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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Senate and House passed a measure Wednesday to put a constitutional amendment proposal to voters that, if passed, would give lawmakers leeway to revise and change citizen-led ballot initiatives.
"It's an opportunity to let the people of Utah decide the direction of their government," said Utah Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, the sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 401. Senators passed the resolution during a special session Wednesday in a 20-8 vote, and the House approved it in a 54-21 vote.
Now the proposal will be put on the Nov. 5 ballot for consideration by the state's voters, who have final say. It's been decried by some who see it as an attempted power grab by Republican legislators, however, and an active period of campaigning by proponents and opponents of the change is likely ahead of Election Day.
"We've been at this for seven years, and we're not going away," said Katie Wright, executive director of Better Boundaries Utah, the key force behind the 2018 ballot initiative, Proposition 4, that gave rise to the current debate and a critic of SJR401.
Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz formally gave notice of the planned special session on Monday, and the issue has prompted intense backlash from some in the two days since.
Republican leaders in the Legislature say the change envisioned in SJR401 is key in checking the ability of special interest groups to insert language in ballot questions meant to benefit them. It would affirm lawmakers' ability to make changes to legislative proposals approved via ballot initiatives after they've been approved — authority threatened, they say, by a July 11 Utah Supreme Court ruling on Proposition 4.
"It is vital that the legislators be empowered to legislate," said Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, a supporter.
Cullimore, like other SJR401 backers, warned that not taking action could open up the specter of an explosion of ballot measures, some pushed by special interests, as he says has occurred in California. "We do not want to turn Utah into California," he said.
Furthermore, he emphasized that lawmakers aren't making the final decision on the issue. Voters would make the call in Nov. 5 voting. "This is going to go before the people. They have almost two-and-a-half months to vet this," he said.
Even so, the proposed change has drawn sharp opposition from Democratic lawmakers and others, precipitating Wednesday's debate and action. The critics see the push for HRJ401 as an attempted power grab by Republican lawmakers and a blow to the authority of citizens to pursue ballot initiatives.
"This strips their rights," said Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, who also voted against the measure, doesn't think lawmakers are hamstrung by the July 11 Utah Supreme Court ruling, one of the key arguments of HJR401 proponents.
The only limit lawmakers have on changing legislation approved at the ballot box, he maintains, would be "unilaterally overturning a referendum" without legitimate rationale. He suspects voters will turn back the measure on Nov. 5.
Sen. Karen Kwan, D-Murray, lamented the lack of time to more fully debate the measure. "I wish we had more time to talk about this and consider this," she said.
Apart from SJR401, lawmakers on Wednesday also approved SB4002, which calls for changes in the deadlines and time lines applicable to processing of SJR401 so the question can get on the November ballot. SB4003, also approved, calls for the extension of the time frame in which those pursuing ballot initiatives have to collect signatures to get them on the ballot from 40 to 60 days. Those two measures, like SJR401, received favorable recommendations from the Business and Labor Interim Committee ahead of the House and Senate debate.
Political redistricting
The push for Wednesday's special session stems from a unanimous July 11 Utah Supreme Court ruling overturning a district court decision that had dismissed one of the counts in a League of Women Voters of Utah lawsuit related to Proposition 4.
With passage of Proposition 4, a commission was formed to draw political redistricting maps every 10 years. However, Utah lawmakers later watered down its role to an advisory one with SB200 in 2020 and then adopted their own maps during the redistricting cycle in 2021.
Particularly irksome to some critics were changes to the four U.S. House districts in the state compared to what the commission proposed. The maps divvied Salt Lake County — the Utah Democratic Party's key stronghold — among the four districts. Ultimately, the League of Women Voters and other groups filed suit over the changes implemented by lawmakers, leading to the July 11 high court ruling at the center of the current debate.
Republican critics see the July 11 ruling as a threat to their ability to revise ballot initiatives and say the proposed constitutional question only affirms the sort of authority they had before the decision.
The ability of lawmakers to revise ballot initiatives, says Schultz, means they have been able to pull out otherwise unnoticed provisions quietly inserted in them by special interest groups before they become law. That power, he said, has "kept out all these big money, out-of-state special-interest groups from coming in and running initiatives that benefit themselves." SJR401 also contains language prohibiting foreign entities from involvement in ballot initiatives.
Schultz, who spoke with KSL.com on Tuesday, countered suggestions that lawmakers would abuse their authority and axe ballot initiatives or make extreme changes to them if the proposed constitutional change gets on the ballot and is approved in November. The check against such action, he said, would be the power of voters to remove lawmakers from office.
