History
Agitation for initiative and referendum in Michigan started with the
formation of the state’s Direct Legislation Club in 1895 by George F.
Sherman and David Inglis, both Detroit physicians. Inglis was 45 years old,
a distinguished professor at the Detroit Medical College. Sherman and
Inglis led I&R efforts in Michigan for over a decade without success,
despite support from the noted reformer, Detroit mayor, and later
Michigan governor Hazen S. Pingree. In 1900 S. D. Williams of Battle Creek
cited the legislature’s Republican majority as the major obstacle.
The reformers won passage of an I&R amendment at the state
constitutional convention of 1907. The voters ratified it in 1908, but the
victory turned out to be hollow. The amendment proved so restrictive that
citizens were unable to place a single initiative on the ballot.
Michigan I&R advocates resumed lobbying the legislature for a better
amendment and gained the support of Governor Chase S. Osborn, a
Progressive elected in 1910. The legislature rejected Osborn’s attempts,
but relented in 1913 during the administration of Governor Ferris, another
I&R supporter.
Under the new provisions, it took 39,000 signatures to put a
constitutional amendment initiative on the 1914 ballot. The first two
initiatives that won voter approval, however, were on the ballot in 1932: a
measure to establish a liquor control commission passed overwhelmingly,
and an amendment to limit property taxes won 51.1 percent of the vote.
In 1938, voters passed an amendment specifying that gas and vehicle
weight tax money must be used for roads and streets; the following year,
in an April special election, they approved a system for the nonpartisan
election of judges. In 1946, voters enacted an initiative to ensure that part
of the state’s sales tax revenues were returned to the municipalities; in
1948, they modified the property tax limitation.
The initiative for which Michigan is most famous is the Bottle Bill,
approved by a two to one margin in 1976, which put a 10-cent deposit on
bottles and cans.
In 1998, the voters rejected a physician assisted suicide initiative and in
2000 defeated a school voucher initiative that was sponsored by Amway
founder Dick DeVos.
Excerpted from the Initiative & Referendum Almanac by M. Dane Waters.