Reform Michigan Government Now Initiative is Too Broad: Each Proposal Should Be Voted on Separately

I am coming out in opposition to the Reform Michigan Government Now Initiative, which is a ballot proposal that will make approximately thirty changes to the Michigan Constitution.

All of these changes should be voted on one at a time, and not in one huge ballot proposal, and not to the benefit of one political party over another. Here is the list of changes that this clunky creation is proposing:

(from the Reform Michigan Government Now Initiative website)

Reforming the Legislative Branch

• Legislators’ benefits after leaving office to be the same as retired state employees
• Stop the revolving door between the Legislature and lobbying by enacting a two-year lobbying ban — the toughest in the nation
• Require annual public disclosure of income and assets by all legislators
• Roll back the 38 percent increase lawmakers gave themselves in 2002
• Reduce the Senate from 38 members to 28 and the House from 110 members to 82
• Reform redistricting by appointing a bipartisan panel to set legislative districts
  
  

Reforming the Judicial Branch

• Judicial benefits after leaving office to be the same as retired state employees
• Reduce judicial salaries by 15 percent
• Toughen disciplinary and conflict of interest requirements
• Require annual public disclosure of income and assets for all judges and justices
• Add 10 judges to the lower courts and reduce the number of Supreme Court Justices from seven to five justices and the Court of Appeals from 28 to 21 judges

Reforming the Executive Branch

• Benefits after leaving office for the four statewide elected officials (governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state) to be the same as retired state employees
• Reduce the salaries of the four statewide elected officials by 25 percent
• Stop the revolving door between the executive branch and lobbying by enacting a two-year lobbying ban — the toughest in the nation
• Require annual public disclosure of income and assets for the four statewide elected officials
• Reduce the constitutional cap on the number of state government departments from 20 to 18 and cut hundreds of state boards and commissions
  

Reforming Elections

• Strengthen the ban on illegal aliens’ ability to register and vote
• Make the Bureau of Elections independent of partisanship
• Allow no-reason absentee voting
• Require post-election audits of election procedures
• Require paper trails for all voting systems
• Ban election officials like the secretary of state and local clerks from taking on campaign roles in elections they’re overseeing
• Enact anti-fraud measures to protect the integrity of Michigan’s election process

I like a number of these proposals, but am opposed to others, such as the reduction of the number of judges. There is already a huge backlog in cases on all levels, and they should be increasing the number of judges to deal with it, not reducing them. And no one party should benefit from all these changes.

This ballot proposal is too huge for a single question on the ballot. And here's what voters will see when they go to vote. If they want to make major changes like this all at once, they should call for a constitutional convention.

I want to vote yes on a number of these changes and no on others, but I can't. Voters are being forced to choose all or nothing. So I vote to throw this ballot out and break it up so voters can see what they're getting themselves into without being confused by a huge ballot proposal that has good and bad ideas in it.

This is a very bad model of a ballot initiative that shouldn't be used again.