Those of you who’ve followed Idaho’s Medicaid Expansion fight know that it was considered impossible. The effort was led by Reclaim Idaho, a grassroots group that collected the vast majority of signatures with only one paid staff member and over 2,000 passionate volunteers. Now that they’ve proved the impossible, possible, and Medicaid Expansion is the law of the land, State Senator C. Scott Grow has introduced a bill that seems intended to make doubly sure that no other grassroots-led voter initiative could get on the ballot:
The bill ... would increase the number of signatures required for an initiative or referendum to make the ballot, from 6 percent of the voters in 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts, to 10 percent of the voters in 32 of the 35 legislative districts.It would also cut down the amount of time allowed to gather signatures from 18 months to six months. The bill would also apply several new requirements to voter ballot measures, including following a single-subject rule, including a fiscal impact statement and a proposed funding source, and having an effective date of no sooner than July 1 following the vote to approve the measure.
Who would want to hobble to constitutional rights of Idahoans to propose voter initiatives? Why would Sen. Grow propose this bill?
Late last Friday, the answer became clear: Sen. Grow was not working alone. In fact, he was being advised by John Sheldon, a lawyer tied to the payday loan industry:
John Sheldon, the former president of Treasure Valley Racing, which operated Les Bois Park, has been advising Sen. Scott Grow (R-Eagle) on his bill to nearly double the number of signatures required to qualify an initiative and cut the time a campaign has to get them by two-thirds.
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Two emails sent a few days before the first public hearing on the bill provided a Microsoft Word document titled “BALLOT STATUTE BRIEFING POINTS FOR GROW.” Another email talked about a pending federal court case regarding Colorado’s initiative laws.
A third email sent Feb. 19 – two weeks before Grow’s bill was introduced – Sheldon referenced a lunch meeting with Grow and linked a Wall Street Journal article titled “Voter Initiatives, Including Medicaid Expansion, Could Get Harder to Pass”.
The report details other states’ plans on restricting ballot initiative laws.
The Colorado court case decision was provided on behalf of Sheldon’s client, Moneytree, Inc., a payday loan servicer headquartered in Seattle, he says. Other lobbyists at Sheldon’s firm, SULLIVAN & REBERGER, also handle Moneytree’s account.
Now, why would a lobbyist for a payday loan servicer care about making ballot initiatives more difficult? Maybe because predatory lenders are scared. In Colorado, voters recently approved a proposition that capped interest predatory lenders can charge:
The new law doesn’t outlaw the lenders, but it caps how much interest they can charge at 36 percent.
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Under current law, it costs about $120 for a consumer to borrow $400 for three months, he said. Under the new law, it will only cost them about $24.
So the payday loan industry has a clear stake in voter initiatives. Colorado voters passed limits to predatory lending interest rates by a whopping 77%. In South Dakota, when a similar voter initiative was put on the ballot, it passed by 76% of the vote.
The payday loan industry must be worried that Idaho, with its proven grassroots power, could be next to restrict their predatory practices.
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As I’ve said before, I’m a volunteer with Reclaim Idaho, the organization that helped put Medicaid Expansion on the ballot. We have been organizing huge groups of people to come out to hearings on the bill — hearings during which opponents of the anti-voter initiative vastly outnumbered the few, mostly lobbyist proponents. If you are in Idaho, please make your voice heard and call your state senator to tell them to vote NO on 1159.
If you aren’t in Idaho, consider making a donation to Reclaim Idaho! We are fighting now on two fronts — stopping the state legislators from adding work requirements and other sideboards to Medicaid Expansion, and protecting the constitutional rights of Idahoans to bring ballot initiatives in the future. Every penny counts. Find a link, and more information, at reclaimidaho.org.