The Legislature’s interim task force on initiative and referendum will meet one more time this week Friday. After approving nine draft bills that on balance weaken citizens’ legislative power, the task force will assemble briefly to discuss their final proposal, a citizen initiative review commission. That idea, brought to the task force by Rob Timm of the Chiesman Center for Democracy in June, has some potential to improve the initiative process, as long as Republican legislators don’t hijack it and turn it into another bureaucratic delay of the petition process or stack any “citizens” panel with legislative insiders and cronies who would sandbag grassroots proposals challenging state government’s power.
Alas, unlike previous task force meetings, Friday’s conclave in Pierre is scheduled to go fast: start at 3 p.m. Central, wrap up by 4:10. No time for public testimony is scheduled. Any news coming out of this final meeting will be buried in Friday night football scores and Trump’s next weekend Tweet storm.
The Legislative Research Council hasn’t posted whatever final version of the citizens review panel concept may have emerged over the past month of back-channel discussions among task force members. At the August 23 meeting, members discussed three proposals: Drafts #101, #107, and #108. Citizens interested in protecting their constitutional right to write the laws under which they live should watch closely to see what final form emerges and whether the task force will finally do something to substantially improve our rights or if it will continue to follow the Republican agenda of whittling down people power to favor the partisan elites in Pierre.
Yeah, as far as I’m concerned just about everything they’ve done on I & R since 2000 has been unconstitutional, and tyrannical. The stuff they have already proposed is just awful. There is no reason to assume anything this group of clowns will come up with will be anything different.
No, they are doing good work. Fine work. Yeoman’s work. It will all be just fine. Soon, the entire VNOE movement will repeal all measures to continue the current insaner situation where crazy people try and write laws and get some fringe lunatic group to pass it. That is bad, it is bad.
Thanks Cory for the update and the plug. I was told that today (Wednesday) the final bill draft concerning the Citizen Review Panel will be posted on the LRC website. This will be the only item discussed at the meeting Friday.
They’d better hurry up, Rob! I don’t see it on the task force docs page yet, and I’d like more than 24 hours to read, study, and blog it before the meeting.
It is entirely possible the Council of Legislatures is busy issuing subpoenas and typing up notes for Mr. Nelson and isn’t really worried about these heinous initiated measure crackdown bills at this point. If this is the case it is too bad, and another example of Mr. Nelson just gumming up the works.