Election Day has once again come and gone. This year the advertising was as feverish as it has ever been. No political race seemed to get near the attention in Columbus as one issue on Columbus ballots. Everyone saw the ads about Issue 18 and all the “problems” a four-dollar-a-day rental car tax would cause Columbus residents.
Apparently the voters of Columbus are gullible enough to believe everything they see on TV.
The campaign ads against Issue 18 spent all their time informing voters of the horrors that would arise if the citizens of Columbus were to approve it. However, there is a good chance the campaigners and voters had no clue – and really, did not care – what Issue 18 was about. This sort of ignorance is a key problem in a democratic society.
There are several exemptions to this tax making it applicable to tourists and other visitors more than it would to Columbus residents. The exemptions include having to rent a car while yours is in the shop, rental of moving vehicles and rentals on any vehicle for more than 30 days.
It seems quite apparent through the stipulations of the issue the law would have a much greater effect on Columbus tourists than it would on local residents. The people most against the tax would probably have to be those in the rental car industry. They probably helped to bankroll a good deal of the anti-Issue 18 advertising in the hopes of keeping their business up.
The city of Columbus claims the tax was needed to properly balance the city’s budget. Without this tax, which the city hoped would turn in $6 million a year, the city is going to have to make cutbacks in services and employees, costing hundreds of jobs and possibly affecting residents of Columbus in ways far worse than raising the tax.
In the end, the people who wanted to prevent Issue 18 from passing were successful in their campaign by promoting it as costing “thousands of jobs” and saying taxpayers would wind up paying $12 million. Ironically, preventing Issue 18 will cost citizens when hundreds of city employees their jobs and force cutbacks in the city budget, which will hurt even more Columbus residents.
This sort of blatant misinformation frequently fills the airwaves during the months preceding the elections and can often be the talk for months after the election. More vital legislation than Issue 18 is present on many ballots throughout the United States and comes up almost every election year. But many of these issues do not get even half of the attention received by Issue 18.
Another hot issue on the ballots this year was Issue 1, which would have set up mandatory treatment for first- and second-time non-violent drug offenders. However, an issue as important as this did not seem to get nearly as much airtime on Columbus TV and radio, because it was not going to cost a major industry – like transportation – money.
This is one of the key problems which have arisen in our democratic system since the communication age came into full use in politics. It is no longer about the candidates, the constituency, or the issues and what they represent, but about which major industry has the most money to push campaign advertising; about industries helping someone get elected who can help the companies’ interests.
Until the voters learn how to research their candidates and issues properly before they vote, this trend will continue so long as groups have the money to push more and more advertising through our television sets. So the next time you go to the polls to vote, be sure you know who and what you are voting for – not just pushing the buttons because they have a D or R next to their name, or because you just don’t care. Voting is a right and a privilege we are lucky to enjoy, and it should not be abused by ignorant voters.
Joey Maresca can be reached at [email protected].
