Initiatives are consequences of slow work on ethics

Deseret News: As we move forward in the public debate over two new citizen initiatives, one argument to reject the measures will be that Utahns elect the Legislature, and if you don't like what the Legislature is doing, just vote out your House or Senate member. And akin to that argument is that Utah shouldn't become like California — mired down in dozens of citizen initiatives on each general election ballot, with the accompanying mess of trying to legislate via huge statewide elections. Utah could well have two initiatives on its 2010 ballot. One would set up an independent legislative ethics commission to investigate and recommend disciplinary actions to the Legislature for wayward lawmakers. The other would set up an independent commission to recommend to legislators redistricting maps of congressional, legislative and State School Board districts every 10 years after a census. Like every republican form of government, we elect good people to the Legislature and ask them to make decisions for us, for we can't vote ourselves on each law or budget that government deals with. Twenty-six states and one U.S. territory allow citizens to change law and/or their constitutions through a ballot initiative.

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