The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Ballot initiative would make amending the state constitution more difficult
by Olivia Lueckemeyer
Colorado has one of the most easily amended state constitutions, creating a “special interest playground” that favors populated urban areas and silences the voice of rural communities. Proponents of the “Raise the Bar, Protect our Constitution” campaign want to make amending the Colorado Constitution more difficult, in effect giving mountain communities like Gunnison County more say when it comes to changing the law.
At a July Board of County Commissioners meeting, chairperson Paula Swenson and commissioners Phil Chamberland and Jonathan Houck expressed their unanimous consent for the measure by approving a resolution to support the campaign.
“The biggest thing I like about this is you have to go to all of the state congressional districts to get signatures,” Chamberland said. “I am very much in support.”
“Same, there are a lot of mechanisms to make changes without being so willy-nilly with our state constitution,” Houck responded. “I have no issue with this.”
Current law has no geographic requirement when it comes to obtaining signatures for a ballot initiative; consequently, large metropolitan districts such as Denver typically dictate changes to the constitution. The “Raise the Bar” campaign would seek to change this by requiring that signatures be collected from 2 percent of registered voters in each of the state’s 35 senate districts to place an initiative on the ballot.
“You can’t just stand outside of some place in Boulder and Denver to get signatures,” Swenson said.
Additionally, once a measure is on the ballot, the bar will be set higher to pass a constitutional amendment compared to a law change. According to the campaign’s website, in order to amend the constitution, “ballot issues would need 55 percent of voters to pass instead of a simple majority.” These efforts were modeled after the process to amend the U.S. Constitution.
“This is an especially high bar and Colorado should aspire to create a similarly high bar to amend our state constitution,” the website explains.
According to the Initiative & Referendum Institute, Colorado has seen more citizen initiatives than every state but California and Oregon. Because of how easy it is to amend the constitution, many special interest groups (often from out of state) have abused the process. In addition, narrowly focused amendments have been passed that create conflicting and unsustainable policies. The incentive to make a statutory change rather than a constitutional amendment is nullified because both efforts require the same process.
“Once a proposal has collected requisite signatures, why not attempt to embed that policy in the constitution when the requirements are no different than passing a statute?” the website explains. “This fact has made the Colorado Constitution a special interest playground over time.”
In May, the Colorado Supreme Court approved the statewide ballot initiative. Campaign proponents have until August 3 to collect 98,942 signatures for this year’s ballot. To learn more, visit www.raisethebarco.com.
