Initiative for Texas Information Bulletin #8

The Minnesota House passed the I&R amendment
by a 76-57 margin.  State Representative Erik Paulsen
(R-Eden Prairie) has championed this issuefor several years
and was the driving force behind the success in the House.

The next big hurdle is the Senate which is openly hostile
to the idea.  However, a strong group is working with a plan
intending to change that.  An article from the Star Tribune
follows.
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Initiative-and-referendum returns this year for another vote
By Dane Smith, Star Tribune, Published Mar 22, 2002

The Minnesota House approved a bill Thursday that would allow
voters next fall to decide whether they want an initiative and
referendum option for enacting or repealing laws.

No companion bill is advancing in the Senate, however, and
DFLers (Democrat-Farmers League) said the perennial Republican
effort to move "I&R" has no chance of passage this year.

Initiative and referendum, on the books in 24 states, is a
form of direct democracy that would allow citizens to put
legislation directly on the ballot by collecting signatures
on a statewide petition.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Eden Prairie,
said I&R is a relief valve for the system "when politicians
refuse to act, when the governor is disdainful, or when
courts won't respond."

Critics of I&R say that it often is exploited by well-funded
interest groups, and that the proliferation of questions on
the ballot, best exemplified by California's experience,
has created confusion for voters and chaos in state government.

Paulsen, however, argued that his bill would set a much
tougher standard than California's for putting items on the ballot.

Under his bill, advocates of a ballot measure would have to
gather signatures equal to at least 5 percent of the voters
in the last gubernatorial election, and at least 5 percent in
six of the state's eight congressional districts.  States with
standards that tough see an average of only about one or
two ballot questions every year, Paulsen said.

Although the bill passed 76 to 57, on a mostly party-line
vote with the support of several DFLers, House Minority
Leader Tom Pugh, DFL-South St. Paul, said it again has
no support in the Senate and is "going nowhere. . . . 
We take this vote every two years."

Paulsen said the margin of passage and the fact that
Gov. Jesse Ventura supports the bill should put the matter
"in the mix" of key proposals that are part of negotiations
at the end of the legislative session.