Monday, April 4, 2016

Initiatives Hit a New Record

It was assumed the 145 initiatives filed in 2014 would be a difficult record to break, but as of the filing deadline on March 25, 2016, 158 initiatives were filed for review and comment, with a mass of final filings the last few days.

Many of the initiatives follow a new trend of multiple filings for a basic constitutional or statutory goal, with upwards of ten or more versions. Each version tests variants on the core theme, such as different tax levels for infrastructure advocates, different versions of TABOR changes and distances fracking is prohibited. Hence, it is likely if the initiatives pass legal muster (mostly a ballot language test related to two subjects), only one of each of the core concepts will be promoted by proponents.

In 2014, most of the initiatives were never seriously going to find the 90,000 plus signatures needed for the ballot, and many proponents didn’t even try. They were just fishing for a local or national admirer who could supply money or passion.

All the anti-fracking proposals were abandoned at the last minute, leaving only four initiatives on the ballot. Out of the entire effort, one rather innocuous change in public education-labor transparency passed.

Read:
The Gazette: Colorado voters can expect lengthy November ballot packed with initiatives
The Complete Colorado: Coalition of contractors file 10 possible initiatives for more road building
The Buzz: State flooded again with ballot initiatives

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