Two-Thirds Vote Isn’t the Answer

* The El Toro airport problem is now being compounded by another anti-airport initiative masquerading as the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative, which is winding its destructive way through the signature-gathering process to get on the March 2000 ballot in Orange County.

The initiative, which can pass with a simple majority vote, would require a two-thirds super majority vote of the people before any airport could be built or an existing airport expanded. In an apparent effort to get support from people who don’t care one way or another about an airport at El Toro, the initiative also requires a two-thirds vote for construction of large jails and hazardous-waste landfills. Orange County has searched for years for an acceptable jail site, but it does not have nor is it trying to get a hazardous waste landfill.

The League of Women Voters of Orange County has taken no position on the airport proposal or the Millennium Plan for El Toro. We do vigorously object, however, to any requirement for a two-thirds vote of the people because it gives a small minority a veto power over any project favored by the majority.

We also question whether a local initiative can legally take away the land use powers which the state of California has given to the Board of Supervisors of general law counties.

JEAN ASKHAM

President, League of Women Voters of Orange County