PATAKI PUSHES AMENDMENT TO ALLOW REFERENDUMS

ALBANY -- Gov. George E. Pataki cast himself today as a political outsider
combating an ossified Legislature as he proposed a constitutional amendment
that would let citizens bypass their elected leaders and put initiatives
directly on the ballot.

Mr. Pataki said the Legislature lagged far behind popular opinion on issues
like revamping campaign finance laws and streamlining the state's
cumbersome school-aid formulas. He said the proposed amendment would let
him take his case on such specific issues directly to the voters. It would
also allow citizens advocating a single issue, like outlawing abortion, to
put their position before the people.

"I have always had confidence in the people of this state," Mr. Pataki
said. "I believe if you lay out the case and make the case to the people,
they are going to do the right thing."

The constitutional amendment is of paramount importance to the leaders of
the Independence Party, who said the governor's stance gave him a large
advantage in competing for their nomination in May. That endorsement would
give the Republican governor, who is seeking a third term, three of the
first four lines on the ballot: Republican, Independence and Conservative.

When he first ran for governor in 1994, Mr. Pataki campaigned on a promise
to amend the New York Constitution to allow citizens to put initiatives on
the ballot through petitions. In 1995, he introduced such an amendment in
the Legislature, but it died there. Until today, the governor has let the
proposal rest.

He faces a tough fight in the Legislature. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver,
a Manhattan Democrat, said elected officials were capable of representing
the voters. He added that laws enacted through referendums often
contradicted one another or were struck down in court. "In California, it's
led to full employment for lawyers," he said.

Senator Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader, said the Senate
would study the governor's proposal, but he pointed out that in some
states, such laws "have had some disastrous results."

Amendments to the State Constitution must be passed by two separately
elected Legislatures and then by a majority of voters. The earliest it
could appear on the ballot would be in November 2003.

Citizens have the authority to put a proposal on the ballot in 24 states,
including California, Florida and Ohio. In the last century, about 800
state laws were adopted through referendums, from women's suffrage to the
abolition of poll taxes.

Referendums have led to some policy debacles. Colorado voters, for
instance, passed a constitutional amendment limiting state spending and
taxes, but later voted to guarantee annual increases in school spending.
Washington State citizens voted to cut taxes and then later to spend more
on teachers' raises, without offering a way to pay for the increase.

Proposing the amendment now is a shrewd political move for the governor,
even if it never passes. It shores up his relationship with the
Conservative Party, which has long wanted ballot initiatives. It also makes
him the front-runner for the Independence Party nomination. That would
prevent an Independence candidate from siphoning away votes from Mr.
Pataki, as B. Thomas Golisano did in 1994 and 1998.

Mr. Pataki's proposed amendment would allow citizens to put an issue on the
ballot if they can collect signatures equal to 5 percent of the votes cast
in the last election for governor, or about 250,000. The petitions would
have to include at least 5,000 signatures in three-fifths of the state's
congressional districts, making it hard for a strictly local issue to be
approved for the ballot. Citizens could also amend the Constitution under
the proposal, but the measure would have to be passed in two consecutive
statewide elections.

Mr. Pataki said he would like to see several of his own proposals that the
Legislature has rejected put on the ballot. He specifically mentioned
limiting campaign contributions, reducing sentences for drug offenses and
doing away with the Board of Regents. Democrats in the Assembly have
objections to all three proposals.

Even if the amendment's chances of passage are slim, the governor's
proposal is likely to become a campaign issue. State Comptroller H. Carl
McCall, a Democrat running for governor, vehemently opposes the kind of
ballot initiatives the governor wants.

"The comptroller has long opposed this for fear that extremist positions
can find themselves before the voters of New York," Mr. McCall's spokesman,
Steven Greenberg, said.