Lawmakers in GOP-majority statehouses are looking to rein in the policymaking power unions and worker advocates have found via ballot initiatives, including through rollbacks of paid sick leave measures voters approved in November.
Missouri is the epicenter of this year’s effort, alongside Alaska and Nebraska which all have new sick leave laws that legislators are looking to repeal or revise.
One Missouri bill (HB 567) would repeal voter-backed paid sick time requirements that are slated to take effect May 1. Missouri lawmakers sent another bill (SB 22) to Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) giving state officials more power to write the initiative summaries that voters see on ballots.
Proposals from Florida to Montana have sought to tighten the rules around citizen-initiated ballot measures, which 26 states allow to varying degrees. Current endeavors are heightened, partly because of Republican lawmakers’ frustration with left-leaning advocates succeeding on recent policy ideas the lawmakers oppose—from abortion rights and Medicaid expansion to $15 minimum wages and paid sick time.
“This is an unprecedented number of serious pieces of legislation moving forward quickly,” to make it harder to put an initiative on the ballot, said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which advocates for ballot measures across policy areas. The group is monitoring 150...
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