Changing constitution may get tougher
DENVER - In the wake of what many view as the “Amendment 41 debacle,” a legislative measure that would make it harder for voters to amend the Colorado Constitution is gaining momentum.
House Concurrent Resolution 1001 won the approval of the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Thursday by a 7-4 vote. Measures like it have surfaced for the past four years, but Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, said this year the General Assembly
appears more open to it.
The resolution would require that constitutional changes be approved by a super majority of 60 percent of voters, rather than the simple majority now required. If passed by two-thirds of the House and the Senate, it would be placed on the statewide ballot in 2008.
Colorado is one of 24 states that allow residents to change the constitution through voter initiatives. During the past 15 years, voters have added about 21,000 words to the document — nearly three times the language in the U.S. Constitution, said Jerry Groswold, former chairman of the Western Slope advocacy group Club 20.
It has led to charges that Colorado has become a testing ground for national initiative backers who view it as the easiest state in which to change a constitution.
There’s little argument that Amendment 41, approved by voters in November, has had unintended consequences. It was sold as an ethics reform law that barred lobbyists from giving gifts to lawmakers and prevented state officials from taking anything worth more than $50 from anyone else.
But Attorney General John Suthers has said the wording prevents such things as government workers’ children accepting college scholarships and Nobel Prize-winning professors receiving award money.
Even before Amendment 41, some lawmakers said the conflicting aspects of Amendment 23, a school-funding measure, and the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights showed that setting the bar a bit higher for constitutional amendments is in order.
As lawmakers have scrambled to implement Amendment 41, many question whether something can be done to prevent such measures from getting into the constitution. While White’s proposal would not have stopped Amendment 41 — it received 62 percent of the vote — he is selling it as a solution to prevent a well-funded group from buying its way into the state constitution.
The resolution, which failed in the Senate by one vote last year, would not affect initiatives that change state law, which would continue to require just majority approval.
Colorado Springs Rep. Larry Liston, the only Republican on the committee to back the resolution, said, “We’re becoming the laughingstock of the nation by all our initiatives that are handcuffing the Legislature.”
