Petitions deserve full review

Backers of a $150 million bond initiative to preserve open space in Utah apparently do not have enough signatures to place the issue on the November ballot. Proponents are reviewing the petitions to determine if certain signatures were improperly tossed, since the group is only a few hundred signatures short of the required number.

Under a new Utah law, petitioners have to collect signatures of at least 10 percent of the registered voters in 26 of 29 state Senate districts. The state elections office has determined that supporters fell short of the goal in two Senate districts.

Utah's law makes onerous demands of people who want to place items on the statewide ballot, which is by design. Utah doesn't want to become another California where government-by-initiative has become commonplace. However, the backers of the open-space initiative sought to place the issue before voters because the Utah Legislature has not taken concrete measures to fund and oversee open-space preservation on its own.

It is premature to declare the open-space initiative dead, but some backers blame Utah's initiative process. After all, proponents of the initiative, which would have authorized a slight increase in state sales tax for open-space acquisition and related projects, collected more than 95,000 signatures for the ballot initiative, when needing only 76,180. However, the more specific Senate District requirements may unravel the effort.

Ballot initiatives give the people real power, but the downside is they lead to laws that are not subject to the same degree of debate and refinement as are many bills that wind their way through the legislative process.

However, the steep requirements of Utah's law render it nearly impossible for volunteers to achieve the necessary minimum numbers of signatures, let alone to collect 10 percent of signatures in 26 of 29 state Senate districts. About the only initiative petition campaigns that meet the requirements are those supported by wealthy backers who can pay workers handsomely to collect those signatures. Even that is no guarantee. Open-space initiative backers paid workers $3 for each signature collected, and the effort may still fall short.

Although Utah's initiative law has been declared constitutional, it remains a source of considerable frustration for people who want to petition voters to take actions the Legislature either refuses to address or perceives it cannot take on because of other priorities.

Again, it's too soon for Utahns to wring their hands over the demise of the open-space initiative. But in observing the immense challenge backers have faced in their attempts to place the issue before Utah voters, it has at least succeeded in rekindling the debate over Utah's initiative petition law.