Two Must-Kill Bills Will Have Second Committee Hearings Soon
House Bill 1292 seeks to change the standard of appeal for Conditional Use Permits. Currently, those counties and municipalities that use a ⅔ majority to approve these permits have a de certiorari standard of review, wherein the courts grant a level of certainty that the permitting board followed its own rules in the permit approval (or denial) process.
Counties and municipalities that use a simple majority vote to approve these permits have a de novo review process in circuit court for challenges of those decisions. That means the court looks at their entire process of granting the permit to make sure that the permitting body followed all the rules laid out for the process, as well as looking at new information.
This bill seeks to change this sensible difference in standard of review to across-the-board de certiorari review, meaning that in those counties where a simple majority can approve or deny major projects such as wind farms, CAFOs, or large developments–a change in the standard of review will undermine the ability of opposition to show how the process may have been skewed.
Additionally, if this bill passes, counties that have previously used a ⅔ majority to approve permits (some do this in order to avoid the de novo review) may switch to simple majorities to approve Conditional Use Permits on large-scale and potentially controversial projects.
HB 1292 is scheduled in Senate Judiciary Committee’s 7:45 am meeting on Tuesday, February 22nd, but it’s the 9th bill on a packed agenda. If you’re interested in testifying, please contact DRA’s lobbyist Rebecca Terk at rebeccat@dakotarural.org or call/text (320) 305-9685. Otherwise, CONTACT Committee Members ASAP!
House Bill 1184 would allow CAFO operators to run their force-main manure disposal pipes through the right of way across private land without landowner permission. It would accomplish this by putting these pipes into a section of code (31-26) dealing with public utilities such as rural water and electric lines–except these pipes would be above ground.
We see HB 1184 as a major breach of private property rights. Currently, those wishing to run their private business’s waste disposal pipes across their neighbor’s land work out an agreement to do so with their neighbor. This bill would allow them to do it without any kind of permission or notification. An amendment to this bill allows for counties to regulate this process if they desire–but there’s no requirement to do so. Proponents of this bill say that a vote against it is “a vote against agriculture,” but our farmer and rancher members disagree–if you want to do a part of your business on someone else’s property, you work that out with them. Contact members of the Senate Transportation Committee and tell them to OPPOSE this bill.
Appetite for Destruction of People’s Process Waning–Four Bills Die This Week
Pressure from citizens across the state is starting to erode the legislature’s appetite for undermining the initiative and referendum process. In House State Affairs this week, two resolutions that were major blows against direct democracy died in committee.
House Joint Resolution 1008 would have required any citizen-initiated amendment to the constitution, once approved by voters, go back to the legislature for final approval. That would have meant that even measures passed by an overwhelming majority of the voters could simply be scrapped by legislators (no doubt accompanied by the maddening refrain that, “people didn’t know what they were voting for”). However, the Do Pass motion met resistance, and the resolution failed on a 7-6 vote.
Immediately following the demise of HJR 1008, Rep. Mickelson quickly moved to table his own House Joint Resolution 1007 in order to spare it a more resounding defeat. Though the resolution had virtually no chance of passing the full legislature, its ultimate fate would have been defeat at the hands of voters–as a proposed constitutional amendment, it is required to go on the ballot. The question HJR 1007 asked was whether to do away with citizen-initiated constitutional amendment entirely.
Clearly, being faced with the ultimate goal of most of these initiative bills caused legislators to begin backing away. However, HJR 1006, proposing single-subject amendments to the constitution, did pass committee on a party line vote, and has since made it through the full House as well.
The full House did reject two other bills undermining the initiative process this week–House Bill 1201 required information on the ballot about a petition sponsor, where they live, and how much they were paid. Opponents testified that the information was of no real import in determining the merits of the actual legislation and that this kind of information simply clutters up the ballot.
House Bill 1275 would have instituted an unwieldy and unworkable system whereby petition circulators would be required to gather signatures from ⅔ of Senate Districts in the state. The Secretary of State testified against this bill in committee, saying that the additional sampling requirements would make the process of verifying petitions (most of which already contain signatures from registered voters residing in multiple districts) mind-bogglingly complex. Opponents on the floor included some legislators who had not previously risen to defend the process.
Overview of All Initiative & Referendum Bills (With Current Status)
If you were to categorize by subject all of the bills and other forms of legislation filed this session, the category with the most bills by far is that dealing with initiative and referendum. While there are a couple of bills coming out of the summer task force that were good ideas to improve the process, the majority seek to undermine that process. Eight bills have been defeated so far, including one we supported. One bill we opposed has made it through both houses and was signed by the Governor. Below is a comprehensive list of all of the initiative & referendum bills, with where they are in the process indicated in parentheses. The bills we support have an asterisk beside their bill number.
Bills & Resolutions from the Summer Task Force on Initiative & Referendum
HB1004–Board of Elections Determines Petition & Font Size (Senate State Affairs)
*HB1005–Simplified Ballot Recitation (Senate State Affairs)
HB1006–LRC Substantive Comment & Blackout Period (Governor’s Desk)
HB1007–Citizen Initiative Review Commission (Dead, Then Hoghoused–See Below)
SB 9–Fiscal Notes for Initiatives on 2018 Ballot (House)
*SB 10–Resolution of Conflicts between initiatives passed in same election (House)
SB 11–Limits Time Frame in Which Initiatives Can Be Filed (House)
*SB 12–Remove Requirement for entire initiative text to be printed on petition form (Dead)
*SB 13–LRC to do fiscal notes as a part of its other comments (House)
SJR 1–55% Constitutional Amendment Threshold (House State Affairs)
Non-Task Force Bills
HB 1007–(Hoghouse version) Initiated measures one subject (Senate)
HB 1177–IM petition circulation revisions (Senate State Affairs)
HB 1196–IM petition circulator residency (Senate State Affairs)
HB 1201–require sponsor info on ballot (Dead)
HB 1216–Out of state contributions to ballot question committees (Senate State Affairs)
HB 1275–petition signatures from ⅔ of senate districts (Dead)
HB 1282–notify of out of state contributions to ballot question committees (Senate State Affairs)
HB 1302–Prohibit paid ballot question petition circulation entirely (Dead)
HB 1304–Revise provisions on challenging petitions (Senate State Affairs)
HJR 1006–Initiated constitutional amendments–one subject (Senate State Affairs)
HJR 1007–End citizen-initiated constitutional amendments (Dead)
HJR 1008–Require legislative approval of voter-approved constitutional amendments (Dead)
SB 124–Felony penalty for violation of petition circulation laws (Dead)
SB 128–Revise provisions regarding ballot question committees (House State Affairs)
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