The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1913-02-13

4 TO initiate an amendment to the state
constitution and three per cent te
initiate statutory legislation. II the
passes an initiated bill
without amendment, then it becomes
effective without further proceedings
and cannot be vetoed by the Cover
nor. If the legislature amends an
initiated bill it must. to become .
law, be referred TO the people at the
request or demand of three per cent
Of the voters of the state in addition
to the three per cent who initiated
the bill. Five sponsors are provided
for who shall have charge Of the cam
paign for the adoption OF bill to be
initiated, and when tile bill is amend
ed by the legislature, these sponsors
shall determine whether the amend
ments are satisfactory, SO as to war
rant the original petitioners In re-
ferring the bill TO tie people.
Wien constitutional amendment
is referred to the people 1t takes 80
per cent Of the electors voting there
on TO adopt IT, When statute is
referred to the people it takes ma
jority OF the votes cast thereon to
adopt 1t. At present amendments to
the constitution must be approved BY
a majority of all the people voting in
the election. failure to vote on the
amendment being equivalent to a
vote against il.
1t is said that the Senate commit
tee on elections will report for pas
sage an initiative and referendum bilt
|similar to the one passed by the
House, and it seems to be the general
opinion here that such q bill sill be-
come law within few weeks. The
radicals in the Senate will support q
sweeping measure like the House bill
To q man, and now that GOV. Eber-
hart has declared for "a. OF the
same Character 1t Is likely that con-
seryatiye Republicans like Duxbury
and G.. II. Sullivan will also fall in
line. The ones most likely to oppose
so drastic bill are the Senate Demo
Gratis, who are a pretty conservative
lot, with plenty of back bone.
The fight over The so-called county
assessors bill was Que of the hottest
which has so far come up in the
House. Nearly two days were con-
sumed in the debate, Bob Dunn, the
father the bill, leading the fight for
it and J. r. Johnson OF Fergus Falls
and Thomas Frankson of Spring Val
ley taking the lead against it. The
bill was drawn by the state tax COM
mission, which has been advocating
such measure for years, and makes
a most sweeping change in the man.
ner of assessing the property Of the
people. All local assessors, except in
cities having home rule charters, are
done away with, and in place of them
there will be one county assessor for
eyefy5, 900 inhabitants in the county.
The assessor is appointed by the
county board for term of four years;
the deputies are appointed by the as
SCISSOR and serve as long as he pIeases.
The county board has power to re-
move the county assessor, if he fails
to discharge his duties properly, but
not before lie has had a fair hearing,
and he has the right to appeal to the
governor, if he deems action of the
board unjust and unwarranted. The
salary Of the assessors will range from
81, 500-to 1850, depending upon the
size and population Of the county.
The principal argument of the sup
porters of tile bill was that it will
make for greater uniformity Of taxa
tion and less tax-dodging-for more
scientific aud efficient assessing. The
chief arguments of the opposition
were that the new system tends to
destroy the local self-goyernment OF
the people, tends to centralize the
tax-maxing power and will increase
the tax-burdens of the people by
creating lot of new office holders.
The vote on the final passage Of the
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