Nebraska State Senator DiAnna Schimek’s 20-year legislative career is nearly over. She feels victimized, no doubt, by the voter-enacted term limits that make this her final year in power. Still, Senator Schimek hopes to go out with her boots on, firing one final shotgun blast to maim or kill the initiative process she has long abhorred.

You see, it was only through the voter initiative that Nebraskans passed term limits . . . three times.

Yup. It took three petition drives and three votes of the people.

Of course, term limits passed overwhelmingly each time. But a charmed third initiative was required because Nebraska’s supreme court struck down the first two citizen-sponsored measures. Those votes were tossed out (if we wish to be overly kind) because of legal technicalities or (if we wish to be more honest) because of outrageous and tyrannical court rulings.

Though term limits enjoyed sustained and overwhelming public support throughout the battle, the nation’s only unicameral never seriously entertained passing such a measure. After all, what do the voters know?

And without the initiative process, legislators-know-best would have been the rule. That’s reason enough for legislators to despise the initiative, certainly, but there are a plethora of other reasons. The fact that a cap on state spending growth made the ballot in 2006 is one more.

In fact, every initiative breaks the law-making monopoly of legislators. And every initiative is likely to be something legislators oppose, or citizens wouldn’t have to go through all the work of petitioning to place such an issue before their fellow citizens. Most significant reforms have to be enacted over the objections of those who are supposed to be representing us, but are so often representing themselves.

Schimek and her fellow know-it-all nabobs realize they can’t stop term limits at the ballot box. This reality was proven yet again in recent months by voters in California and Maine, defeating attempts by politicians to weaken their respective term limits laws. So, the politicians’ best hope appears to be to wreck the path by which such popular reforms can be instituted over their objection: the voter initiative.

That’s why Legislative Bill 39 passed by a lopsided margin of two to one. Intriguingly, more than 90 percent of those termed-out this year supported Schimek’s parting shot.

What would LB39 do? First, it outlaws paying circulators based on the number of signatures collected. So, what else would determine the pay of those circulating a petition? Paying hourly dramatically ups the cost of petition drives, which is, of course, the goal. That’s simply because it destroys any incentive to work hard, since someone standing on their feet in the hot sun asking everyone they see to sign the petition would be paid the same as his or her colleague sitting under a shade tree talking to friends on the cell phone.

LB39 would also forbid hiring professional petitioners from other states, or even allowing volunteers to cross state lines to assist.

Funny, these legislators forgot to outlaw their own use of out-of-state campaign managers, pollsters, advertising firms, etc.

Both restrictions are, at best, constitutionally questionable. They dramatically impair the ability of citizens to associate and to effectively speak out (I have italicized the keywords here; please cross-reference with the First Amendment). This is not likely an unintended consequence, but the very purpose of this legislation, and of other, similar bills so often advanced by politicians elsewhere. Continued...