Supermajority no longer makes sense

Johnson County's repeated failure to revamp its courthouse - despite the support of more than 50 percent of participating voters - is the latest illustration of why the state-mandated 60 percent approval threshold should be cast aside.

In the 2000 general election, when Johnson County voters were asked to approve a jail-only bond issue, the answer was clear. Nearly 66 percent of voters were against the proposal.

In 2012, 2013 and, most recently, this November, results were ambiguous. Although more than half of participating voters signaled approval for proposals that would address the historic courthouse and, in some cases, add jail space, all three measures failed because they did not reach a 60-percent supermajority.

The 60-percent threshold on only some votes involving taxpayer funds strikes us as arbitrary. We can find no foundation on which the 60 percent figure was based - it could just as easily be 55 or 75 percent. Outside of overriding a veto, we know of no time when state lawmakers have held themselves to this elevated standard.

As school children, we all learned the majority rules and one person equals one vote. Supermajority requirements fly in the face of both adages.

While some have argued a supermajority entices more voters to the polls, the statement did has not held true in Johnson County. While nearly 52,000 residents took time to vote in the U.S. Senate race, only 47,350 voted on the adjacent courthouse bond.

It is concerning to our board that only 53 percent of eligible voters chose to participate in the courthouse referendum. And, when the successful minority is viewed through this lens, that less than 25 percent of eligible voters were allowed to decide the future of county services.

When such supermajority laws were prevalent, many Americans were not land owners. There was a fear that tenants, who outnumbered property owners, could run up property taxes without being directly subjected to the cost.

This, however, is no longer the case. A vast majority of residents own property, and most adults understand the symbiotic relationship between cost and price.

There is no longer a need to protect property owners in this fashion, just as there is no longer a need for the state to put onerous requirements on the few ways local governments are allowed to increase revenues.

Expand the local toolbox, or let the majority rule.

' Comments: (319) 398-8262, editorial@thegazette.com