The Independent View: NY Senate Passes Bill Setting Up the Initiative Process

This post is from Ballot Access News.

On June 7, the New York State Senate passed S709, which proposes a change to the New York State Constitution. It would create the initiative process in New York, for statewide laws, and also for local government. The vote was 47-15. All of the “no” votes were Democrats. Now the bill goes to the Assembly. If it passes there, because it is a proposed constitutional change, it must pass both houses of the legislature again in 2013. Then the voters would decide in November 2014 whether to pass the idea.

Ballot Access News says: "It will be interesting to see if Independent Voting, formerly known as the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, and before that the New Alliance Party, will support S709. That group is very well organized in New York City. Virtually all the “no” votes in the Senate were New York City Senators. The bill would require a statewide initiative to obtain a number of signatures equal to 5% of the last vote for Governor. Currently that number is 232,709."

A reader of Ballot Access News comment: "Unfortunately, this is not being proposed to actually provide for initiative in New York. It is the Republicans alternative to having to vote on same-sex marriage equality. They’ve been avoiding making commitments by saying that the voters should make the decision. So instead of implementing equality now, which is what the polls say NYers want, the Senate Republicans would make us wait 4 more years."

I wrote about I&R before. I do not think we want the version in CA. I want I&R but think we would need some type of independent board review to make sure the actual written law works.