BOISE, Idaho — A House committee on Thursday proposed changing a ballot initiative bill that critics say makes the process so difficult that it violates Idaho's Constitution.
The House Ways and Means Committee sent to the full House legislation that increases the length of time to gather signatures and cuts the number of legislative districts where signatures must be collected.
The committee introduced what's called a trailer bill - a piece of legislation that would allow the House to make changes to the original bill, without having to go through the amendment process.
If approved, people would have 270 days to collect signatures from two-thirds, or about 23, of the legislative districts. The existing bill allows only six months and requires signatures from 32 of 35 districts. It still requires signatures from 10 percent of voters.
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"Many people thought the six-month timeline was a little bit too short," said Republican Rep. Sage Dixon, the bill's sponsor.
However, there are other lawmakers who are taking issue with the way the trailer bill was introduced.
According to Rep. Mat Erpelding (D-Boise), the move was "unlawful and unprecedented."
Erpelding explained the way it was done was "suspect."
“The chairman of the House Ways and Means committee called a meeting just a few hours before it started," he said in a statement to KTVB. “They created a bill to restrict the initiative process in secret that ran into problems due to public outcry. So, a small group of Republicans met, debated the bill in secret, and are now running a new Revenge on Voters bill. This is a classic case of abuse of power as far as I am concerned.
"Committee members were sent a new initiative bill a few minutes before the meeting leaving us virtually no time for us to review it," he added. "Additionally, it was recommended that the bill be sent to the second reading calendar, thereby ending any public debate. They plan to force this troubling bill onto Idaho against their will, and this is the final step.”
Every bill should be entitled to a public hearing so the voters can weigh in, Erpelding said.
"The Majority has completely cut Idahoans out of the process with no shame," he said. "They are not even attempting to hide the fact that they are not listening to the voters.”
As lawmakers continue to debate the fate of the legislation, Nampa Republican Rep. Brent Crane said the goal of the voter initiative bill is to get better representation from rural Idaho counties.
“One of the things lacking in the current initiative process is the ability to hear from rural Idaho," he said. "They get left out of the process. Let’s use the recent examples of Prop 1 and 2 - the only overlap in those propositions where you will find signatures is in Ada County, Canyon County, Bonneville County. What do they have in common? They’re large, urban centers. And so one of the concerns from lawmakers with regards to the initiative process is, what about our rural counties? What input do they have?
“They’re going to have to go in to 23 legislative districts now," Crane continued. "And so you’re not just going to be able to go to Ada County, Canyon County and Bonneville County and get your signatures – you’re going to have to go into some of those rural counties, some of those legislative districts and make your case to those voters.”
Opponents of the bill, like Reclaim Idaho, feel the bill would do anything but help rural counties.
“We believe this is the opposite of what the bill claims to be and in fact, it would open the door for only big money special interest groups that could pay for voter signatures to be successful with a ballot initiative,” said Rebecca Schroeder, executive director for Reclaim Idaho.
According to Crane, the proposed House changes look to find a common ground between the current Senate bill, and what voters have stated in public testimony they don't want.
“There are senators that voted for 1159 and believe that’s good legislation and they would like to see us move that forward," he explained. "And we’re saying, 'Hey, in our testimony we heard constituents would like some changes. What’s the easiest way to make those changes and then let those senators weigh in on that and see if they agree or not?'
"We went over different ideas of how we could do that and felt like that was probably the best and clearest and cleanest to make it through the process," he added.
Reclaim Idaho will be touring the state March 30 and 31 to encourage voters to push Gov. Brad Little to veto the original legislation if it comes to his desk.
“We oppose any further restrictions on our initiative process," Schroeder said. "We already have very stringent guidelines, which we experienced firsthand as really the only grassroots that has successfully put an initiative on the ballot."
The Caldwell Chamber of Commerce also sent a statement to legislators in opposition to the ballot initiative bill.
"We, the Caldwell Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, representing the Business Community of Caldwell, DO NOT SUPPORT Senate Bill 1159," the statement reads. "We believe Senate Bill 1159 lessons our individual ability to express matters of importance to our community and the State of Idaho."
Earlier this week, four former state attorneys general also released a letter urging lawmakers to kill the original legislation, saying it could be unconstitutional.
Crane said the House will vote on both the Senate version and the House version of the two bills at the same time.
If representatives vote to pass the trailer bill in the House, it would then go to a Senate committee, and possibly the Senate floor, for a vote.
The law currently requires 6 percent of voters in 18 districts and 18 months to collect signatures to get initiatives on the ballot.