A former aide to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is urging him to veto legislation that would make it harder to initiate Michigan ballot measures, should it reach his desk.
Bill Rustem, Snyder's ex-strategy director, issued an open letter to Snyder Tuesday. It was also signed by Doug Ross, a former gubernatorial candidate who worked in Democratic Gov. Jim Blanchard's administration.
Rustem led the 1976 ballot drive for Michigan's 10-cent bottle deposit law. Ross led a 1974 ballot initiative to repeal a sales tax on food and medicine.
The House-passed bill, pending in the Senate, would allow no more than 15 percent of initiative signatures to come from a congressional district.
Rustem and Ross say the limit would "move the right to petition the government beyond the practical reach of its citizens."
