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Idaho House Approves Initiative Reform Bill

Idaho Public Television

The Idaho state House today [Friday] approved — and sent to the governor — a bill that would make it more difficult to quality citizen initiatives for the ballot. The vote came after more than two hours of debate, during which Democrats worked unsuccessfully to derail the bill.

To be sure, this an emotional debate, with Democrats arguing the bill’s sponsor in the House, Ponderay Republican Sage Dixon, is trying to silence the voice of the people. Dixon assured his colleagues he’s not trying to take away the rights of citizens to file ballot initiatives.

“Debates like this always give us the opportunity to get up and make bold statements and get on TV and look really good to our constituents or those who we want to....", he said, until he was interrupted.

“Objection!”

The dissenting voice was that of Rep. John McCrostie (D-Garden City).

“Mr. Speaker, I object to the notion that people are getting up and speaking just to get on television and that’s impugning motive and I take offense,” McCrostie said.

Dixon apologized and Speaker Mike Moyle urged his colleagues not to openly question their peers’ motives. It was an admonishment he gave several times.

Dixon and others say their bill is based, at least in part, on their view of the structure of Idaho government. Citizens elect representatives to make laws.

“Each one of us represents a district and the people, as I said before, with varied interests, and that is our job, to represent those interests. The ballot process goes around those representative interests. I understand sometimes that the citizens of a certain area might not like what’s happening in the legislature, but that’s rule by majority. That’s not how we’re set up," Dixon said.

Dixon’s bill would increase the signature requirements. The current rule says sponsors must collect at least 6% of the signatures of registered voters in 18 of the state’s 35 legislative districts. They have 18 months to get them. The bill would mandate 10% of signatures in 32 districts and give sponsors six months to collect them. It also requires initiatives to be limited to one subject, to have an implementation date and to identify funding sources, if they’re to cost money. And it requires sponsors to include fiscal impact statements as determined by a neutral state government agency. Dixon says those are all things lawmakers must do when they sponsor legislation.

He says those measures would improve the initiative process by requiring buy-in from a broader range of voters.

Democrats don’t agree. Neither did several Republicans, including Rep. Priscilla Giddings (R-White Bird).

In 1912, the voters of Idaho approved two constitutional amendments, one to give citizens the right to create initiatives and the other to give them the right of referendum.

“Really, what we are discussing is changing the Constitution, because you’re trying to make it so difficult that we can’t even use this in the Constitution without changing the Constitution," Giddings said. "But if we were doing the right thing and changing the Constitution and having a debate about whether we agree or disagree about initiatives, then we’d be changing this document and the people would be voting on it.”

Democrats call this the Revenge on Voters bill and believe it’s a direct response to the November passage of Proposition 2, the Medicaid expansion initiative that many Republicans oppose.

There are only 14 Democrats out of 70 in the state House, but they went down swinging. Nearly all of them got up to speak against the bill, including Ilana Rubel of Boise. She said the proposition was a direct response to legislators refusing to do anything to make health care more accessible and affordable.

“They wouldn’t bother doing this. Nobody’s going to go spend thousands of hours knocking on strangers’ doors if they think their legislature is going to help them," Rubel said. "Obviously the things they’re going to push are the things the legislators aren’t going to do for them, so yes, that is built into this. That is structurally part of their constitutional right.”

Rubel and other Democrats argued, if the bill becomes law, that it will be challenged in court. Their point was supported this week by a letter from four former Idaho attorneys general, including three Republicans, who also question its constitutionality.

After the debate, the House approved the bill by a 40-to-30 vote, which, coupled by a squeaker 18-to-17 vote this week in the Senate, means the bill is off to the governor’s desk for a signature. Opponents are urging him to veto it.

Right after the vote, the House immediately took up a similar bill that sponsors called a ’trailer.’ It has two slight tweaks. It would give initiative sponsors 30 more days to collect signatures and slightly lowers the threshold requirement for number of signatures needed.

That bill was also approved and sent to the Senate for consideration.