Colorado
Despite the passage last year of a ballot initiative that requires police to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers the city has not been doing so. The city has been taking advantage of what some claim is a loophole in the law that allows officers discretion on impounds. Supporters of last year’s initiative say they may come back to voters with a fix or the law.
The battle whether or not to legalize marijuana has gotten a lot more attention in recent weeks. With the drug cartel wars on the Mexican border and the large number of politically activist supporters of the drug, it appears the discussion has reached a fever pitch.
In Denver voters organized, signed petitions and placed the initiative on the ballot. Now voters will be deciding whether police should treat possession of small amounts of marijuana as the lowest priority crime.
A Denver man is has reworked his proposed ballot initiative that would create a city commission to study extraterrestrials. An attempt to put the measure on the May 2008 ballot failed to get the 4,000 required signatures.
A state House Panel has passed a bill that would place several regulations on the ballot initiative process in Colorado. The measure would ban payment on a per-signature basis, require petition companies to register with the state, and move up the deadline to file signatures.
We often talk on this blog about threats to the initiative and referendum process, but this recent article in the Colorado Independent illustrates more concretely what initiative rights proponents are up against.
Several state activists have used the initiative and referendum (I&R) process to pass Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) legislation.
TABOR is seen by some as a way of limiting the growth of government. It requires increases in overall state government spending to be tied to inflation and population increases.
House Speaker Terrance Carroll has introduced legislation that would impose new regulations on petition circulators. The bill mainly takes aim at paid petitioning, which critics claim invites fraud…
Colorado’s 2008 ballot saw the most initiatives in over 90 years, and the 2009-10 ballot could see even more. There are already ten initiatives proposed for the upcoming state ballot.
Denver’s KBDI Channel 12 today broadcasted an interview with Paul Jacob, President of Citizens in Charge Foundation, discussing the ballot initiative and referendum (I&R) process. Host Jon Caldera of the Independence Institute asked Jacob questions on reforming the I&R process, its affects on voters and public policy.
Date Initiative language can be submitted to state for November 2002:
Anytime
Signatures are tied to vote of which office: Secretary of State
Next Secretary of State election: 2010
Votes cast for Secretary of State in last election: 1,520,935
Net number of signatures required: 5% of votes cast for Secretary of State
in last election, for both statutes and amendments. (76,046 signatures)
Distribution Requirement: None
You have full Initiative & Referendum rights. Citizens can pass laws they write or suspend a statute passed by the Legislature by collecting enough petition signatures to place the statute on the statewide ballot for a decision by the voters. Voters can also initiate constitutional amendments by Initiative.
Coalition Partners:
Poll:
See the results of a poll on support for statewide initiative & referendum here.
The effort for I&R in Colorado was started by Dr. Persifor M. Cooke of
Denver in the mid-1890s. As secretary and president of the Colorado
Direct Legislation League, Cooke and the constitutional lawyer J. Warner
Mills of Denver fought for I&R from 1900 until 1910, when Governor John F.
Shafroth called a special session of the legislature to consider the issue.
The constitutional amendments that were passed provided for initiative,
referendum, and recall on both state and local levels.
Proponents must submit the original text of the measure
to the directors of the Legislative Council Staff and the Office of Legal
Services for review and comment. Proponents must designate two people
as those representing the proponents in all matters affecting the petition.
Drafts are to be submitted in typewritten form and are to be written in
plain, non-technical language, using words with common and everyday
meaning understandable to the average reader.
A group of Republican lawmakers want to eliminate Colorado’s conservation easement tax credit to funnel roughly $100 million a year into highway improvements. Conservation easements are used to protect private land of historic or environmental importance. House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, and Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, said Thursday their ballot measure to suspend the credit is a sensible way to avoid levying new fees on Colorado drivers and repair the state’s roads.