Campaign Focus : State lottery, unmarried foster ban among 5 to be decided
Posted on Sunday, November 2, 2008
Arkansans are voting on five ballot measures this year, the largest number since 2000.
The most highly publicized are proposed Constitutional Amendment 3, which would authorize the General Assembly to establish state lotteries to finance college scholarships, and proposed Initiated Act 1, which would bar unmarried cohabiting couples from fostering and adopting children.
The other proposals would: Allow the General Assembly to meet every year. This is proposed Constitutional Amendment 2. Authorize the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission to issue up to $ 300 million in taxpayer-backed bonds for water and sewer projects. This is Referred Question 1. Eliminate the words “idiot” and “insane” from the Arkansas Constitution and allow the General Assembly to decide who could be an election official. This is proposed Constitutional Amendment 1.
Arkansas had only two ballot measures in 2006, four in 2004, four in 2002, five in 2000, four in 1998, and six in 1996, according to records in the secretary of state’s office. The Arkansas record was a dozen in 1956.
The five are part of a national total of ™ measures on state ballots Tuesday. The national totals were 204 in 2006, 162 in 2004, 202 in 2002, 204 in 2000, 236 in 1998 and 240 in 1996, said Jennie Bowser of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver.
Bowser said the national number depends more on what state lawmakers put on the ballots than on citizen initiatives. There’s no “rhyme or reason” for the fluctuation, she said.
This year, states with the most include Colorado with 14 and California and Oregon with a dozen each.
Arkansas is one of eight states whose voters will consider gambling or lottery measures. Oregon has a lottery measure. It would dedicate 15 percent of existing lottery revenue to crime prevention, investigation and prosecution, the conference said. Under Oregon’s Constitution, lottery revenue currently may be used to create jobs, further economic development, finance public education or restore and protect parks, beaches, watersheds and fish and wildlife habitats.
Missouri has a measure that would increase the casino tax to help fund education programs, and Maryland has one to authorize slot machines to help fund public education. Massachusetts has a ballot measure to bar dog racing where any betting on the speed or ability of the dogs occurs.
Abortion restriction proposals are on the ballot in California, Colorado and South Dakota; antiaffirmative action proposals are in Colorado and Nebraska; and proposed bans on same-sex marriage are in Arizona, California and Florida, the conference said.
There are immigration proposals in Arizona, California, Missouri and Oregon.
The Arizona proposal would tinker with existing prohibitions on hiring illegal aliens and California’s would prevent an illegal alien arrested for a violent or gang-related felony from being released on bail, said Bowser. The Missouri proposal would make English the official language of the state and the Oregon proposal would require that non-English speaking students be mainstreamed after at most two years of bilingual education, she said. Here’s more about this year’s Arkansas proposals:
AMENDMENT 1 Proposed Constitutional Amendment 1 would eliminate Article 3, Section 5 of the Arkansas Constitution, which says: “No idiot or insane person shall be entitled to the privileges of an elector.” An “elector” is a voter. Amendment 51, the constitution’s voter registration amendment, allows a court to cancel the registration of mentally ill or mentally disabled voters if a judge determines the voters are incompetent.
Advocates for the mentally ill and mentally disabled lobbied lawmakers to refer to voters this proposal to strip language from the constitution because the advocates said they consider it to be offensive.
The proposed amendment also would erase language overruled as long as four decades ago when the federal government lowered the legal voting age to 18 in Amendment 26 and abolished poll taxes as a requirement for federal elections in Amendment 24
Amendment 51 to the Arkansas Constitution repealed the poll tax in Arkansas. The proposed amendment would allow the General Assembly to decide who can be an election official. The Arkansas Constitution in Article 3, Section 10 currently bans office holders, appointees and employees of the federal, state, city and county governments from serving as election officials. Secretary of State Charlie Daniels and Sen. Steve Faris, DCentral, proposed the measure.
AMENDMENT 2 Proposed Constitutional Amendment 2 would require the General Assembly to meet in a fiscal session during even-numbered years, starting in 2010, to consider appropriation bills. Under the existing Constitution in Article 5, Section 5, the General Assembly is required to meet in regular session every other year.
Currently a regular session may exceed 60 days if two-thirds of the House and Senate vote to extend it.
The amendment would require a three-fourths vote to extend a regular session beyond 75 days.
A fiscal session may not exceed 30 days unless three-fourths of the House and Senate extend it. It would be a one-time extension for up to 15 days. A two-thirds vote could allow bills beyond appropriation bills to be considered in a fiscal session.
Rep. Eric Harris, R-Springale, proposed the measure.
The Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas, Arkansas Municipal League, and Arkansas Farm Bureau are among the opponents of the proposal. Rep. Dan Greenberg, R-Little Rock, contends that annual sessions would lead to more government spending in Arkansas. Harris maintained that lawmakers would give better oversight of the state budget with annual sessions in order to keep a rein on the growth of state government.
AMENDMENT 3 Proposed Constitutional Amendment 3 would allow the General Assembly to establish state lotteries to finance college scholarships.
Forty-two states and the District of Columbia operate lotteries.
The proposal would change the Arkansas Constitution’s existing lottery prohibition.
It would authorize the General Assembly to establish, operate and regulate lotteries.
Lottery proceeds would be used solely to pay the operating expenses of lotteries, including all prizes, and “to fund or provide for scholarships and grants to citizens of this state enrolled in public and private nonprofit twoyear and four-year colleges and universities located within the State that are certified according to criteria established by the General Assembly.”
The General Assembly also would decide the criteria to determine eligibility for scholarships.
Criteria yet to be established include the price of lottery tickets, the size and number of prizes, how frequently prizes would be awarded, and whether an Arkansas lottery would be operated in part in conjunction with lotteries in other states.
Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe has said he’s ambivalent about the amendment, and U. S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat from Little Rock, said he plans to vote against it.
Democratic Lt. Gov. Bill Halter proposed the amendment and led the campaign for it. He has estimated the lottery would raise about $ 100 million a year for scholarships. Two other groups’ estimates foresee only about $ 60 million a year.
Halter has contended the amendment won’t open the door for casinos, but its critics say it would.
INITIATED ACT 1 Initiated Act 1 would prohibit unmarried cohabiting couples from fostering and adopting children. The proposed law would prohibit a minor from being adopted or placed in a foster home in which a would-be parent is “cohabiting with a sexual partner outside of a marriage which is valid under the constitution and laws of this state.” The Arkansas Constitution prohibits homosexual marriages. The state Department of Human Services has had a policy for three years that excludes cohabiting couples from serving as foster parents. There is no similar restriction on adoptions. The proposal wouldn’t affect guardianships.
The department announced in October that the state will discontinue its policy of not allowing unmarried cohabiting couples to be foster parents. Gov. Mike Beebe had said he had reservations about the prohibition.
The Arkansas Family Council Action Committee proposed the initiated act after a bill that would have prevented homosexuals, and unmarried cohabiting heterosexuals who live together in a sexual relationship, from adopting or fostering children failed to clear the Legislature in 2007. Committee officials maintain that homes of unmarried cohabiting heterosexual couples and homosexual couples are not good places to raise children.
A coalition of child advocacy groups — including the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the American Civil Liberties Union, social worker and pediatrician associations — oppose the proposed act. They say that since Arkansas doesn’t have enough foster and adoptive parents it shouldn’t impose a blanket ban on these potential parents. Parents should be selected on a case-by-case basis, they said.
No matter what voters decide on the ballot measure, this issue isn’t expected to go away. Voter approval of the proposal could lead to a legal challenge to the measure by its foes, they say, and voter rejection of the measure could lead its supporters to lobby the Legislature to pass a bill to do the same thing.
REFERRED QUESTION 1 Referred Question 1 would give the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission authority to issue up to $ 300 million in taxpayer-backed bonds for water and sewer projects. The proceeds from the bond sales would go to a loan and grant program that’s been in place since 1998 to help communities finance water and sewer projects. This measure was referred to the ballot by the Legislature because the bonds would be a general obligation of the state, and state constitutional Amendment 20 prohibits issuing such bonds unless voters first approve them.
The proposal would set a $ 100 million limit on the amount that could be issued for irrigation facilities, and a $ 60 million limit on the amount that could be issued during any two-year budget cycle.
Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro, proposed the measure.
The Arkansas Wildlife Federation is among several environmental groups opposing it. The measure would give the commission power to take private or public property for uses determined at its discretion, provide additional funds to the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project, and leave the state liable for any defaulted bonds, the federation said.
The irrigation project is aimed at pumping water out of the White River to irrigate farm land in eastern Arkansas.
Randy Young, the commission’s’ executive director, said the commission has had the power of eminent domain since 1937 and never exercised it. The entities funded by the commission have the power of eminent domain and use that authority for things such as easements, he said.
The proposal wouldn’t provide more money for the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project because there is sufficient money left from the $ 300 million in bonds authorized in 1998, he said. No bonds have been defaulted on since the commission starting selling them in 1985, he said. Information for this article was contributed by Charlie Frago of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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