Some Republicans wouldn’t mind expanding the people’s power to refer local laws to a vote… but alas! not enough of them.
Representative Julie Frye-Mueller (R-30/Rapid City) proposed House Bill 1226 to give citizens more time to circulate petitions to freeze county and municipal ordinances and refer them to a public vote. HB 1226 would have extended the time that passes before a new county ordinance or zoning decision takes effect, and thus the time residents have to circulate referendum petitions, from 20 days to 40 days. At the municipal level, HB 1226 would have extended that enactment/petition time from 20 days to 35… a shorter time on the thesis, perhaps, that county petitions will require more signatures than city petitions and that it takes less time to walk around town with a petition than it does to truck all over the countryside to get your rural county neighbors to sign.
In House State Affairs, my Representative Drew Dennert (R-3/Aberdeen) amended HB 1226 to add school board issues of capital outlay certificates to the list of matters that citizens would have 35 days instead of 20 to refer. That amendment passed, and HB 1226 made it out of committee on a 10–3 vote.
Representative Dennert and his Aberdeen seatmate Representative Carl Perry both said local residents could use a little more time to review the decisions of their local governments. Rep. Perry said HB 1226 would promote more citizen involvement in local government. But the Republican caucus smelled more democracy coming and shut HB 1226 down in the House. The bill failed Tuesday 25–42.
Nine members of the Democratic caucus went along with this resistance to more popular review and referral of government decisions. Had those nine Democrats voted for more local referendum power and recruited just two more ayes from among their Republican colleagues, they could have kept this bill alive for Senate discussion.
Hey Democrats, what were you thinking?!