Fiscal Impact of Ballot Measures | Video

Jessica Roose | 10/4/2012

In about a month voters will head to the polls to decide between several candidates and initiated measures. Today members of the legislature met to discuss what financial impacts those measures could have if passed. The legislators looked into Measures 3,4 and 5 and in the end they could not determine a fiscal impact in any of them.

Measure 3, if passed, would guarantee the right of farmers and ranchers to take part in modern farming and ranching practices. Supporters of Measure 4 hope to ban smoking in public places across the state. And Measure 5 deals with making it a class C Felony to to those who intentionally harm a living dog, cat or horse.

While legislators could not find a fiscal impact in these measures, the chairman of the committee says it`s still an important step to take.

"That`s our job. Big issues like the property tax Measure 2 that was on the primary election or years ago the youth initiative. When you`re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that could be affected either for the revenue of the state or for taxes for people, I think they should know what it costs," said District 41 Representative Al Carlson.

While some of the measures, like the animal cruelty measure, could have an impact, members of the Office of Management and Budget say it`s impossible to know how many people would be arrested and what cost that would bring.

"You know in talking about it we felt that there were probably so many unknowns and too many assumptions to make to you know definitively make a quantified dollar amount," said Pam Sharp with the Office of Management and Budget.

The information will now be passed on to the Secretary of State where he will post it online for the public to view.

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