The Constitution of the United States starts out with three simple words that carry enormous meaning: “We the People…” Not we the states, not we the elected officials, but the People as a whole carry sovereign power. Similarly, I am a firm believer that the People of Connecticut should retain the right to have the final say on our laws. The voters should be able to directly vote on new ideas or overturn an action of the General Assembly. These are called the rights of referendum and initiative, and I have proposed a constitutional amendment to bring them to Connecticut.
Referendum and initiative are not new ideas. Over 23 states currently have laws in place to allow citizens to petition to have a law placed on the ballot for direct approval by the voters. In fact, Connecticut’s constitution currently requires a referendum for amendments to our constitution, and many of our municipalities have referendum on their budgets.
The philosophy of referendum and initiative is simple. The People delegate power to elected officials to pass laws. However, the People should also have the right to overrule those elected officials if they disagree with them (i.e., referendum) or propose a new law to deal with an issue they feel the legislature is not addressing (i.e., initiative). The People retain final authority of the legislature not just every two years at election time, but all the time.
There are those – primarily entrenched elected officials – who believe that agreeing to give citizens the right of initiative and referendum is an abdication of elected officials’ responsibility to make Connecticut’s laws. I disagree. Even with the right of initiative and referendum, laws would continued to be made by senators and representatives 99.9% of the time. What would change is that citizens could choose to take matters into their own hands if they believed the issue was important enough, and that their elected officials were failing to address it in a satisfactory way.
Under my proposal, a referendum or initiative could be put it on the ballot if at least five percent of those registered to vote in the preceding general election first signed a petition. Right now, that is about 90,000 people; a large number of people to ensure that not every idea or whim could be put up for referendum. In order to pass and become law, at least 60 percent of the eligible voters would have to cast ballots and, of those, a majority would have to vote in favor of the measure.
Not every issue could be put be on the ballot for a popular vote. Referendum or initiatives could not: name an individual to public office; name a private corporation to perform any function or have any power; create or abolish courts, or change their rules or decisions; propose special legislation affecting municipalities; increase spending without also increasing revenues to pay for that additional spending; change laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace; change health or safety standards; or change laws requiring elections.
These restrictions are based on experience from other states, such as California. A key restriction is you cannot increase spending without increasing taxes. California voters they decided they wanted to mandate increases in education spending, while at the same time capping tax increases—an illogical combination that has led to years of fiscal crisis in California. Thus, our amendment has the restriction that you cannot have a referendum to increase spending without saying how we will pay for it.
Furthermore, the General Assembly could not amend any initiative or referendum passed by the public for three years after its implementation. Our lawmakers would have to respect the voters’ will, but could make adjustments after a few years as we see the impact of a referendum or initiative. Similarly, state citizens would have to wait three years before re-introducing a previously considered subject of initiative and referendum.
The General Assembly should pass a constitutional amendment for referendum and initiative, and give the People the final say.
Dan Debicella is the State Senator representing Shelton, Stratford, Monroe, and Seymour. If you have feedback for him or want to talk about the issues, he can be reached toll-free at (800) 842-1421 or by e-mail at dan.debicella@cga.ct.gov.
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