Nebraska Should Say "No"!

Way Too Many Ballot Initiatives

Update: a reader sent me note: “Voting "no" on Protect Women and Children might accidentally be a "yes" for the right to abortion...“. I appreciate the comment but this presumes if both abortion measures pass, they cancel each other out, or that this initiative would beat out the other. For pro-life people, voting “yes” on this matter is paramount but for others, it may not be so. I willing to make exception for this initiative but not for any other in this election cycle. Overall, I think Nebraskans are becoming exhausted by the initiative process.

I am not opposed to ballot initiatives. However, the process has been so fundamentally abused, Nebraskans are stuck with laws which hinder the economy such as the current State minimum wage law.

Many of these initiatives are being generated by the presidential election, where the propensity of ignorant voters causes them to show up and vote for any idea which merely sounds good. Activists, particularly progressives, are captivated by their desire for influence in bypassing the legislature with such ballot initiatives.

But to add to the problem, the EPIC Option initiative took a beating by so many dueling petitions, as people we were saying they had already signed, even when they had signed nothing. This happened because of paid petitioners from various groups really hollowed out voter interest in such initiatives. But like panhandling, the panhandler gets something.

Perhaps Nebraskans would not have so many ballot initiatives if it paid State Senators a living wage to actually research the issues, but Nebraska won’t do that. Part of the problem with Nebraska is the State Constitution, which looks like a hoarder's house of items, includes fixing the Senator’s pay. Hey, the minimum wage law will adjust for inflation but a State Senator’s pay does not. At some point, State Senators will be working for less than the State minimum wage.

Instead of electing good people to the Unicameral, the end-runaround-the-legislature with petitions has become too common. At the same time, the lowly paid Senators often cannot strike out in favor of new ideas, because they are already captivated by the existing powers which be. Again, I am not opposed to ballot initiatives but more effort needs to be placed on electing good people to office. Narrow ballot initiatives seldom result in good leadership.

For these reasons, in this election, I am voting "no" on all the ballot initiatives.