Voters make decisions on ballot measures and candidates for a wide variety of reasons. For some, it's philosophical. For others it might that one side of the other makes a particularly convincing case - or fails to make a convincing case.

In Oregon, voters face a stark choice in late January. For the third time this decade, Oregon taxpayers face the prospect of a massive, permanent tax increase designed solely to fill an artificial budget shortfall created by outlandish salary and benefit increases to government employees and the state and local government's inability to gain control of their workforce.

The "parade of horribles" is in full force, as the Left pulls out all the stops to convince voters that the sky is going to (finally, really) fall if these permanent tax increases aren't approved. It's nonsense, of course, but there's no one to hold the government unions accountable so they can pretty much lie all they want.

I wouldn't vote for these tax increases in any event, as a graph of state spending over the past couple of decades looks like Al Gore's infamous "hockey stick" - up, up, up - but it's actually based on fact rather then someone's fantasy and false data. The problem with State government isn't a lack of revenue, it's a lack of fiscal discipline. However, if I were a neutral voter, a series of events in the past week would have shaken my confidence in government.

My mother was in a car accident last week. At 88, she is still hale and hearty and was on her way over for my daughter's first "homecoming" from college. Unfortunately, someone decided to make an illegal left-hand turn without signaling in front of her, and the rest is history. When I arrived at the crash site, the local police did a wonderful job of letting me know my mother's obligation to file a State Accident Report within 72 hours of the incident. You can pick up and file the report at any DMV or police station, we were told.

Now, I try and take care of this kind of thing for my mom as much as possible, and she was shaken by the crash - not injured, just shaken. So I picked up a copy of the report, worked with her to complete it, and off I went to the local police department which is conveniently located between my house and hers.

Arriving in front of the plexiglass-enclosed reception area, I held up the Accident report and said I wanted to file it. I was told that the law had been changed three years ago, and that police department's were no longer allowed to accept them. Your officers, I said, are saying something different on the streets. I was then given directions to the nearest DMV.

Now, this was about 10 minutes of 5:00 and the nearest DMV is 5 minutes away if one drives the speed limit, but that's not really possible during rush hour. I arrived, unhappily, at 5:06 and the office was predictably locked up tight. It occurred to me that most users of the DMV (it is to be hoped) have jobs and an office that closes promptly at 5:00 is not much good to them - but hey - why take your client's needs into consideration?

Luckily, there is another DMV about 10 miles away open until 6:00 and I managed to make it with time to spare, but I shudder to think how much my carbon footprint was increased as I drove around (slowly) in rush hour traffic for over an hour trying to file this report.

Notes to DMV - Ever hear of the internet? Ever hear of opening your offices when it would be most convenient for your clients? Ever wonder why people don't like or trust government?

Like most people, I (luckily) don't have very frequent cause to come in contact with government. But if this is an example of what Measure 66 and 67 are designed to perpetuate, a "No" vote is the only choice.