Another missed opportunity on ‘IP reform’

By NewsPress Now

In hindsight, Missouri’s attempt to pass “initiative petition reform” was doomed on June 24, 2022. That’s the day when the Supreme Court issued its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, overturning a constitutional right to obtain an abortion.

Think about it this way: Missouri’s legislative supermajority was unable to pass IP reform following voter approval of Medicaid expansion in 2020. While cloaked in the partisan rhetoric of Obamacare, Medicaid expansion was a fairly technical change that rural hospitals supported because it keeps them afloat financially. The issue wasn’t as emotionally charged as the debate surrounding abortion following the demise of Roe v Wade.

Only a legislative body skilled in the art of compromise and consensus building would be able to advance an initiative petition measure that is now associated with the minefield of abortion politics. That legislative body doesn’t exist in Jefferson City, or at least not in the Missouri Senate, so reform failed again in this year’s session.

It’s a shame because there’s good reason to raise the threshold for making permanent changes to the Missouri Constitution. Doing so isn’t necessarily the assault on direct democracy that critics allege. Plenty of states don’t allow constitutional amendments through the initiative petition process. Some that do – Colorado, Florida and Illinois – require voter approval in the 55% to 60% range. In two states – Mississippi and Massachusetts – state legislatures have some oversight authority on an amendment before it goes to voters.

A case can be made that Missouri’s constitution has taken on the proportions of a big-city phone book (remember those?). Changes to this document should be made sparingly, with great care.

Otherwise, each major election starts to look a little more like California, where ballots are routinely peppered with a laundry list of amendments, petitions and niche issues.

The chaos of California is one end of the spectrum. The other extreme exists in Missouri, where in-fighting and stubbornness create a sense of little getting done. If frustrated Missourians were organizing at the grassroots level to break through the gridlock, that would be one thing.

But the activity in recent years shows that out-of-state interest groups are capitalizing on the state’s permissive initiative petition process and do-nothing legislature to seed ballots with constitutional amendments for Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization and, possibly this year, abortion access.

Those are viewed as liberal issues, but it cuts both ways. Missourians have voted on statewide issues (not always through citizen petitions) on establishing a constitutional right to farm (animal rights groups hated that one), requiring a photo ID at the polls and making English an official language. Imagine if Missouri voters were presented with a constitutional amendment to prevent transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. Liberals would howl, but the hypothetical measure would have a good chance of passing.

This year, it will be conservatives doing the howling if abortion is on the ballot. Our point isn’t that one should pass and the other shouldn’t, but that at some point lawmakers have to do their jobs and consider these types of issues through the legislative process, rather than leaving voters with a one-size-fits-all proposal that can never be changed. This was an especially damaging abdication of responsibility for cannabis legalization because legislative inaction allowed the marijuana industry to write the law governing itself.

Missouri Republicans shouldn’t be afraid to make the case for initiative petition reform. But they have to first show all of the state’s citizens that they can function as an effective representative body.