Pubdate: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press MAINE OKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA PLAN A referendum to legalize marijuana for medicinal use passed in Maine on Tuesday while a ban on certain late-term abortions was trailing. Voters elsewhere were deciding on proposals ranging from banning ATM fees to fluoridating water. With 23 percent of precincts reporting, the medical marijuana measure had 55,483 votes, or 61 percent, to 35,300 or 39 percent opposed. The anti-abortion proposal was losing 47,739 to 42,697, 53 percent to 47 percent. Voters in San Francisco were deciding for the first time anywhere on those extra charges of $1, $2 or more for using another bank's automated teller machine. Oregonians weighed whether to allow murder convictions by an 11-1 jury vote instead of a unanimous one. The ballot in Missoula, Mont., featured an initiative that would set a local minimum wage of $8 an hour with benefits for municipal employees and private employees whose companies get $5,000 or more in city assistance. (The federal minimum wage is $5.15. Some 40 U.S. cities and counties have such laws in some form.) In Washington state, voters weighed in on America's most sweeping tax-revolt proposal -- a ballot measure coupling a big car-tax cut with veto power over all future taxes and fees. It would substitute an annual fee of $30 per car to replace a much-maligned tax of 2.2 percent of the vehicle's value -- hundreds of dollars for many motorists -- for a tax break worth $750 million a year. The measure also would require state and local officials to go to the public anytime they wanted to raise a tax or fee -- a basic shift of tax-writing power that no other state has adopted to this degree. Nearly the entire political establishment, from Gov. Gary Locke down to town councils, was united in opposition, joined by an unlikely coalition of business, labor and environmentalists. They say the measure will wipe out a third of the state highway budget, including a new construction plan approved by state voters just last fall. Overshadowed by the fight over car fees was a proposal to ban most commercial fishing nets from Washington waters. Supporters said the initiative would take a big step toward preserving the state's salmon runs by removing nets and other gear that scoop up fish by the thousands and tear up the ocean floor. Foes said the measure would cripple an entire industry, wiping out hundreds and maybe thousands of jobs, without saving many salmon or any other fish. The commercial fishing industry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to defeat the measure. Maine's proposal to ban what abortion-rights opponents call partial-birth abortion is similar to measures adopted in some 30 states. The courts have barred or sharply restricted 20 states from enforcing them, and with recent court decisions going both ways, the showdown seems headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. The medicinal-marijuana referendum authorizes possession and use for specific medical conditions when patients are advised by a doctor they might benefit from the drug. The list of qualifying ailments includes loss of appetite from AIDS or cancer treatments, glaucoma and seizures or muscle spasms from chronic diseases. Since 1996, five states -- California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Arizona -- and the District of Columbia have passed medical marijuana initiatives. In Indiana, the city of Connersville was deciding whether to shed its status as the largest city in the state without fluoridated water. Dentists and other proponents cited studies that show the city has a 20 percent higher rate of cavities than the state average, while opponents argued that introduction of fluoride into public water systems is a government conspiracy. In a nonbinding referendum resulting from changing attitudes in the posh Sun Valley area, the city of Ketchum, Idaho, was re-examining the 25-year-old tradition for a mock six-gun shoot-out on Main Street during the community's annual Wagon Days festival. Among other measures on the ballot: - -- A $2.3 billion bond issue for transportation in the Denver area, including widening congested Interstate 25. A separate measure would expand Denver area's light-rail system. - -- A constitutional amendment to restrict Mississippi state legislators to back-to-back terms was trailing. With about a third of the votes counted, 57 percent opposed the limits to 43 percent in favor. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea