National: Initiative spending booms past $1 billion as corporations sponsor their own proposals
Corporations and some of the wealthiest Americans have spent more than $1 billion in the past 18 months on ballot initiatives in just 11 states, an unprecedented explosion of money used to pass new laws and influence the public debate.
According to campaign finance reports in 11 states with long histories of initiatives and referendums, the billion dollars spent since the beginning of 2012 is more than has been spent in any two-year period. Supporters and opponents of ballot measures spent nearly as much, $965 million, in 2005 and 2006.
The initiative process, originally aimed at giving citizens the chance to break industry’s hold on state legislatures, is increasingly becoming the domain of corporations and wealthy individuals who advance new laws for their own advantage, bypassing reluctant legislatures and spending millions of dollars along the way.
Read More: here