Bill Makes It Hard To Put Initiatives On Idaho Ballots North Idaho Lawmakers Oppose Limits On Signature Gatherers

Idaho lawmakers took a big step Friday toward limiting the ability of residents to get initiatives on the ballot.

The House State Affairs Committee - in an 11-9 vote - endorsed the legislation and sent it along to the full House.

Arguing strongly against the measure were legislators from North Idaho, home of a controversial One Percent property tax limiting initiative.

“It’s the people’s right,” said Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Hayden. “I think if you put it before the people … they’d vote against it.”

As they have in previous hearings, supporters of the legislation talked at length about the last election, in which out-of-state groups poured money into Idaho to pay people to collect initiative signatures.

But the legislation, as proposed, would do almost nothing to change that. Committee members acknowledge that they can do little to restrict the practice of paying someone to collect initiative signatures.

The bill sent to the full House is to be amended to require the people who circulate petitions to declare on the written forms whether they were paid or volunteers.

Chief sponsor Rep. Mark Stubbs, R-Twin Falls, convinced the committee to recommend major amendments. They will be voted upon by the full House, probably on Monday.

The bill currently allows petition backers only 12 months to collect signatures. The amendment would extend that to 18 months. Most initiative drives now last up to two years.

Another amendment would delete the requirement that initiative backers turn in 25 percent of the required number of signatures six months after starting the signature drive.

The most controversial provision, requiring initiative groups to get signatures from at least half of Idaho’s counties, remains. The requirement would be at least signatures from 6 percent of the registered voters in at least 22 counties.

“If somebody really cares, they can get 22 counties just as easily as they have in the past,” said Rep. Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley.

Rep. Ruby Stone, R-Boise, said in recent elections, most of the signatures have been collected in the big counties. “Those people in the little counties are hardly ever contacted and they don’t know anything about it,” she said.

Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone, said the initiative process is so valuable to the people that there is no reason to restrict it.

“This (bill) makes it much more difficult to get initiatives on the ballot,” said Rep. John Tippets, R-Bennington.

After the meeting, Alltus called initiatives “a cage that keeps the Legislature from going to extremes.”

The vote to allow the proposal to proceed to the full House was not recorded. But Loertscher, Tippets, Alltus, Shirley McKague, R-Meridian and Democrats Jim Stoicheff of Sandpoint, Margaret Henbest of Boise and June Judd of St. Maries all said they wanted their votes recorded as no.

, DataTimes