Citizens in Charge

Writing for the Missouri Record, Patrick Tuohey says:

According to Washington University professor Gregory Magarian, “Missouri appears to be a national leader in overturning voter initiatives.” The legislature has acted against the publicly stated will of the people on matters dealing with handguns (2003), minimum wage (2006), clean energy (2008) and school funding (2009) in addition to the 2010 puppy mill vote. Sponsors of the measure are right to ask, if the people’s will can so easily be overridden, what point is there to a petition process in the first place?

Current San Francisco law prohibits the Mayor and members of the Board of Supervisors from altering or repealing voter-approved laws, but city lawmakers may consider passing what amounts to a “Cut the Voters Out Act.”

 

Yesterday afternoon the Missouri Senate Elections Committee passed Senate Bill 818 out of committee by a vote of 6 to 1, many weeks ahead of where similar legislation was last session.

The Arizona legislature violated the 1998 Voter Protection Act when it took $7million worth of tobacco tax interest out of a fund for education and put it in the general fund. The Voter Protection Act limits the legislature’s power to alter voter approved laws. The Arizona Early Childhood Development and Health Fund was created by a 2006 ballot initiative and therefore subject to the protection of the Voter Protection Act.