On Friday Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams reported that the proponents of the private property rights measure – Initiative 108 – had turned the collected signatures over to the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State’s office now has 30 days to review the information provided on the petitions and determine whether the proposed measure has enough verified signatures for the measure to be placed on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
Initiative 108
Initiative 108 is a proposed change to the Colorado constitution asking to amend section 15 of article H as follows:
Section 15. Taking property for public use—compensation, how ascertained.
Private property shall not be taken, of damaged, OR REDUCED IN FAIR MARKET VALUE BY GOVERNMENT LAW OR REGULATION for public or private use, without just compensation. Such compensation shall be ascertained by a board of commissioners, of not less than three freeholders, or by a jury, when required by the owner of the property, in such manner as may be prescribed by law, and until the same shall be paid to the owner, or into court for the owner, the property shall not be needlessly disturbed, or the proprietary rights of the owner therein divested; and whenever an attempt is made to take private property for a use alleged to be public, the question whether the contemplated use be really public shall be a judicial question, and determined as such without regard to any legislative assertion that the use is public.
Williams said his office has to announce by Sept. 5 whether the issue made the ballot. The initiative is a proposed change to the Colorado Constitution and as such, there is a 35-Senate district requirement.
Tougher road for constitutional amendments
Colorado Voters two years ago approved Amendment 71, which makes it more difficult to amend the constitution. In addition to requiring that signatures come from two percent of voters in each senate district, the measure also required constitutional amendments to pass with a 55-percent majority rather than a simple majority.
