House panel signs on to initiative proposal But bipartisan opposition arises

Some of North Idaho’s staunchest conservatives are taking a stand against a Republican-sponsored bill that would make it more difficult to pass citizen initiatives like the recently passed Medicaid Expansion.

Senate Bill 1159, which was passed in the state Senate by one vote last week, was approved Tuesday by a vote of 10-5 in the House State Affairs Committee.

The no votes came from all three Democrats and two Republicans on the panel, including North Idaho lawmaker Heather Scott, R-Blanchard.

Scott said legislators who have called the measure a way to increase voter involvement are misrepresenting the bill.

The bill stifles the voice of rural voters she was elected to represent, said Scott, who sparked controversy in 2015 by displaying a Confederate flag in a parade, and a year later visited the armed occupiers of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

“I work for the people,” Scott told The Press. “I work for the little guy and I believe this will make it harder for the little guy to have his voice heard.”

Scott said the bill, sponsored in the Senate by Scott Grow, R-Eagle, is in retaliation for the popular Proposition 2, also called the Medicaid expansion initiative, that was approved last year by 61 percent of voters.

“Of course it is,” she said.

The proposed legislation would require initiatives to be supported by 10 percent of voters in 32 of Idaho’s 35 districts before being added to the ballot, compared to the current law requiring backers to gather signatures from 6 percent of voters in 18 districts.

In addition, the bill would reduce the time allowed to collect signatures from 18 to six months, and would require future ballot initiatives to contain a fiscal note and funding source for the proposed law.

Supporters have said that by requiring approval in 32 districts the measure would give rural voters an equal voice in the initiative process, while some legislators argued that the initiative process should be a small part of representative government.

In presenting the bill to the committee, Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay, said the current system disenfranchises citizens in the state’s rural areas.

“Currently, you can go to four counties and get all the signatures you need,” Dixon said. If an initiative “is going to be law — going around elected representation — we should make sure the majority of Idahoans want that to happen.”

Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, a State Affairs committee member who voted in favor of the bill Tuesday, did not return phone calls or an email request for comment.

Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, testified against the bill in front of the committee.

“Despite what some of my colleagues are saying publicly, this bill does not protect rural voters. It does quite the opposite,” Giddings said. “By creating the most restrictive initiative process in the country, Senate Bill 1159 chips away at the principles of our Constitutional Republic, it degrades Idaho’s system of checks and balances, and almost entirely shifts the balance of power toward government and away from Idaho grassroots efforts.”

Jim Jones, former chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, also spoke to the committee in opposition of the proposed legislation.

“If you make it too hard to get an initiative or referendum on the ballot, their power is essentially pointless,” Jones said.

The impetus behind SB1159, Scott said, is to rein in and better control voters in a state that is rapidly growing, and whose population is becoming increasingly more diverse.

“With the massive growth, and the changing demographics, the establishment fears losing control,” Scott said. “I don’t care how they sell it, it’s suppressing the people.”