Bills Take Aim At Initiative Process Proposals Would Require Cost Of Potential Laws Be Reported
Rep. Reed Hansen, R-Idaho Falls, thinks people who circulate petitions to put initiatives on the ballot should have to tell people what they would cost if they became laws.
Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, wants the Legislature to set up a review panel to look at initiatives that qualify for the ballot and advise voters whether they meet legal, technical and drafting requirements.
And a broad-based business coalition is pushing a third proposal that would require initiative sponsors to gather more signatures on petitions and force them to get support from at least half of Idaho’s 44 counties.
All three proposals are before the House State Affairs Committee as the Legislature continues getting pressure to change the initiative process.
Sponsors of some of the proposals said they were encouraged to seek changes in the process because of what has happened in surrounding states.
Oregon’s voters had to plow through 23 proposals last November, Trail said. Another legislator said California voters had to decide dozens of initiative measures.
State Affairs voted to introduce both Hansen’s and Trail’s proposals on Thursday. A bill backed by the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry and other groups could surface as early as today.
Hansen told State Affairs that even though the process is extremely popular, people who propose initiatives should have to do the same as those who present legislation - prepare an estimate of what it would cost.
“I’d like them to play by rules similar to the rules we as legislators have to follow,” he said.
Steve Ahrens, president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, said the effort to change the initiative system started because of how four initiatives made the 1996 ballot. Each made substantial use of paid signature gatherers, he said, and in some cases most of the money came from out of state.
“That’s the beginning of the situation where if you have $50,000 you can come in and buy your way onto the ballot,” Ahrens said.
xxxx RANKIN CALLS MEASURES ‘UN-AMERICAN’ Boise A proposal that would make it more difficult to bring initiatives before Idaho voters is “plain un-American,” Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin said. Rankin, author of the perennial One Percent Initiative, said proposed reforms on the initiative process would cut the public off from the legislative process. Idaho residents trying to bring initiatives before voters could discover collecting signatures will take more work and their proposals will face court challenges even before they get to the ballot. Rankin, who plans to file his One Percent Initiative next week, said lawmakers are out of touch with the public and therefore want to preclude the public from getting initiatives on the ballot. - Associated Press