It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. {ADD Voter initiative in North Smithfield. -- ADD} The right to enact ordinances is hereby granted to the qualified electors of the town by initiative, provided that such power shall not extend to the budget or capital programs or to any ordinance relating to the appropriation of money, or to the levy of taxes or to the salaries and benefits of town officials or employees. The initiative shall be exercised in the following manner:

(a) Whenever five hundred (500) qualified electors of the town petition the town council to enact a proposed ordinance, it shall be the duty of the town council to consider such proposed ordinance within seventy (70) days of receipt. Receipt, for the purpose of this subsection, shall be defined as the reading of said petition at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the town council.

(b) The signatures on any initiative petition provided for in this subsection may be on separate papers; provided, however, that each such separate paper shall contain a full and correct copy of the title and text of the proposed ordinance and all such separate papers shall be bound together and filed as one instrument with the town clerk. To each said separate paper there shall be attached a signed statement of the circulator thereof, who states therein under oath, that each signature appended to said paper was made in the presence of the circulator.

(c) In the event that the town council shall fail to enact such proposed ordinance without amendment, and upon the receipt by the town clerk of a notarized referendum petition signed by an additional five (5) percent of the qualified electors of the town, the town council shall submit such proposed ordinance to a vote of the people of the town at the next general election; provided, however that said ballot referendum petition must be filed at least sixty (60) days prior to the date fixed for such general election.

(d) The ballots used when voting upon such proposed ordinance shall include an ordinance title which state the purpose or intent of such ordinance, the question, "Shall the ordinance pass?" and shall set forth on separate lines the words "Yes" and "No".

(e) If a majority of the electors voting on the proposed ordinance shall vote in favor thereof, such ordinance shall thereupon become a valid binding ordinance of the town; an ordinance so adopted shall not be altered or modified by the town council within one year after the adoption of the ordinance at said general election.

(f) The town council may, by ordinance, make such other further regulations for carrying out the provisions of this section as are not inconsistent herewith.

SECTION 2. The question of the approval of this act shall be submitted to the electors of the town of North Smithfield at the general election to be held in November, 1994. The question shall be submitted in substantially the following form: "Shall an act, passed at the session of the general assembly, entitled 'An act relating to Voter Initiative in the town of North Smithfield' be approved?" and the warning for the election shall contain the question to be submitted. From the time the election is warned and until it is held, it shall be the duty of the city clerk to keep a copy of the act available at his/her office for public inspection, but the validity of the election shall not be affected by this requirement.

SECTION 3. This section and the foregoing section shall take effect upon the passage of this act. The remainder of this act shall take effect upon the approval of this act by a majority of those voting on the question at the election prescribed by the foregoing section.