Opinion ID: 1242568
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: K.S.A. 1997 SUPP. 12-343(f)

Text: Art. 2, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution provides: The legislative power of this state shall be vested in a house of representatives and senate. This provision expresses the fundamental concept that we are to be governed by our duly elected representatives. It is the foundation upon which our democratic form of government is built. Sedlak v. Dick, 256 Kan. at 802. This provision establishes a republican form of government, which constitutes a government by the people through representatives approved by them. 16A Am. Jur.2d, Constitutional Law § 626. The relator argues that by selecting a republican form of government, the citizens of Kansas delegated their legislative rights to the legislature and only retained the right to elect such officials and amend the constitution. See art. 14, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution. According to the relator, the legislature may not delegate to the voters its legislative power to decide if a law will become effective. If the legislature does so and the existence of the law depends upon the vote of the people, then, the relator asserts, the law is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the people, in violation of a republican form of government (art. 2, § 1). See Opinion of the Justices, 287 Ala. 321, 324, 251 So.2d 739 (1971); Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa 750, 61 N.W.2d 703 (1953); Wright v. Cunningham, 115 Tenn. 445, 91 S.W. 293 (1905). K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-343(f) provides that the Plan shall be submitted to a vote of the citizens of Wyandotte County. This section provides in pertinent part: Unless the legislature, by concurrent resolution adopted on or before February 12, 1997, the 30th day of the 1997 regular session, rejects such plan, the plan shall be submitted to the qualified electors of the county at the school district general election on April 1, 1997. Such election shall be called and held by the county election officer in the manner provided by the general bond law. A summary of the final plan shall be prepared by the commission and shall be published once each week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation within the county. If a majority of the electors voting on the plan vote in favor thereof, the consolidation plan shall be implemented in the manner provided by the plan. If a majority of the electors vote against such plan, the proposed consolidation plan shall not be implemented. (Emphasis added.) Claiming that the existence and effectiveness of the Plan depended upon the vote of the electorate in Wyandotte County, the relator argues that the legislature unconstitutionally delegated its legislative powerthe power to decide if a law will be effectiveto the voters of Wyandotte County and unconstitutionally destroyed the State's republican form of government. Thus, the relator asks this court to strike down the Act, the Plan, and the new form of government as an unconstitutional violation of art. 2, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution. In State, ex rel., v. Lamont, 105 Kan. 134, 138, 181 Pac. 617 (1919), involving the right of electors to determine whether they would organize a school district, it was said: So it may be said here that the will of the petitioners does not govern, but when the provision made by the legislature is accepted by the electors themselves by the proper vote, it becomes operative. The legislature gives them permission to form themselves into such district, and when, by the proper election, they avail themselves of this permission, they are not exercising legislative power, but merely accepting a privilege conferred by a proper exercise of such power. Such granted permission is one means by which the legislature has seen fit to obey the constitutional mandate to promote education, and such provision is not a violation of the constitution. See Barrett v. City of Osawatomie, 131 Kan. 50, 53, 289 Pac. 970 (1930). We believe it untenable to hold a law which permits the question of attachment of territory to be decided finally by the popular vote of the electors within the territory seeking attachment is a delegation of legislative power. We are satisfied section 41 of the instant act does not violate article 2, section 1, of our constitution. Moreover, if courts entertain any doubt on that subject it is always resolved in favor of validity. Statutes are not stricken down unless the infringement of the superior law is clear beyond reasonable doubt. ( Hunt v. Eddy, 150 Kan. 1, 90 P.2d 747.) State, ex rel., v. Board of Education, 173 Kan. 780, 790, 252 P.2d 859 (1953). The existence of the Act was not dependent upon the approval of the electorate in Wyandotte County. The Act was a valid local option law complete in and of itself when it was passed by the legislature and was signed by the Governor. At that time, it became effective in that it delegated power to the Commission to fill in the details of the local option (the Plan). See Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa at 760-62. Cf. Wright v. Cunningham, 115 Tenn. at 466-67. The will of the electorate did not enact the Plan, either. Rather, the legislature enacted a valid law (the Act, which included the Plan) and when the electors accepted the local option offered in the Act (the Plan) by a popular vote, the Plan became applicable to them. In so doing, the voters did not exercise legislative power by enacting a general law; instead, the voters who were most affected by the legislation merely accepted a privilege to consolidate which was conferred in the Act. State, ex rel., [Gray] v. Board of Education, 173 Kan. at 789-90; see Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa at 760-62; Akin v. Director of Revenue, 934 S.W.2d 295, 299 (Mo. 1996). The voters' approval of the Plan was not necessary for the Act, which included the Plan, to be an effective local option law offering a local option (the Plan) to Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. The voters' approval was only necessary to apply this local option to Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. The Act was still a valid law enacted by the legislature, and not the voters, even if its application was made to depend on some subsequent eventthe approval of the Wyandotte County electorate. State v. Butler County, 77 Kan. 527, 530, 94 Pac. 1004 (1908); Akin v. Director of Revenue, 934 S.W.2d at 299. Cf. Wright v. Cunningham, 115 Tenn. at 467-68. The Act was a law of a local option nature, where it was complete law but was to become applicable upon an election by the electorate. See Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa at 760-62. The Act simply gave the voters in Wyandotte County the opportunity to vote on a local option (the Plan) which would apply to them if they wanted it to. See Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa at 760-62. The Act did not compel electors to accept consolidation but gave them the choice of consolidation. However, the Act did not leave this decision completely up to the electors. Before the electors were ever given such choice, the legislature required the Commission to study consolidation, decide whether it was in the public interest, and if so, create a Plan to implement it, giving the electorate the opportunity to finally approve it. State, ex rel., v. Board of Education, 173 Kan. at 789-90; State ex rel v. Drainage District, 123 Kan. 191, 192-95, 254 Pac. 371 (1927); State, ex rel., v. Lamont, 105 Kan. at 138; State v. Butler County, 77 Kan. at 530. Further, the Act did not give individual persons the power to decide if consolidation should occur. Rather, the Act allowed for the consolidation of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, if the electors in these areas, as a whole, approved it. See State, ex rel., v. Lamont, 105 Kan. at 138; Hill v. Johnson County, 82 Kan. 813, 109 Pac. 163 (1910); cf. Hutchinson v. Leimbach, 68 Kan. 37, 74 Pac. 598 (1903); Comm'rs of Wyandotte Co. v. Abbott, 52 Kan. 148, 34 Pac. 416 (1893). We hold that neither the Act nor the Plan constituted an improper delegation of legislative powerthe power to make a law effectiveto the voters. As such, neither the Act nor the Plan violated art. 2, § 1 or destroyed the republican form of government in Kansas. This issue fails.