo officials have threatened to ship off its four Asian elephants, one of them pregnant, if voters reject a $52 million tax levy for a new Elephant House and parking lot. And the drink 'til dawn reputation of seashore resort Wildwood, N.J., is at stake as voters consider whether to roll back tavern closing hours, to 3 a.m. from 5 a.m.