PROPOSITION WOULD ALTER INITIATIVES

Ballot Measure 1: It Would Change Rules on Signatures
Needed.

A proposed amendment to the Alaska Constitution that would make it
harder to get initiatives on the ballot is either good or bad for
democracy, depending on which side is talking.

The measure was put on Tuesday's ballot by the Legislature.

A yes vote will change the rules. A no vote will leave them the way
they are.

Ballot Measure 1 would require initiative supporters to obtain
signatures from at least 7 percent of the voters in 30 election
districts before a measure could be put before the electorate. The
proposition doesn't change the total number of signatures needed
statewide, which is 10 percent of the vote in the last election.

Current rules say initiative supporters need at least one signature
from each of 27 election districts. That means they can get almost all
their signatures from the 20 districts in Southcentral and one
signature each from seven others, which can sometimes be obtained from
visitors to the Palmer State Fair.

Alaskans like ballot measures and have used them since statehood to
make laws when the Legislature has refused to act, to reverse
unpopular decisions and to consider ideas not resolved in some other
forum.

Initiatives have been used to enact campaign finance reform, to limit
the length of the legislative session, to criminalize marijuana and
then make an exception for medical use, to approve and then reject
moving the state capital and to propose term limits for Alaska's
congressional delegation. The last idea was rejected by the voters.

So why should the public make it harder for itself to get an
initiative on the ballot?

Supporters of Ballot Measure No. 1 say the current system is
undemocratic. It allows Anchorage, Mat-Su and Kenai to dictate to the
rest of the state, they say. Among those who have given money to pass
the amendment are the anti-capital-move Alaska Committee ($30,000),
Northwest Cruise Ship Associates ($7,000), Arctic Slope Regional Corp.
($2,000) and Ice Bloc, a poltical action committee that supports
Native issues ($2,000), according to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

When the constitutional framers designed the initiative process,
Alaska was divided into three regions roughly equal in population:
North and Interior; Southcentral; and Southeast, said John Binkley, a
Fairbanks businessman who urges a yes vote. But now half the
population lives in Southcentral.

Rural Alaskans are particularly unhappy over city folk making rules
about controlling predators or hunting bears, Binkley said.

Alaskans have twice used initiatives to ban aerial wolf hunting, and a
bear baiting ban is up for consideration Tuesday.

"Rural Alaska says, 'Hey, people in Anchorage are dictating my ability
to go out and put food on the table,' " Binkley said.

Initiatives that enjoy wide support across the state will still get
passed, he said. It will just eliminate narrow, regional measures.

Bill Stoltze, a legislator from Chugiak who urges a no vote,
disagrees. It will keep worthy initiatives off the ballot, he said.

Stoltze said the Alaska Constitution works fine the way it is. The
proposed change just puts an added barrier between the people and
their government, he said.

"If a governor or a Legislature says my way or the highway,
initiatives are a way for citizens to take corrective action."

Requiring people to get signatures from 7 percent of the voters in 30
of Alaska's 40 election districts will make the process prohibitively
expensive except for well-heeled special interests, Stoltze said.

"Well-funded groups that routinely hire signature gatherers will not be
deterred." But ordinary citizens will, he said.

The proposed change is "drastic and unnecessary," Stoltze said.