Governor Foster to push initiative
(Advocate Baton Rouge LA; 12/27/98)

Gov. Mike Foster is hot to deliver in 1999 on one of the promises left from his 1995 campaign for governor. Foster wants to open the door for Louisiana voters to make state laws themselves.

Shortly after taking office, Foster pushed the idea of voter initiatives - allowing voters to bypass the Legislature and put issues directly on the ballot. But he couldn't get the House and Senate to agree on the details of how to do it.

Foster is still pushing voter initiatives and now wants to add referendums and allow the Legislature to put issues on the ballot by simple majority vote.

Foster says initiatives and referendums would undercut special-interest influence at the State Capitol and give voters a stronger voice in their own destiny.

Foster is convinced voters want initiatives and referendums, and he's planning to push hard to get the two-thirds vote in the Legislature needed to put the issues on the ballot for voters.

Foster's plan is to remove constitutional prohibitions on initiatives and referendums but not spell out how either would work for now.

The idea, Foster said, is to fill in the details in some future session, after the issues have been approved in principle by voters.

Spelling out the details in advance "makes it too hard to pass in the Legislature," Foster said.

Criticism of Foster's plan has begun already. For example, Rep. William Daniel, D-Baton Rouge, said the initiative and referendum idea is a veiled way to get tax hikes past the Legislature and on a statewide ballot.

Foster also is running into opposition from his friends at the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.

LABI President Dan Juneau said the opposition is not, as Foster contends, a matter of special interests fearing or trying to thwart the will of the people.

Rather, Juneau, said he doesn't like the idea of increasing the power of the governor at the expense of the Legislature.

Juneau said Louisiana already has referendums. They're done by constitutional amendment and require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to be put on the ballot.

"It's an annoyance to get a two-thirds vote," Juneau said. "... If they (governors) can go strong-arm the Legislature to dump things out by a majority vote, ... we are going to see the Legislature become much more of a rubber stamp."

Foster plans to contrast his push for initiatives and referendums with efforts by some lawmakers to expand legislative sessions.

The Legislature currently meets for 60 out of 85 days in odd-numbered years to consider any matter lawmakers want to tackle, except for tax and fee increases. In even-numbered years, lawmakers meet for 30 out of 45 days to consider financial matters only.

Many lawmakers think that structure limits legislators' ability to push their own issues and puts too much power in the hands of the governor, who typically controls the agenda of any special sessions that might be called.

Some lawmakers want a wide-open, 60-day session every year similar to the arrangement before a 1993 constitutional change.

Foster is trying to play the two ideas - initiatives and referendums and longer sessions - against each other.

And Foster is enlisting the support of Louisiana voters - as he did recently before a group of about 500 people in Alexandria.

Foster said he told the group that some lawmakers want to return to the old system of 60-day sessions every year and asked for a show of hands by people who like that idea.

"I didn't get a single hand," Foster said.

Foster said he also talked about initiatives and referendums and how "a little bit of extra democracy" isn't so bad.

Foster said he then asked for a show of hands in support of initiatives and referendums.

"I got almost all the hands," Foster said, adding he plans more such informal polls as he makes public appearances in the months ahead.

"By the time I speak to the Legislature on this, it's going to be real plain what we are talking about," Foster said. "It's going to be about whether you think people have enough smarts in this state to be allowed this right."

Imagine being a legislator sitting in the audience when the governor asks your constituents if they want the Legislature to meet longer or if they want more control over their own destiny.

The answers from the voters are predictable - and the lesson won't be lost on legislators.

(Copyright 1998 by Capital City Press)