If ever a perfect storm existed November's ballot will be the eye.

Gilroy's November Ballot contains over $1 billion dollars in bond measures financed by property taxation over as much as 30 years. It also features a Gilroy Charter amendment moving our local elections to again coincide with presidential elections, which this year for the first time in American history has a black presidential candidate. Yep, perfect storm if we've ever had one. Let's hope Gilroy has enough sandbags on the seawall and her windows battened down.

Council members Cat Tucker and Peter Arellano, when debating that which now is Measure E, said they trust the Gilroy voter. To an email questioning her support of even-year elections, Tucker replied that most people are still upset at comments by even-year detractors that people will get confused and won't know the difference. If ever there was a poster child for complicated ballots, this one is it.

Never before in my mind has a presidential race been a side issue. Make no mistake: the '08 presidential contest is huge for a number of reasons. The "race" issue that really isn't, and all of the necessary but deplorable trappings that accompany it disgust me. Race, a meaningless social construct which has survived too damn long on nothing but a micro-thin layer of skin-held melanin, shouldn't have a say. Too bad it will. What should have a say is neither black nor white. It's gray. It is the gray matter between the ears of either candidate. Rather than the man, I'm voting for the brain.

Call it either ego-centered or geo-centered, but I think Gilroy needs much more of our attention than the landmark presidential contest this November. Gilroyans are faced with an all-time-high foreclosure rate, an approximate 14 percent increase in food prices, fuel surcharges on everything we buy, and increase in violent crime. Many families are barely making ends meet. These families aren't just families who rent, they also own homes. Crime certainly isn't on the slow down lately. (Hint to Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner - a murder and rape in downtown and no visible increase in downtown patrol is breeding discontent and enabling the bad guys). All are reasons beside the extension of terms to vote no on Measure E. We need local election issues in the clear, not at the bottom of the ballot.

One reason I'm surprised to see so many bond measures on this ballot is depressed home values. Many people are struggling to not lose their home. Voting to increase their annual costs doesn't seem a popular choice. The sale price of a home is what establishes its taxable value. Even if a property has lost value, it is taxed on the purchase price, not what it might bring in today's market. The inequity of that thought may be just sufficient to deter a yes vote on a bond issue. I'm confident the school district and city's consultant(s) presented that stark reality prior to both agencies proceeding to ballot.

When two rivers meet it is called a confluence. At the apex, or leading point of the confluence, exists an eddy, or small knuckle of water that on the surface looks still yet below re-circulates with tremendous force.

Imagine two bonds as the rivers, leaving room for a third in the eddy. A single bond, say the library, might not sink deep enough to get pulled under, and have a shot at passage. The same can be said for each of the bond issues had they been alone on the ballot.

Putting two at the eddy and hoping to float for concurrent approval might be a stretch given the current economic outlook. If two are a stretch, three is that rubber band broken in hand. Ouch!

Perfect storms usually consume all in their path. This November vote wisely, for just outside the eye of this perfect storm lay dangerous seas the likes of which we Gilroyans have not seen for decades. Seas much like those in 1991 which took the Andrea Gail and her crew: Moran, Murphy, Pierre, Shatford, Sullivan, and Tyne Jr.

Ben Anderson Columnist Ben Anderson is a long-time Gilroyan and father of two fantastic teens. You can reach him at heyben@bdkr.net. His column is published every Wednesday.