Sometimes in the course of understanding Illinois, it helps to look across its borders to ponder issues in neighboring states.
Today we consider Missouri, which I praised in August for its citizen petition initiative process through which voters can approve measures their elected officials are unlikely to advance. This year the topics were overturning a near-total ban on abortion, legalized sports betting and a $15 minimum wage, while earlier issues have involved labor organizing, property tax exemptions for child care establishments and police funding.
This was in clear contrast to Illinois, where due to lawmaker-imposed limitations and strategic manipulation, “many initiative scholars don’t even count it as an initiative state,” according to the Initiative and Referendum Institute (initiativeandreferenduminstitute.org/illinois).
But … I walked back the August praise in September when Republican lawmakers and abortion opponents filed a lawsuit trying to get that question thrown off the ballot. They failed — only via last-minute state supreme court ruling — and even though voters approved the constitutional amendment by a margin of 95,000, the legal wrangling is far from over as Republican lawmakers are introducing a variety of proposals aimed at re-establishing a near total ban.
To a certain degree, this is all part of the process and demonstrates each interested party exercising their rights in an attempt to reach a desired goal. In other words, politics and government. But ProPublica reported there also is an attempt to “raise the threshold for amending the state constitution through voter initiatives, which could make it harder to pass similar measures in the future,” a strategy clearly aimed at tipping the scales of power more toward lawmakers.
Missourians should look to us to understand a system where nothing happens without explicit endorsement of the party firmly in control — and which otherwise uses heavy levers to enforce preservation of the status quo. Elections give those politicians their influence, but the system affords those officials a degree of removal from allowing voters to have too much personal power.
We can both look California, where there are so many propositions on each ballot the state has to reset its numbering system every decade. Chaotic by comparison, that system gives our Midwestern sensibilities a sense of practical order.
Still, of great interest to all Illinoisans should be the 2028 vote on a constitutional convention. The opportunity arises once a decade, and we’re in a considerably different place from a leadership and General Assembly composition than in 2018 and 2008.
If we take anything from Missouri, it’s a reminder that ultimately the government belongs to its people. Asserting that control can be extremely difficult but is not impossible. Hence the important of staying informed and involved, prepared to meet moments as they arise.
Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at [email protected].
