LANSING — When the coalition to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use turned in petition signatures to the Secretary of State on Monday, the group added to what could be a crowded ballot next November.

Other ballot proposals, including the way district lines are drawn for local, state and federal elected offices, are nearing their goal of obtaining 400,000 signatures to get on the 2018 ballot. And more groups keep popping up in the hopes of getting their issues before voters next year.

Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, which wants to repeal the law that requires public construction projects to pay union-scale wages, has already turned in more than 380,000 signatures. The group hopes the Legislature will take up the issue once the signatures have been verified by the Secretary of State.

If both the House and Senate approve the issue, it automatically goes into law without the need for a signature from Gov. Rick Snyder, who opposes the repeal. Repealing the prevailing wage has been a top priority of leadership in the Republican-controlled Legislature, but it has been thwarted in its efforts because of Snyder’s threat to veto such legislation.

The marijuana legalization effort has been tried in previous years, but hasn’t gotten the necessary 252,523 signatures during the required 180-day window. This year, backers paid a company to collect the signatures and came up with more than 360,000 to provide a cushion if some of the signatures are thrown out. But raising the money to pay for the signatures was a bit harder than anticipated, said Josh Hovey, spokesman for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol. The final $30,000 needed to pay the petition signature vendor was raised and paid last week. [Read more at Detroit Free Press]