HOUSE OKS LIMITS ON INITIATIVES

The Alaska House on Sunday passed a proposed constitutional amendment
that would raise the bar for bringing a voter initiative or referendum
to the ballot.

The amendment would require petition organizers to cast a broader
geographic net when they collect signatures calling for a vote on an
issue.

It now goes to the Senate. If approved there, it would be put to
voters at the next election.

"This legislation would get people from all over the state involved in
the initiative process," said its sponsor, Rep. Bill Williams,
R-Saxman.

The constitution now says the signatures must come from at least 27 of
the 40 state House districts. That could mean one signature from each of
26 districts and all the rest from just one district. Williams'
proposal would require that signatures come from 30 districts and that
in each, the number of signatures would have to be equal to at least
four percent of the number of voters from that district who turned out
for the last general election.

Initiatives allow people to enact laws they want when the Legislature
refuses to. In a referendum, people can get rid of a law the
Legislature passed.

"It's one of their fundamental checks on our actions here," said Rep.
Eric Croft, D-Anchorage.

The change, Croft said, restricts that power. All but one of the
initiatives that made it to the 1998 ballot met the stricter
standards, he said. Since there's no proof that a problem exists,
there's no need to limit such an important right, Croft said.

Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, said it would make it hard for poorly
funded groups to succeed with an initiative, since it's expensive to travel
around Alaska. She and three other urban Democrats were the only no
votes on the proposed amendment.

Rural Democrats said they liked the measure.

The change wouldn't be onerous for petition organizers, said Rep. Mary
Kapsner, D-Bethel. She suggested Anchorage organizers could find
plenty of rural Alaskans with a trip to the airport or to the Alaska
Native Medical Center.

The proposal is one of three in the House that would change the
initiative process. Rep. Con Bunde, R-Anchorage, has proposed a requirement
that
any initiative dealing with natural resource management get at least
two-thirds of the vote in order to become law. Rep. Scott Ogan,
R-Palmer, has proposed to ban any initiative concerning hunting or
fishing.

The Legislature has also been working to change two initiatives
already passed by voters. Both the House and Senate have approved
changes to a 1996 wolf-hunting law that would change the standard for
when state wildlife managers could shoot wolves from the air. The
Senate has also passed changes to last year's medical marijuana
initiative that would require eligible patients to register with the
state. The House is scheduled to take up that bill today.

On the House floor Sunday, Rep. Jeannette James said the best way to
pass laws is to make them go through the legislative committee process
and subject them to active debate.

"And that doesn't work very well with the initiative process," said
James, R- North Pole.

Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at lruskin@adn.com.