Fiscal Impact Summary	FY 1999/2000	FY 2000/2001
State Revenues General Fund
State Expenditures General Fund
FTE Position Change	0.0 FTE	0.0 FTE
Other State Impact: None
Effective Date: 90 days after adjournment unless a petition is filed
Appropriation Summary for FY 1999-2000: None
Local Government Impact: Potential increased county election costs.

Under current law, it is not clear if the initiative and referendum process is available to county residents for county issues. This bill would extend the initiative and referendum process to county residents. Initiatives submitted to the county commission would have to be adopted within 20 days or an initiative would be placed on a ballot for an election to be held within 60 to 150 days. The bill also provides for the signature verification process, protests, and cure period of an initiative.

This bill would increase the costs and workloads of county clerks for signature verification of each county initiative and for any special election that may be required. This bill is assessed as having a conditional fiscal impact, because the fiscal impact is dependant upon county residents filing a petition and county commissioners acting on the petition. The initiative process created in this bill is the same as the process for municipalities. Under the municipal initiative and referenda provisions, it is a common occurrence to have a special election generated by the initiative and referenda powers.

The cost to each county would depend upon the number of petitions submitted to the commission and not adopted by the commission within the 20 day time limit. It is assumed that the number of county special elections would be less than municipal special elections because the number of signatures required to obtain a petition is greater. For each petition that is not adopted by the county commission, the county would be required to conduct an election within 60 to 150 days. If there is not regularly scheduled General Election within the specified time limits, the county would have to conduct a special election. A special election could cost some of the larger counties between $100,000 and $200,000. County clerks would also be allowed to impose a fee for the cost of providing a list of registered voters to a petition advocate. The fee would cover the cost of printing the registered voter list.