Citizen initiatives are not the topic that will get the most attention among those who watch what the Mississippi Legislature does. Still, the persistent unwillingness to replace the initiative process ruled illegal by the state Supreme Court five years ago makes it clear lawmakers aren’t interested in this issue.On Feb. 11, the full Senate in a voice vote tabled a concurrent resolution that would have allowed citizens to propose new state laws, or amend or repeal existing ones. The tabled bill missed a deadline for action and died the next day.Republican senators against the bill came up with some odd reasons for their opposition. One said big groups, presumably from out of state, could raise a lot of money to sidestep the Legislature and put an issue to a referendum of the voters. Others worried about special interest groups trying to convince voters to throw out the state’s strict abortion law that overturned Roe v. Wade.It is certainly true that well-heeled liberal organizations could target Mississippi for an initiative. But conservative groups could do the same thing. It’s a free country.Those who fear an initiative law forget something else. No matter how much lobbying, advertising or influencing goes on during an initiative campaign, all the spending won’t make a bit of difference with voters if they disagree with a proposal’s intent. The public, after all, doesn’t depend on campaign contributions the way lawmakers do.Finally, initiative opponents in the Senate used the possibility of an abortion referendum in their arguments, even though the resolution they were considering specifically forbade citizen votes on that issue, as well as on the state’s employee retirement system.The one thing initiative opponents are right about is that voters, given the opportunity, could do something their elected representatives don’t like. The best example of that was in 2020, when close to 70% of those voting supported the establishment of a medical marijuana program. The wide, 2-to-1 support for marijuana was one of Mississippi’s biggest electoral surprises in many years.The medical marijuana referendum may be the reason many lawmakers are reluctant to write new legislation for citizen initiatives. That result makes it easier to envision a majority of voters approving a recreational marijuana program one day, in which any adult could buy the drug, just like they do alcohol or tobacco.No doubt the conservative-led Legislature would despise such a decision by voters. So the least initiative opponents could do is admit that they only trust the people to a point, or that they don’t want anyone but themselves and the governor deciding what becomes law. That may not be a flattering message, but it would be an honest one.Before the state Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling, Mississippi had an initiative process in its Constitution for 29 years, going back to 1992. It may be helpful to point out that only seven proposals during those three decades gathered enough signatures from registered voters to be put to a referendum.Voters approved three of the seven. One protected property owners from eminent domain land proceedings. Another set up a Voter ID process for elections, and the third approved the medical marijuana program.The initiative process wasn’t abused. On average, a proposal went to voters every four years, and only once per decade did voters approve.By those numbers, voters were very selective. It’s a shame the Legislature doesn’t see it.Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
