Critics Say Bill Takes Too Much Initiative Bill Aims To Thwart Out-Of-State Interests

Sponsors of legislation to restrict initiatives say their bill is an effort to bring order to a process that is being “used and abused” by out-of-state interests.

But opponents claim if the Legislature approves the changes, it would be almost impossible to get citizen initiatives on the ballot in the future.

After listening to more than an hour of testimony, the committee postponed action until today. Chairman Rep. Ron Crane, R-Nampa, said he still had several people signed up to testify.

Lynn Fritchman of Boise, who headed the successful effort to get an initiative on the ballot to restrict bear hunting, told committee members the new legislation would make it extremely difficult to get initiatives on the ballot without turning to paid signature-gatherers.

“It is an extremely difficult task” under current laws to get enough signatures to put initiatives before voters, he said.

Idaho laws require signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the vote cast in the last gubernatorial election, currently 41,335. The initiative would change that to 6 percent of the number of registered voters, which Fritchman said would be about the same number.

The most contentious parts of the legislation require initiative supporters to get signatures equal to 6 percent of the registered voters in at least 22 of Idaho’s 44 counties. It also would require people paid to gather signatures to register with the state and wear photo identification.

“Six percent from 22 different counties is virtually impossible,” Fritchman said.

Don Clower, chairman of the Sportsmen Heritage Defense Fund, which opposed the bear initiative, said out-of-state groups poured money into Idaho to pay for signatures.

“Initiatives are being bought and paid for by out of state interests,” he said. “It is offensive to the ordinary Idaho citizen.”

The Idaho Farm Bureau is among sponsors of the initiative. Rick Keller of Chubbuck, an executive with the group, disputed that the changes would make it impossible to put initiatives before voters. If an issue is clearly presented and understood, it will be approved by voters if it has merit, he said.

A sponsor, Rep. Mark Stubbs, R-Twin Falls, defended the requirement to gather signatures in at least 22 counties.

“It forces people to go out into the outlying counties to get their signatures,” Stubbs said.

Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Hayden, noted that a provision allowing for court challenges before an issue goes before voters could be used for political purposes.

“That’s what people did a lot last year,” Stubbs said. If a ballot issue is unconstitutional, people should know that early in the process, he said.

Kootenai County Clerk Dan English said the changes would help the election process and county clerks. The bill gives clerks more time to check signatures for validity.

“I wholly endorse that,” he said. English said although Kootenai has only 8 percent of the state’s population, his staff was forced to check between 9 and 20 percent of the signatures turned in on a property tax initiative.

A man who has helped put three property tax initiatives on the ballot, and who is circulating petitions for another, Ron Rankin of Coeur d’Alene, said he is building a fund to attack legislators who vote for the restrictions.

Rankin, president of the Idaho Property Owners Association, said he has $12,000 to buy billboard space. “The names of the people who voted against initiatives will go on the billboards,” he said.