Indiana
The leader of the boycotting Indiana House Democrats said Thursday they are diligently working to find a way for a voter referendum on the contentious right-to-work bill, one that would survive questions on whether it is allowed under the state Constitution.
Democratic leader Patrick Bauer said the proposal could be prepared as soon as Friday, possibly clearing the way for the 35 absent Democrats to return to the House floor and allowing action on the right-to-work bill and other legislation.
Earlier this month, Indiana voters decided that school administrators are going to have to feel some of the pain caused by a lagging economy. Statewide, there were nine ballot initiatives dealing with requests for higher taxes to increase school funding. Four were approved. Five were not.
Noblesville Schools Superintendent Libbie Conner has visited seven churches and civic groups in the past two weeks, discussing the possible pieces of the district’s proposed second referendum. A new ballot initiative, following a failed one in January, could ask taxpayers to spend as much as $73.4 million.
Here at Citizens in Charge Foundation, we encourage people to petition their government about whatever concerns them. We’ve found that people have a wide variety of concerns to petition about. One example is a Lafayette, IN petition to allow urban chicken farming.
While the petition is unofficial, over 200 residents have signed in favor of allowing chickens in the city. We’re not sure how the city council will eventually rule, but we’re always glad to see people petition their government.
You have no statewide Initiative & Referendum rights.
Poll:
See the results of a poll on support for statewide initiative & referendum here.
Grade: F
Click here to view Indiana’s individual report in Of the People, By the People, For the People: A 2010 Report Card on Statewide Voter Initiative Rights.
After Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment establishing
I&R in November 1912, the Ohio leaders turned their attention to the state
next door. Rev. Herbert S. Bigelow and other leaders spoke throughout the
state and helped organize a Citizens’ League to work for I&R. Yet a native
Indiana reformer gave the situation a gloomy assessment in 1914:
“Indiana, politically, is one of the most backward of our States. It must
continue to be, under the ironclad restrictions of the present constitution.
Article 16.
Section 1.
(a) An amendment to this Constitution may be proposed in either branch
of the General Assembly. If the amendment is agreed to by a majority of
the members elected to each of the two houses, the proposed
amendment shall, with the yeas and nays thereon, be entered on their
journals, and referred to the General Assembly to be chosen at the next
general election.
Former U.S. Term Limits spokesman Paul Jacob, who in 2000 made a campaign appearance with Johnson, says that in all, at least 25 members of Congress (not all Republicans) have broken such promises. (Read More)