The November 2007 election was an off-year election. Only a few states had legislative or gubernatorial races on the ballot. A few more states had statewide ballot measures, as had a number of cities and counties across America.

Still, I detected a clear message from voters on taxes: We pay enough already.

Washington state voters passed I-960, the Taxpayer Protection Act, which will make it tougher for legislators to raise taxes without voter input. Voters there also defeated a measure referred by legislators to reduce the super-majority requirements for passing school levies to a simple majority.

Meanwhile, voters in Oregon crushed an 84-cent-a-pack tax on cigarettes that would have funded health care for kids. Voters like health care and kids better than they like cigarettes, but they saw this as an unfair tax attack on smokers.

Voters sent the message elsewhere, too. I wonder if those running for office in 2008 might possibly hear it.

And speaking of receiving voter messages — When it comes to ballot measures there’s no better place to get information than Ballotpedia. It’s just like Wikipedia, except for ballot stuff.

Ballotpedia.org is not the work of some expert in Washington, DC. It is a collaborative effort of hundreds and someday thousands of local political experts in communities across America, adding their unique and valuable knowledge.

No wonder the wiki resource is called “The Encyclopedia of Citizen-Powered Democracy.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

In a public relations jam? Manipulate the media. But if you get caught . . .

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency held a press conference without any press, putting up FEMA personnel to pose really tough questions to official FEMA spokespeople, media folk figured it out. FEMA, as usual, came out smelling like a skunk.

More recently, Hillary Clinton’s campaign was discovered to have planted questions in an Iowa audience. A college  student had wanted to ask a question about Clinton’s energy plan. But a campaign operative told her beforehand that Mrs. Clinton wasn’t all that up on her energy plan. Instead, the operative showed her a question about global warming. Why not use that?

Mysteriously, the student was called on by Mrs. Clinton for one of only four questions out of approximately 200 people in the room.

So the student asked the question. Clinton was quick to mention that she often gets asked that by young people. Gee whiz, what a coincidence, eh?

When the student, feeling used, spoke out about this trickery, Mrs. Clinton attempted to calm the story’s wake. She, of course, knew nothing about it. Such behavior by anyone in her campaign, she went on to say, “will certainly not be tolerated.”

But wait a second. It was Hillary who picked this student out of the crowd. How did Hillary know to do that? Did someone tell her? Who?

And, one more thing: When will the press ask these basic follow-up questions?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Fair warning: I’m about to use that over-used phrase, “full disclosure.”

I often talk about folks who are unfairly targeted by government. That’s also today’s topic: the so-called Oklahoma Three, three persons who helped organize an initiative drive out in Oklahoma. This was a Taxpayer Bill of Rights or TABOR, a measure to impose limits on the growth of state spending.

The political establishment blocked the TABOR measure from reaching the ballot.

But they didn’t stop there. Now the Oklahoma attorney general, a fellow named Drew Edmondson, has indicted three people for conspiracy against the state. The OK 3 face up to ten years in prison for this alleged crime.

Ten years.

No time right now to give you all the background. But the Oklahoma Three did comply with the state’s residency requirement for circulators, as state officials explained it . . . a requirement now being challenged in federal court for unconstitutionally interfering with the right of citizen initiative. And here’s where the full disclosure comes in: as you may already know, I’m one of the Oklahoma Three. The others are Susan Johnson and Rick Carpenter.

We would rather not go to prison for ten years for supporting democracy.

So I’m asking for your help. Go to FreePaulJacob.com. Learn more about the case. Sign up for the email updates. Spread the word. Write letters to the editor. Post on political blogs. Call radio shows. Stand up for my rights . . . and your rights, too.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

A few months ago, some New York cabbies went on strike . . . not against their employers, but against the city, which has insisted on micromanaging their businesses.

Meanwhile, the city of Minneapolis went the other direction. Minneapolis moved to deregulate taxis. The number of allowed cabs will increase, and by 2010 all caps will be removed. A free market!

So of course the taxicab cartel sued.

Into the fray came the Institute for Justice, a national group of lawyers defending individual rights. These are my kind of lawyers, doing great work for freedom, trying to bring back the U.S. Constitution one case at a time. In their ads they call themselves “IJ.”

The group is based not far from where I live, and I was pleased to learn that they have a Minnesota chapter. I was also pleased to learn that the chapter has taken up a good case, the freedom of individuals to go into the taxi biz.

Even more pleasing? Their work has been successful! U.S. Magistrate Judge Franklin L. Noel sided with the city and IJ and against the taxi cartel. The judge was matter-of-fact: “The [established] taxi vehicle license holders do not have a constitutionally protected freedom from competition.”

Nice choice of words. We have a lot of freedoms, but freedom from competitors isn’t one of them. Freedom to trade with potential customers is.

Competition? Ya sure, you betcha.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

We need a refresher course on pensions.

One of the key parts to a pension system that pays out benefits during one’s golden years is someone actually putting money into the pension fund before those golden years ever begin.

State and local governments, really the politicians who run them, have been awfully generous to state workers, promising hefty pension benefits, and in many cases lifetime healthcare. Only problem is that, as with much of what politicians do, the promise of a pension is easier to make than the payments to actually fund those pensions.

Georgia has a looming $16 billion shortfall.

Michael Nehf, executive director of Georgia’s Employee Retirement System, says, “Our liabilities are growing faster than our assets. It’s not something we have had to face before, with the baby boomers moving from active to retirement status . . . and living longer.”

What are the options? Thankfully, people are still going to insist on living longer. So, what’s left is either to reduce benefits, a bait-and-switch against retired employees, or to raise taxes, socking it to everyone else to cover the politicians’ big promises and teensy-weensy sense of financial responsibility.

But one more thing: let’s get out of these deals where politicians can keep dangling benefits while in office that someone else has to pay for, later. An employer and employee providing for retirement shouldn’t skip the “providing” part.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.