This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 31, 2012 - The Missouri Supreme Court has cleared the way for three ballot initiatives to appear on the November ballot. It also declared that the state auditor can issue fiscal notes to accompany initiatives.
The ruling affects ballot initiatives on the state’s minimum wage, its tobacco taxes and the payday loan industry.
For months, the three ballot items have been ensnarled in litigation. Most of the cases challenged ballot summaries written by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and fiscal notes prepared by state Auditor Tom Schweich. Cole County judges had issued disparate rulings about whether a law allowing state auditors to write fiscal notes was constitutional.
Ultimately, the Missouri Supreme Court consolidated the cases and held a lengthy hearing over this summer. Today the court ruled that the summaries and fiscal notes for the three ballot items were “fair and sufficient” and that the fiscal note law was constitutional.
“This court finds no bar to including the secretary of state’s summary statements and auditor’s fiscal note summaries in the official ballot titles for the proposed initiatives,” the court’s judges wrote. “No issues presented in these appeals and cross-appeals indicate any impediment to placing the proposed initiatives on the ballot.”
The court went on to say that the Missouri Constitution “permits the auditor to prepare the fiscal note and fiscal note summary as part of an investigation that is related to the supervision of the receipt and expenditure of public funds.” Therefore, the court argued, the law authorizing fiscal notes is constitutional and “does not impermissibly delegate duties to the auditor beyond those prescribed” in the Missouri Constitution.
While agreeing that the fiscal notes and ballot summaries were fair and sufficient, Missouri Supreme Court Judge Zel Fischer wrote in a concurring decision that the fiscal note law “is an unconstitutional expansion of the auditor's duties in contravention of the express limitations placed on the auditor” by the Missouri Constitution.
In a statement, Schweich said that he appreciated “the court's thoughtful ruling that recognizes the constitutionality of our role in preparing fiscal notes and fiscal note summaries for initiative petitions.”
"This time-tested duty has given voters valuable information from both sides of an issue, so they can make informed decisions at the polls," Schweich said. "We look forward to the next cycle of petitions without the dilatory and frivolous lawsuits from well-financed special-interest groups."
Carnahan said in a statement that "we have always worked hard to give voters a fair and accurate description of the issues they're asked to vote on. The Missouri Supreme Court's decision affirms that."
Spokesmen for ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage and to cap interest rates for payday loans at 36 percent also praised the ruling.
“Today's ruling is great news for the 350,000 Missourians who signed petitions to cap the rate on payday loans and raise our minimum wage," said Rev. James Bryan, treasurer for Missourians for Responsible Lending, in a statement. “The payday lenders and corporate special interests have tried everything in the book to silence Missourians and keep these petitions off the ballot -- unsuccessfully. We are happy to put this very long legal process behind us.”
Added James T. Morris, a former state representative serving as treasurer of Give Missourians a Raise, in a statement. “We expect the secretary of state to certify signatures for the petitions to raise the minimum wage and cap payday loan interest rates in the coming days, and look forward to the final months of this two-year campaign and victory in November.”
An unsigned statement from Missourians for Equal Credit Opportunity, which has opposed efforts to cap payday loan rates, said they "were surprised and disappointed that the Missouri Supreme Court did not uphold a lower court ruling that found the initiative petition circulated by Missourians for Responsible Lending contained ballot language that was 'deceptive' and misleading."
"Now the secretary of state has the responsibility to carefully review the signatures submitted to ensure they are accurate and free of fraud," the statement continued, adding that the group's "independent analysis" uncovered signature improprieties.
(Start of update) Chuck Hatfield, an attorney with Stinson Morrison Hecker who represented opponents of the tobacco tax and the payday lending initiative, said the decision could provide “clarity” on the rules surrounding initiative petitions.
The decision “expands the discretion of the secretary of state and the auditor and basically allows them a very wide amount of latitude when it comes to summarizing initiative petitions,” Hatfield said. “That’s what the voters are going to see. I believe it would be more appropriate to have checks and balances on that process. But you know, that’s why they call them the Supreme Court. They get the last word on these things.”
Hatfield said the ruling makes Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder’s challenge of a ballot summary for an health insurance exchange measure more difficult.
“The best analogy that I can come up with is they’re going to grade the secretary of state on a pass/fail basis,” he said. “If you read through all 56 pages [of the decision], several times they say ‘well, the plaintiffs say this and it might make it better.’ … But they’re not going for A work. The secretary’s just got to get pass/fail. I think it’s going to make it much more difficult to successfully challenge secretary of state’s summaries.” (End of update)
The secretary of state’s office has until early August to certify or reject the petitions. Each proposal needs certified signatures from 91,818 to 99,600 registered voters to get on the November ballot. The signatures must include a required minimum from at least six of the state’s nine congressional districts, with the exact overall number needed depending on which six were chosen.
A ballot initiative to raise Missouri’s minimum wage was successful in 2006, while efforts to curtail payday loans have passed in other states. Voters narrowly rejected two attempts in the 2000s to raise the state’s tobacco taxes, currently the lowest in the nation.
