Initiative Petition No. 348, State Question No. 640, In re
| Decision Date | 29 October 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 76277,76277 |
| Citation | 820 P.2d 772,1991 OK 110 |
| Parties | In re INITIATIVE PETITION NO. 348, STATE QUESTION NO. 640. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Initiative Petition No. 348 is a proposed submission of a constitutional amendment. Protests were filed on the basis of legal sufficiency. Also presented is an appeal from the ballot title as prepared by the Attorney General.
INITIATIVE PETITION NO. 348 IS DECLARED LEGALLY SUFFICIENT FOR SUBMISSION TO THE PEOPLE OF OKLAHOMA.
Stanley M. Ward and Duchess Bartmess, Norman, for proponents S.T.O.P. New Taxes.
Lee Slater, Carol Dennis and Thomas E. Prince, York & Slater, Oklahoma City, for protestant Rosie Brown.
Thomas Dee Frasier and Steven R. Hickman, Tulsa, for protestant James C. Thomas.
This is an original action brought pursuant to 34 O.S.1981 § 8 challenging the legality of Initiative Petition 348, State Question 640 (Petition). The Petition purports to amend by the initiative process 1 Article V, § 33 of the Oklahoma Constitution. The amendment would impose severe limitations upon the Legislature's ability to raise new revenue.
We begin by emphasizing that our inquiry is limited to those challenges fundamental to the validity of the Petition as a whole. We will not attempt to resolve uncertainties ensuing from the interpretation or application of the Petition. Such issues are better reserved for a day when they can be directly challenged. Likewise, we will not deliberate the wisdom of the proposed amendment, as that question will be answered by the voters of Oklahoma, rather than this court. 2 With those qualifications in mind, we conclude, the Petition survives alleged infirmities and is therefore legally sufficient for submission to the people of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma's Constitution, Article V, § 33 reads:
All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. The Senate may propose amendments to revenue bills. No revenue bill shall be passed during the five last days of the session.
The Petition, if adopted, would require all revenue raising bills 3 be approved by a majority of the people at the next general election unless such revenue bill was approved by a three-fourths vote of both houses. If approved by three-fourths of both houses, the bill would not be subject to an emergency measure provision and would not go into effect until ninety (90) days after the bill's approval by the Legislature and appropriate action by the Governor. Such a bill could still be defeated or its effective date delayed by a referendum of the people during the ninety day period. 4
Multiple protests have been alleged on behalf of two Protestants, Thomas and
Brown, however, given the similarity of the arguments, we address them concurrently. Specifically, Protestants assert the Petition violates Article XXIV, § 1 of the Oklahoma constitution in that it embraces more than one general subject; that the Petition is misleading and deceptive and violative of 34 O.S.1981, §§ 3 & 9; that it directly conflicts with other articles of the constitution and threatens the constitutional plan for financing state government. Protestants further argue the Petition contravenes the constitutional guarantee of a republican form of government. Finally, Protestants maintain the Petition is invalid because the power of the initiative is not without limits and this amendment exceeds the power reserved to the people. We address Protestants' arguments in order to establish the legal sufficiency of this petition; our inquiry begins with a general analysis of the right of the initiative.
The people's right to institute change through the initiative process is a fundamental characteristic of Oklahoma government. Oklahoma's constitution Article V, § 1 provides:
The Legislative authority of the State shall be vested in a Legislature, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives; but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws and amendments to the Constitution and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the Legislature, and also reserve power at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any act of the Legislature.
(emphasis added).
The right of the initiative is not absolute in that there are both constitutional and statutory limitations, 5 however, this power, reserved by the people, grants them the constitutional right to amend even these limitations. Whether right or wrong, this reserved power, authorizes the people of the state of Oklahoma to amend 6 the constitution they created.
In other words, ... it is universally conceded that the people are sovereign and that they have power to adopt a constitution and to change their own work at will.... 7
Understandably, given this constitutional foundation, we have repeatedly maintained our defense of the initiative process. In Oliver v. Tulsa, 8 we quoted with approval the following persuasive language from another state court:
The right of initiative is precious to the people and is one which the courts are zealous to preserve to the fullest tenable measure of spirit as well as letter.... All doubt as to the construction of pertinent provisions is to be resolved in favor of the initiative and such legislation is to be given the same liberal construction as that afforded election statutes generally.
In In re Referendum Petition No. 18, 9 we articulated, "[t]he right to petition for a vote of the people by Initiative and Referendum provided by Art. 5, § 2, of the Constitution of Oklahoma is a sacred right to be carefully preserved."
In Ruth v. Peshek, 10 we declared:
The people reserved to themselves the power to propose laws and amendments to the Constitution.... This power so reserved to the people should not be crippled, avoided, or denied by technical construction by the courts. It is the duty of the courts to construe and preserve this right as intended by the people in Ours is a government which rests upon the will of the governed. The initiative and referendum is the machinery whereby self-governing people may express their opinion in concrete form upon matters of public concern. If the people are to be self-governed, it is essential that they shall have a right to vote upon questions of public interest and register the public will.
adopting the Constitution, and thereby reserve unto the people this power.
Under these constitutional mandates and precedential principles of law, we consider the proposed Petition.
Article XXIV, § 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution provides:
No proposal for the amendment or alteration of the Constitution which is submitted to the voters shall embrace more than one general subject and the voters shall vote separately for or against each proposal submitted; provided, however, that in the submission of proposals for the amendment of the Constitution by articles, which embrace one general subject, each proposed article shall be deemed a single proposal or proposition.
In In re Initiative Petition No. 314 11 we held this section was applicable to initiative petitions.
Protestant Thomas concedes the petition on its face does not encompass more than one subject, that subject being taxation. Rather, Protestant charges the petition violates the one subject rule because it would affect more than one subject. Further, Protestant contends the Petition is misleading in that the voter is not given notice of the affected articles. Protestant Brown makes in essence the same argument.
While appreciating Protestant Thomas's approach in conceding what is apparent on its face, we nevertheless disagree with both Protestants' contention that an amendment, having an affect on other articles of the constitution, violates the one subject rule or is misleading. Moreover, assuming for the sake of argument such articles would be so affected, those issues are not yet ripe for review and therefore have no bearing on the sufficiency of this Petition.
In In re Initiative Petition No. 342, 12 we held:
The purpose of the one general subject criteria is to prevent deceit or the presentation of a misleading proposal and to prevent logrolling, the combining of unrelated proposals. In In re Initiative Petition No. 314, this court adopted the following test: If the different changes contained in the proposed amendment all cover matters necessary to be dealt with in some manner, in order that the Constitution, as amended, shall constitute a consistent and workable whole on the general topic embraced in that part which is amended, and if, logically speaking, they should stand or fall as a whole, then there is but one amendment submitted. But, if any one of the propositions, although not directly contradicting the others, does not refer to such matters, or if it is not such that the voter supporting it would reasonably be expected to support the principle of the others, then there are in reality two or more amendments to be submitted, and the proposed amendment falls within the constitutional prohibition.
Protestants cite us two cases in which this court has recently struck down the proposed initiatives based on this single subject test, purporting that those cases are factually controlling. However, these cases offer no support for Protestants' contention. Each of those proposed initiatives clearly contained more than one subject as evidenced by the following quoted language from In re Initiative Petition No. 344. 13 There we found the Petition contained numerous subjects from the method of the election of the LT. Governor, to changing the term of board and commission members including non-attorney members of the Judicial Nominating Commission, to giving the Governor the sole authority 'to grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons', to...
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...We limit our inquiry to deciding the "challenges fundamental to the validity of the Petition as a whole." In re Initiative Petition No. 348, State Question No. 640, 1991 OK 110, ¶ 2, 820 P.2d 772, 774. In doing so, we reemphasize that it is the prerogative of the Oklahoma voters, not this C......