I was confused by Amendment B. I doubt I am the only one

When I first read Amendment B, I answered the way I suspect a lot of people will. Quickly.

I have gone back and read it again since then, more than once. My own twisty-turnie response was nearly as confused as the question itself. So let me say plainly where I have landed and why.

Amendment B would change the Utah Constitution. It would require that any citizen initiative raising taxes pass with 60 percent of the vote rather than a simple majority.

Something in it took me a while to see. Our state constitution protects the right of citizens to start a change in the law ourselves. Not through the Legislature. Through each other. I am a little embarrassed to admit I had not thought about that right in years, because I had never needed it.

A permanent change to our constitution ought to come in plain language, with time to talk it through. This one did neither. I read it several times and still had to work at it, and I spent my career teaching people how to read closely.

When a question is written so that reasonable people cannot easily tell what they are agreeing to, the answer is not to agree faster. It is to hold our horses.

We should not surrender any part of our constitutional power as citizens without understanding exactly what we stand to lose.

I will be voting no on Amendment B.

If you have read it and landed somewhere different, I would like to hear from you. I am not going to pretend this one was obvious to me.