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Thursday, September 4, 2008
Ref O benefits from support of heavy hitters
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Colorado · Source: Face The State
Dozens of state organizations and elected officials have endorsed Referendum O, a measure that proposes to transform Colorado's ballot initiative process. Under current state law, there is no difference in the process between putting a statutory measure or a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Ref O seeks to change this. According Rep. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, special interests have no reason not to put something in the constitution. “If they’re going to the trouble of collecting signatures, spending money in the media to get a "yes" vote for their campaign, if there is no difference between statutory and constitutional, they’re going to go for a constitutional measure,” she said in a Face The State podcast. Ref O would alter the process between statutory and constitutional measures by changing signature-gathering requirements, mandating that campaigns gather signatures from each of the state’s seven Congressional districts. It would also increase the number of voter signatures needed for a constitutional change to 6 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, up from the current requirement 5 percent, or just over 76,000.
One less initiative on hefty Colorado ballot
Category: Affirmative Action · State: Colorado · Source: Rocky Mountain News
An initiative that would have preserved affirmative action programs in Colorado fell short of the required number of signatures to make November's crowded ballot, the secretary of state's office said Wednesday. Initiative 82 was nearly 8,000 signatures short following a line-by- line verification of the petitions, according to Secretary of State Mike Coffman. There are 18 statewide issues on the Nov. 4 ballot, in addition to local ballot questions and races, state legislative contests, and U.S. House, Senate and presidential races. "Don't throw away your blue book when you get it," said Rich Coolidge, Coffman's spokesman, of the official state voter guide mailed to voters.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Cole Co. judge upholds tossing out petition signatures
Category: Eminent Domain · State: Missouri · Source: KWMU St. Louis
A Cole County judge has upheld Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's decision to toss out thousands of signatures on two eminent domain ballot petitions. Judge Richard Callahan ruled that petition circulators must be properly registered with the Secretary of State's office; otherwise, the signatures they collect cannot be counted. The decision affects around 4,300 signatures from the St. Louis area. Laura Egerdal is Communications Director for Carnahan. "You know, at this point, (the) statute is very clear that we are prohibited from accepting signatures that were collected by unregistered circulators," Egerdal said. Ron Calzone, who chairs the group Missouri Citizens for Property Rights, disagrees.
Drink tax is kept off ballot
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Allegheny County Board of Elections yesterday ruled that both referendum questions on the 10 percent drink tax should not be placed on the November ballot because they are illegal according to county and state law. In a ruling that seems to be a bigger blow to the restaurateurs and bar owners than it is to the county, the three judges temporarily serving as Board of Elections members unanimously declined to certify either ballot initiative. Bar and restaurant owners wanted to decrease the drink tax to 0.5 percent from 10 percent. The county wanted a referendum to offset a loss in drink tax revenues with a property tax increase. The county judges, appointed to replace the regular board members because of their public positions on both measures, cited established case law -- Hempfield School District v. Lancaster County -- to knock down the referendum petition by the group Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation, called FACT. FACT is composed of restaurateurs and bar owners who have opposed the drink tax since it was proposed together with a $2-a-day tax on car rentals to fund mass transit. It submitted 44,598 petition signatures to the county elections office last month in support of a ballot initiative to ask voters whether they want a reduction in the drink tax.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Initiative will aim to cut subsidies to retail stores
Category: City Government · State: Texas · Source: Austin Daily Texan
On the Nov. 4 ballot, Austin residents will not only face a decision between McCain and Obama, but also whether to prevent the city from subsidizing retail stores. If approved, a new citizen-led initiative called Stop Domain Subsidies will halt any tax rebates or subsidies provided by the city to retail stores. City officials designed the subsidies to generate more tax revenue by attracting more retail stores. In its last meeting, the city council approved the initiative's wording for the Nov. 4 ballot. Brian Rodgers, a local real estate investor, started the campaign in response to the 2003 city council decision to provide Endeavor Real Estate Group and its partner Simon Property Group Inc. with tax rebates for 20 years to develop retail space in Austin. In May of that year, the development company proposed to build a large mall center with 700,000 square feet of luxury retail and restaurant space called The Domain. In a 6-1 decision, council members approved the project and included a $65 million tax rebate to be provided over 20 years to the developers in the contract, Rodgers said. If Rodgers' initiative is unsuccessful, the city will also return 50 to 80 percent of the mall's sales tax to the developer. The money would allow The Domain to further generate profit.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Alaska Vote Pits Fisheries Against Mines
Category: Environmentalism · State: Alaska · Source: Washington Post
Salmon and gold mining. Both are, inarguably, very Alaskan. But on Tuesday, Alaskans will vote on a ballot measure that is being framed as a choice between the two industries and portrayed by both sides as striking at the heart of what it means to be Alaskan. The initiative was drafted to block the proposed Pebble Mine, a massive operation that would extract gold, copper and molybdenum from the tundra surrounding Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska, one of the world's most lucrative wild salmon fisheries. The measure would prohibit any new large metal mines from polluting salmon streams or drinking-water sources. Proponents acknowledge that they drafted the measure to block the Pebble Mine, which they say will poison two major streams where salmon come to spawn.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Affirmative-action initiative fails to make ballot
Category: Affirmative Action · State: Arizona · Source: Arizona Republic
An initiative that would amend the Arizona Constitution to ban affirmative-action programs in the state was disqualified from the ballot Thursday by Secretary of State Jan Brewer. Proposition 104, known as the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, becomes the third measure this year to be booted from the ballot because of failure to submit enough valid signatures to the state. Prop. 104 proponents vowed to appeal, probably early next week. In other action Thursday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Aceto dealt a setback to supporters of a proposed transportation initiative as he refused to restore the measure to the ballot. Supporters of the TIME initiative, dealing with signature problems similar to the civil-rights measure, now plan to appeal to the state Supreme Court. The Arizona Civil Rights Initiative initially submitted 334,735 signatures to the state. But following petition reviews by the Secretary of State's Office and the state's 15 county recorders, that number was whittled down to 194,961 valid signatures. That's short of the 230,047 required for a Constitutional amendment.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Voters to Be Asked Whether To Limit Citizen Initiatives in Polk
Category: City Government · State: Florida · Source: Lakeland Ledger
County commissioners decided Wednesday to ask residents whether they want to squelch themselves. By a 4-1 vote, commissioners agreed to put four proposed charter amendments on the Nov. 4 ballot. The changes, if approved by voters, would make it harder for citizens to change the county charter or enact ordinances commissioners refused to consider. They would also prevent any question regarding citizen initiatives or tax referendums from being considered at any time other than during general elections every two years. Commissioner Jean Reed was the lone dissenting vote on the measures involving charter amendments. The tax amendment proposal passed unanimously.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Fighting A Ballot Question
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Connecticut · Source: Hartford Courant
Tens of thousands of dollars is being raised in an effort to persuade Connecticut voters to reject a proposal on the November ballot to reopen the state constitution. The state's largest teachers union, the Connecticut Education Association, has contributed $40,000 to the group "Vote No: Protect Our Constitution." Planned Parenthood of Connecticut has given $5,000 to the same cause, according to filings with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. That news prompted one member of the group pushing to change the constitution, the Connecticut Constitution Convention Campaign, to send out e-mails urging its members to contribute. The campaign is a coalition of groups that wants voters to approve a state convention so the Connecticut constitution can be changed. The Connecticut Constitution Convention Campaign has raised $1,110.
Initiative thrown out for lack of signatures
Category: Property Rights · State: Arizona · Source: Tuscon Explorer
Measure seeks to allow state to sell land to local governments at market value Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer last Friday disqualified Proposition 103 — the “Conserving Arizona’s Water and Land Initiative” — from appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot. Proponents of the measure seek to reform the Arizona State Land Department and how its holdings are managed and sold. According to the state constitution, the land department has to put lands up for sale at public auction. The initiative would change that, allowing the state to sell the lands directly to local governments for purposes of conservation. The measure also would have set aside 570,000 acres of the state land department’s 9 million acres for permanent protection. But the measure lacked the minimum number of signatures to make it on the ballot, according to Brewer.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Honolulu judge rules in favor of anti-rail petition
Category: City Government · State: Hawaii · Source: Bizjournals
A Honolulu judge ruled Thursday that the city clerk’s office must accept an anti-rail petition. Members of Stop Rail Now say they believe the ruling paves the way to allow Oahu residents to vote on a proposed ordinance this fall that reads, “Honolulu mass transit shall not include trains or rail.” Circuit Court Judge Karl Sakamoto’s decision means the city clerk must accept and verify within 20 days whether Stop Rail Now has gathered a sufficient number of valid signatures. City Clerk Denise De Costa had argued the petition was delivered too late to be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot. Stop Rail Now said it has collected more than 49,000 signatures and will deliver the petition Thursday afternoon.
Crafton turns in signatures for English Only
Category: English · State: Tennessee · Source: Nashville City Paper
Councilman Eric Crafton turned in the signatures of reportedly 12,503 registered Davidson County voters to the Metro Clerk's office Thursday, clearing the way for the English Only charter amendment proposal to be on the ballot in November. Crafton also conceded at least a portion of the approximately $20,000 the petition drive cost came from a national English First group. He said he did not know what percentage. "I wasn't the one adding them up, so I don't know how much," Crafton said. The signatures will need to be verified by the Davidson County Election Commission, which Crafton said should take about two weeks. The English Only charter amendment proposal states that no one has a right to any Metro government services in any language except English. Crafton said the Nashville English First group, which sponsored the initiative raised about $20,000 for the effort, which primarily consisted of mailing petitions to voters. Crafton did not disclose the funding for the initiative, but said he would do so once the signed petitions were verified by the Election Commission.
NOVEMBER BALLOT: Property tax petition advances
Category: Taxes · State: Nevada · Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Secretary of State Ross Miller on Thursday rejected a challenge to Sharron Angle's initiative petition to cap property tax rates, sending it to the November general election. The constitutional amendment, which would limit annual property tax increases to 2 percent per year on all property, faced a challenge from the state teachers union aimed at keeping it off the ballot. After a review of the complaint and the response from Angle's attorney, the concerns over the affidavits filed by signature gatherers were rejected, said Matt Griffin, deputy secretary of state for elections. Barring a successful legal challenge by the Nevada State Education Association in the courts, the measure will be on the ballot, he said. It will have to pass twice, in November and again in 2010, before it can take effect.
Gloucester residents initiate recall of mayor
Category: City Government · State: Massachusetts · Source: Boston Globe
A dozen Gloucester residents representing several community groups have initiated a recall of Mayor Carolyn Kirk, saying her handling of the high school "pregnancy pact" brouhaha was the final straw in her failure to lead the city "fairly and effectively." In a petition being circulated, the group also says the mayor has failed to ensure open government by refusing to investigate and prosecute waste and fraud, particularly in the police and public works departments. Annette Dion, a 45-year-old private music teacher in Gloucester, said the resignation last week of Gloucester High principal Joseph Sullivan, a decision he said was based on what he termed slander by the mayor, was the boiling point in the group's built-up frustrations with Kirk's administration. "We don't agree with Carolyn Kirk's style of leading the city," Dion said. "In many instances, she's not met with people who have asked. She's not really been very good with the public."
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Ballot initiative hangs in limbo: Approximately 1,500 signatures gathered to limit compensation for commissioners
Category: City Government · State: Michigan · Source: Sault Ste. Marie Evening News
Clear as mud. Those three words pretty well sum up the status of a local petition drive to limit the compensation of individual Chippewa County Commissioners to $8,400. “We all know the value of petitions,” said one of the key members of the grassroots organization, Debbie Sirk, in presenting the signatures to the board. “Now let’s work together to find a way to put this on the ballot.” The commissioners, however, expressed a reluctance to give their approval and, from all indications, they weren’t even sure if they could. Commissioner Scott Shackleton said that while he had a tremendous amount of respect for the democratic process and the citizen petition, he didn’t feel it was the county commission’s responsibility to put the question on the ballot. Shackleton said he would have the same reservations if the group was asking for a park designation or petitioning for taxes to go up or down.
English-only petition gets 12,500 signatures
Category: English · State: Tennessee · Source: The Tennessean
Metro Nashville Councilman Eric Crafton, one of the driving forces behind the English-only ballot initiative, will deliver about 12,500 signed petition cards to the Metro clerk at noon tomorrow, Crafton said. Crafton also has filed a bill that calls for individuals to pay a fee if they need translation to deal with Metro government. On Tuesday, the council will have the option to take the first of three votes on the translation fee measure. Since mid-June, Crafton and a small group of English-only policy supporters have worked to revive an effort to make English Nashville's official language and restrict government business, publications, meetings and communications to the English language. A similar measure passed the Metro Council last year but was vetoed by then-mayor Bill Purcell. To bypass the possibility of a mayoral veto, Crafton opted this time to attempt to amend the Metro Charter.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Repeal group says it has enough signatures
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Michigan · Source: Grand Haven Tribune
The Say Yes to Sunday group says it has more than enough signatures to give Ottawa County voters a chance to repeal the ban on Sunday beer and wine sales. Now they'll have to wait and see how many of those petition signatures are from registered Ottawa County voters. The group said it has 39,700 signatures as of 8 this morning, which — if they are all valid — is 1,944 more than necessary to get the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. Say Yes to Sunday spokesman Jim Storey said the group could have between 41,000 and 42,000 signatures by the time members deliver the petition to County Clerk Dan Krueger this afternoon.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Power play: OEA isn't in the voters' corner
Category: Blocking · State: Oklahoma · Source: The Oklahoman
WHEN it comes to creativity, the Oklahoma Education Association deserves a failing grade. Time and again, the state's largest teachers union has made clear that it cares more about teachers' paychecks, money grabs and the status quo than taxpayers and the state's overall well-being. The latest evidence is an effort to amend the Oklahoma Constitution and force taxpayers to spend millions of dollars more per year on common education. The union has started an initiative petition drive to get the proposed amendment on a 2010 statewide ballot. If the drive is successful, voters would be asked to change the constitution and require lawmakers to fund schools at the regional average in per-pupil expenditures. The change could shift $850 million in state funding to common education from other state services or require tax increases.
Tax hike for new roads fails to get on ballot
Category: Transportation · State: Arizona · Source: East Valley Tribune
An ambitious statewide transportation measure, championed by Gov. Janet Napolitano and a cadre of Arizona’s most powerful interest groups, has failed to make the November ballot. Secretary of State Jan Brewer announced Monday that Proposition 203, the TIME initiative, had fallen thousands of signatures short of the 153,365 needed to qualify. Nearly half of the 260,698 signatures submitted by last month’s deadline were tossed out. “I am very surprised that a ballot measure ended up with over 42 percent of its signatures being invalid,” Brewer said in a statement. “That is among the largest overall invalid rates that I can recall ever seeing from a citizens initiative drive.” The initiative, backed by business and economic development groups, would have asked voters for a 1-cent state sales tax hike to finance $42 billion worth of freeways, trains, buses and other transportation needs.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Petition idea doesn't add up
Category: Education · State: Oklahoma · Source: The Oklahoman
The education lobby will soon ask Oklahoma voters to sign a petition requiring that our state per-pupil school spending must always equal the regional average. There are at least four reasons why this is a bad and dangerous idea. First, anyone who knows basic arithmetic understands why this won't work. Every time you raise Oklahoma's per-pupil spending you also raise the regional average, even if the other states in our region do nothing. That ever-escalating average then becomes the carrot at the end of a stick, forever just out of reach. You can never equal a moving average when what you do drives that average forward. Second, the petition would require the immediate allocation of at least 850 million new dollars to the schools. Since the Oklahoma Constitution insists that we balance our budget, those dollars could come from only two places — other state programs or tax increases.