Tag: ballot title

Categories
general freedom initiative, referendum, and recall

Voters Beware

Colorado, Initiative 55

The ballot title of Colorado’s Initiative 55 should refer to an amendment “to prevent you from using statewide initiatives to reduce property taxes.”

Instead, it talks about an amendment requiring any citizen-​initiated measure “that affects the property tax revenue of a local government by modifying the property tax assessment rate or mill levy rate to be decided only in a local election.”

The politicians hope that this somniferous wording will hide the true nature of the measure.

“Don’t be bamboozled by Initiative 55’s sly wording,” warns Natalie Menton, an anti-​tax, pro-​petition-​rights activist.

Proponents of Initiative No. 55 say they want citizen-​initiated changes in property taxes to be decided “only in a local election” without making clear that “under the current law, this is not possible for more than 90% of local situations.”

Menton gives examples of initiatives that would become impossible if Initiative 55 eludes voter skepticism.

One is any statewide measure to provide relief for owners of agricultural land, which “has a far higher tax assessment rate (300%-plus) than single-​family homes.” If 55 reaches ballot and passes, it would become unconstitutional for citizens to place a question on the statewide ballot to reduce this burden.

What we see here is an ancient strategy of politicians. In seeking to expand their power, they pretend that increased power isn’t the agenda at all! 

They engage in cover-up. 

Don’t let it succeed here, Coloradoans. Don’t sign a petition to put 55 on the November ballot. If it gets there, vote No.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Categories
ballot access term limits

Too Sneaky by Half

A funny thing happened on the way to reform.

The freshly minted Republican-​dominated Arksansas State Assumbly put up three constitutional amendments for next November’s ballot. Secretly, they are likely proudest of one of them, “The Arkansas Elected Officials Ethics, Transparency, and Financial Reform Act.” For, snuck into the amendment, is a gutting of term limits.

The voters long ago enacted six-​year House limits, not the 16 years proposed now by legislators. The voters limit state senators to two four-​year terms, while legislators are trying to double their ride on the gravy train.

A number of legislators now claim even they didn’t know the term limits provision was in the legislation. Others explain that their “aye” vote was cast mistakenly on their behalf after they had left the building.

But all that’s nothing compared to this wrinkle, which I wrote about on Townhall this weekend. Hidden in a separate piece of legislation passed last year was a strange provision dealing with setting ballot language for measures referred by the legislature. Legislators took the power to write a ballot measure’s “Popular Name” — the so-​called short title — away from the Attorney General, who previously enjoyed that statutory role, and gave it to themselves.

However, after legally stripping any other elected official of that same power, the plotters neglected to do one teensy-​weensy thing: provide that language for their new term extension.

The upshot? The sneaky, dishonest anti-​term limits amendment may not appear on the ballot.

Hoisted on their own petard, the whole elaborate scheme threatens to blow up in their own dear faces.

Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Illustration by ocularinvasion used under a Creative Commons license.