EDITORIALS : Time for a do-over
Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008
NOBODY gave it much thought,
at least not on the election day
when Hope and Change were running strong against Experience and Character. But there it was, hidden way down there on the ballot, an unreadable pile of words in all-caps: AN AMENDMENT PROVIDING THAT NO LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATION SHALL BE FOR A PERIOD LONGER THAN ONE YEAR, PROVIDING FOR FISCAL LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS... blah, blah, governmental blah.
And so We the People voted for Proposed Amendment No. 2. Did we ever. Hook, line and ballot title. It was only after the election that many of us may have realized—with appropriate horror—what we’d done. We’d gone and allowed the Ledge to start meeting every year instead of every other. That means twice the regular legislative sessions, twice the laws, twice as many raids on the state treasury, and twice the likelihood for legislative mischief and general chicanery. It also means pretty much full-time legislators, round-the-clock government, and much higher expenses. Offered that swell deal, We the People said... Cool beans !
Or did we ? For why would a conservative state like Arkansas vote for giving legislators twice as many chances to party it up under the Capitol dome ? And by an overwhelming margin: 70 percent. Is there a sudden shortage of laws and regulations ? Why, why, why ? The explanation that appeals to us, both because it makes some sense and helps us sleep at night, is simple: We didn’t know what we were doing.
Yes, yes, we the people should’ve known better. We should’ve read the proposed amendment top to bottom, asked our elders for advice, and eaten more fiber. No excuses, sir ! But it was the election, these are heady times, and Proposed Amendment No. 2 was near the bottom of the ballot and... well, there was the first, appealing line on the ballot: AN AMENDMENT PROVIDING THAT NO LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATION SHALL BE FOR A PERIOD LONGER THAN ONE YEAR....
How many folks got to those words and, eager to get on with life and election day, stopped reading then and there ? Who wouldn’t vote in favor of limiting appropriations ?
It was only a clause later that the ballot got around to mentioning that little detail about “requiring the General Assembly to meet every year.” Naturally the toxic phrase “annual sessions” made no appearance at all. Talk about being hidden in plain sight, or at least in unreadable all-caps.
Shouldn’t somebody have sounded the alarm on this ? Didn’t anybody see through the bait and spot the switch ? The answer: Sure. Lots of folks did. But they might have assumed that everybody else saw through the amendment, too. Or at least that folks would’ve blanched at the whole, crammed-with-type proposal on the ballot, and voted no for safety’s sake. The moral of this story ? It’s the same one that every city editor in the country must get tired of telling rookie reporters: Never Assume.
Among those aginners who largely stayed on the sidelines were Mike Beebe, our ever wishy-washy governor, and even the good guys in the Ledge. Indeed, the only really vocal—and articulate—opponent of Amendment 2 we can think of was Dan Greenberg, a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, who should win some kind of award for actually thinking this sucker had a chance. Dumb luck or prescience, either way, he called it. A shame no one was listening.
But even Representative Greenberg, flaming libertarian and legal scholar that he is, succumbed to the wiles of this amendment, at least at first. After all, he was one of 12 lawmakers—a lot of them Republicans, strangely enough—who sponsored the resolution that led to the amendment’s being put on the ballot in the first place. Or as he put it the other day: “I was asked by several House members to co-sponsor it, and I did so without giving it adequate consideration. Ten minutes later, I decided it was a bad idea.”
We can relate. No doubt, plenty of voters can, too. When it’s too late.
So what now ? We vote for a do-over. Can we please give the voters another chance on this amendment ? In a year when there’s no distracting presidential race on the ballot ? And this time, let’s ask the voters plain, and not start the proposal with some sly—and misleading—comment about appropriations. So it’ll be clear voters are being asked a simple question: Are you fir or agin annual legislative sessions ?
And if something’s changed in the Arkansas electorate, if this isn’t the state we used to know but has become some citadel of big and all-too-active government, or if some mind-altering substance has leached into the state’s water supply, enough of it to make We the People actually think the Ledge ought to meet every 12 months.... then it’d be nice to hear the sovereign people say so a second time.
This is too important a change to let pass, literally, without a chance for a second and better thought—and vote.
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