local initiative
The proposition, which qualified for the ballot in May, seeks to criminalize anyone practicing circumcision on boys under the age of 18 within San Francisco. A handful of proponents of the anti-circumcision ballot measure that is set for November’s election disrupted a July 21 news conference announcing state legislation that might halt the proposition before San Franciscan residents have a chance to vote on it.
The Los Angeles Police Commission voted Tuesday to kill the city’s red light enforcement camera program, unanimously rejecting arguments that the cameras increase safety.
Nebraska’s Appeals Court has ruled that an initiative that would make it illegal to lease or rent to an illegal alien and require anyone living in the city to obtain an occupancy permit from the police department does not violate the state’s single-subject rule. The court also held that it cannot rule on the constitutionality of the requirements of the measure until and unless the voters approve it.
The right of residents of La Center, WA to propose initiatives and referendums is expected to be recognized this month by the city council. The recognition comes after citizens submitted a petition to the council asking for the recognition of a formal petitioning process.
Those were the words of Shannon Thomason of the Big Spring, TX Concerned Citizens
Council. Trevor Ford and I traveled to Big Spring this week to find out why the city council went so far as to violate Texas public meeting law to hold an emergency meeting to prevent a tax rollback from making the citywide ballot.
Nebraska resident Kent Bernbeck has filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on paying campaign workers who circulate petitions by the signature and requirement that petition circulators be over the age of 18.
As the mentioned here, the most famous Massachusetts initiative petition is known as “Proposition 2 1/2”, which just happens to be a perfect example of the fusion between the state and local level I&R processes in the Commonwealth. Ever since Prop. 2 1/2 passed in 1982, voters in a municipality must pass a “Proposition 2 1/2 override” to increase property taxes beyond 2.5% of the assessed value of all taxable property contained in it the municipality. Towns rarely do pass Prop. 2 1/2 overrides.
The Governor of New York is expected to sign a bill that makes it easier to use the local ballot initiative process. Only initiatives to dissolve or merge local governments would be effected.