A couple months back my fellow blogger Mako and I had a few posts back and forth about appropriations in the item pricing law. As I mentioned then I really don't care about the item pricing law but I thought it was a dangerous precedent to make controversial bills voter proof. By using appropriations, Legislatures are gaming the system and limiting the power of the people.
Well they are at it again. This time legislatures have made the redrawing of legislative and Congressional lines referendum proof. This means that even if a majority of Michiganders thought the new lines were just political gerrymandering, we are powerless to change it.
While it may be too little too late for some of this years legislation State Representative Jim Townsend has proposed an amendment to the states constitution that would bar this practice while keeping in tact the safe guards that protect actually budget bills from potentially damaging referendums.
Personally I would be shocked if this legislation goes anywhere since legislators love any power they can get their hands on and this form of exploiting our system is far to enticing for politicians to relinquish.
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