A State Senator there should be legislative review of initiated measures that have a financial impact on the state.
Sen. David Hogue (R-Minot) says the measure would be triggered if the Office of Management and Budget, the chairman of Legislative Management and the state Tax Commissioner agreed that a measure would have a fiscal impact of $40-million or more per biennium. Hogue says if that happens, then the House and Senate would have to consider the measure in the next Legislative session. Hogue says if the measure received 40 percent approval of each house, it would become law.
"The people have a right to amend either statutes or the Constitution via initiated measure," said Hogue. "If they want to ban smoking, I'm fine with that. If they want to change the animal cruelty laws, that's fine. But when it comes to budget matters, we can;t be amending our budget with large dollar amounts."
Hogue says last year's property tax elimination measure -- which was Measure Two on the ballot -- could have meant hundreds of millions of dollars.
"The process doesn't work to start affecting the budget that way," said Hogue. "Probably the better way to govern is to scrutinize this a little better."
Hogue says the reason he kept the legislative approval number at 40 percent is to not block the people’s will to make changes in state law.