Too Many Referendums
10/29/09 | 12 comments
editorial

Too Many Referendums


When voters head to the polls Tuesday, five of the seven questions they will consider on the state ballot are the result of citizen petitions. It is doubtful that this is what Maine lawmakers had in mind a century ago when they approved the citizen initiative process.

The Nov. 3 ballot is clear evidence that higher standards are needed.

When lawmakers and voters approved a citizen petition and people’s veto process in 1908, they no doubt envisioned first that the process would be used rarely and, second, that it would be used for issues that citizens strongly felt that the government had mishandled.

Today, most campaigns pay professional signature gatherers, often with money collected from out-of-state interests. A simple way to address this is to raise the bar for such initiatives. Currently, signatures representing 10 percent of those who voted in the last gubernatorial election must be collected — and certified as valid — for a question to appear on the ballot, about 55,000. Several recent campaigns have collected more than 100,000 signatures, so doubling the number of required signatures should not be onerous.

Legislation has been introduced to ban paid signature gatherers and to require that signatures come from each of the state’s 16 counties. Such changes have been rejected by lawmakers.

Ballot questions now hang over legislative sessions preventing lawmakers from introducing needed legislation that could be considered competing measures, which also would have to appear on the ballot.

Meetings to discuss ballot measures must be carefully timed and planned so they can’t be considered campaign-related.

A larger problem, pointed out by former Rep. Jeremy Fischer in a recent edition of the Maine Law Review, is that initiative questions don’t have to clear the same financial hurdles as legislative proposals. Every bill considered in Augusta includes a fiscal note, an analysis by the Office of Fiscal and Program Review, which tells lawmakers how much the legislation is expected to cost. If funds are not available, a bill will not be enacted even if lawmakers supported it, because the state is required to balance the budget.

Initiative questions have no such requirement. As a result, voters in 2003 approved a measure put on the ballot by the Maine Municipal Association that required the state to fund 55 percent of local education. The state had to come up with an additional $500 million to fulfill this requirement.

“Through the initiative process, voters are presented with seductive ideas in a vacuum,” Mr. Fischer writes. “Voters are asked ‘Do you favor more spending on schools?’ or ‘Do you favor lower taxes?’ but they are not presented with full and honest choices.

“More spending on schools means less spending on other programs or a tax increase. Less taxes means less spending — possibly on schools. Yet, Maine voters are not presented with such choices,” he concludes.

Some states, like Arizona, Mississippi and Missouri, require that initiatives include a means to pay for themselves. The MMA question, under such requirements, could have read: “Do you support the state increasing its share of local school funding to 55 percent by raising taxes by X percent?”

This more honest approach should be adopted in Maine.

Not registered? Click here
E-mail this
Print this
Guidelines for posting on bangordailynews.com

Bangordailynews.com is pleased to offer a forum for readers to react to our stories, discuss them and provide additional information. We are reluctant to delete comments, but do reserve that right for those who abuse our forum. For more on using this site, please see our terms of service.

The primary rule here is pretty simple: Treat others with the same respect you'd want for yourself. What does that mean specifically? Here are some guidelines (see more):

Comments
12 comments on this item
On 10/29/09 at 5:15 AM, HarleyFox wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

It is not shocking that the Bangor Democrat News would promote big government with zero power to the people. What magic ball did you look into to be sure that you know exactly what politicians were thinking back in 1908. More communist and socialist propaganda being pushed by the clowns who work at this so called so called newspaper.

Report abuse
On 10/29/09 at 6:40 AM, Lobstarok wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I'd wager Maine lawmakers a century ago also weren't such a pile of turds either.

Report abuse
On 10/29/09 at 6:42 AM, hankwilliams wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Shouldn't it be "referenda"?

Report abuse
On 10/29/09 at 7:22 AM, Mainecommenter wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

hankwilliams: that wording leapt out at me as well! But, overall, a good editorial.

Report abuse
On 10/29/09 at 9:11 AM, HarryHSnyderIII wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Actually, with the suffragettes pounding on the door, and the John Philip Sousa themed parades, with Tammany Hall still in control of New York City's political system, and the populist people friendly Roosevelt administration just ending, I'll bet Maine lawmakers DID expect many referendum questions, and vigorous action from the grass roots.

I do agree that paid signature gatherers should be banned. I also personally believe that out-of-state contributors should be banned, or restricted to a point where some group from California, New York, or Florida can't influence a Maine election.

10% of the votes from the last gubernatorial election is an excellent threshold, and should be maintained.

Report abuse
On 10/29/09 at 9:21 AM, HarryHSnyderIII wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

.....also, forcing petitions to get signers from all 16 counties makes it unlikely that less populated northern Maine could meet that bar particularly if Portland, Lewiston, or Augusta had a strong opposing base.

Report abuse
On 10/29/09 at 10:01 AM, concernsme wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Required by law or not, schools have never reach 55 percent funding, and that was before the cuts began.

Report abuse
On 10/29/09 at 11:18 AM, Bandbox wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

This is the type of thing I've come to expect from the BDN, which seems to be just another house organ for the left wing of the Democratic party. The real problem isn't the referendum process, it's the stupidity and recklessness of the legislative majority which makes resort to the process necessary. The fact of the matter is that the BDN and its editorial writers don't object to the number of referendum questions on the ballot; they object to the content and purpose of the questions and the possibility that a majority of citizens, by their own direct votes, can reverse what a reckless legislature has done.

Report abuse
On 10/29/09 at 6:19 PM, Ladyslipper wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

What is obvoious is that the majority of Maine people are not being represented in Augusta.

Report abuse
On 10/30/09 at 4:19 PM, HarryHSnyderIII wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Ladyslipper wrote:

"What is obvoious is that the majority of Maine people are not being represented in Augusta."

I hear that!!!!

Report abuse
On 10/30/09 at 5:03 PM, Gopher wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

If you think you're the majority, your views should be the same as the voting results. Guess not (and you must be in the minority on a lot of issues).

Report abuse
On 10/31/09 at 11:33 AM, HarryHSnyderIII wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Gopher wrote:

"If you think you're the majority, your views should be the same as the voting results."

Gopher you need to go over to Orono and take Dr. Pratts statistics course. 7 issues, 300,000 voters (more or less) voting like a combination lock, in fact there is such a diverse voting pattern that you could "theoretically" have 98 separate groups voting differently.

Yes NO Yes Yes No

No Yes No Yes No

No Yes Yes Yes No

No Yes Yes Yes No

No Yes Yes Yes No

No Yes Yes Yes No

No Yes Yes Yes No

Get it? lots of different points of view on many subjects could mean that the losers in all categories could be the majority.

Report abuse
You must be logged in to post a comment. click here to log in.

Powered by: Creative Circle Advertising Solutions, Inc.