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Legislation that would make it harder to amend the state constitution through the citizen initiative process cleared its final senate committee Wednesday.

The bill would increase the signature to trigger a review by the State Supreme Court, allow the Attorney General to ask the court in the proposed amendment violates the US Constitution and would significantly raise the cost to have petitions counted.

This is the second year in a row lawmakers have considered cracking down on the process, prompting Senator Oscar Braynon to suggest the real debate that should be had is whether to keep citizen initiatives at all.

“It makes it harder by 1,000 cuts and I can’t support the 1,001 cut. I really hope the next time we see something petitions we actually are completely honest about what we want. We either like the petition process or we do not,” said Braynon.

Three Republican lawmakers voted in favor of the bill in Wednesday’s committee, but said they would vote against it on the floor unless significant changes were made.