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Another editorial opposes legislating by constitutional amendment …

Submitted by mcody on February 1, 2012 - 11:50am

Minnesota media outlets have been editorializing against the bundle of constitutional amendments proposed by the GOP majority in the Minnesota Legislature. You can add the Austin Daily Herald to the list with its editorial titled, “Fewer referenda.”

The Daily Herald editorialized that legislating by constitutional amendment is “… a trend that could prove destructive in the long term.” The editorial said it’s dangerous because “... it lets lawmakers wash their hands of the result by ‘leaving it to the people.’ While that makes lawmakers’ lives easier, it also raises the question of what good legislators are doing if they won’t do their jobs.”

While the editorial agreed that “amendments are also a means of getting passed into law changes that cannot make it through the usual legislative process …,” it added that “... bypassing that process serves only to deepen a political divide that makes it difficult to get the people’s business done in the ordinary way.”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune also editorialized against legislating by constitutional amendment this week. The newspaper said that Minnesota legislators entail a certain amount of risk in abandoning their role and making voters lawmakers. (More information on the Star Tribune’s editorial is posted on the MAPE website at: GOP majority: handing over legislative duty to voters?)

Last week, Two Greater Minnesota newspaper editorials said, “No,” to the proposed constitutional amendment requiring a super-majority vote of 60 percent by the Minnesota Legislature to raise taxes. The bluntest editorial, from the Fargo Forum, said, “Forum editorial: Say ‘no’ to lazy lawmakers.” The Forum objected to the harm the super-majority amendment would cause by allowing a minority of lawmakers to “hold the budget process hostage” and the likelihood that such an amendment would harm Greater Minnesota since there are more legislative votes in the metro area.

The Worthington Daily Globe agreed. With its editorial titled, “Editorial: Amendment is a big NO.”

To read more about the editorials in the Fargo Forum and the Worthington Daily Globe, please go to this MAPE website address: Say, 'No,' to super-majority amendment: media editorials