With early ballots soon coming to a mailbox near you, I thought it was time to do a post like this.
During some election years, the state legislature refers some measures to the ballot that are worth voting for.
This isn't such a year.
Some of the schemes referred to the ballot by the lege are thing they *have* to refer to ballot; some were referred to get around a veto by Governor Hobbs; but all are bad for the people of Arizona.
Every measure referred by the legislature falls into one of two categories:
1. Shameless power grabs by the lege.
2. Shameless espousing of propaganda.
As such, *all* such measures (those referred by the Rs in the legislature) should be opposed by voters.
The list of state-level ballot measures, from the Arizona Secretary of State, is here.
The Citizens Clean Elections Commission has a list here. (select "2024 - General" and "All Counties " and click on "See All".)
Note: neither of these espouses a position on any measure.
The guide from the group Civic Engagement Beyond Voting is here.
Note: this one takes a position on each measure.
The list of analyses of the ballot measures from the Legislative Council's office is here.
Note: officially, they don't take a position on any of the measures. Practically, Lege Council is a bunch of lawyers who work for the Republicans in the state legislature. Anything they produce regarding ballot measures (and many other topics) should simply be viewed as partisan garbage.
Note2: When I write about a similar bill in the other chamber, I only looked for a CR introduced in the same year.
On to the questions themselves -
Prop 133 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2023. A proposal to amend the state's constitution to allow the legislature to override all municipal laws regarding primary elections. Started life as HCR2033, sponsored by Austin Smith (a similar measure was introduced in the Senate, SCR1036. It was introduced by Justine Wadsack and Anthony Kern.). NO.
Prop 134 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2023. A proposal to amend the state's constitution to limit the ability of voters to put questions on the ballot by requiring that a certain number of signatures be gathered from each legislative district. Started life as SCR1015, proposed by JD Mesnard, Ken Bennett, Steve Kaiser, Sine Kerr Warren Petersen, Timothy Dunn, Travis Grantham, and Ben Toma. (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2041, proposed by David Marshall, Sr., Lupe Diaz, John Gillette, Liz Harris, Laurin Hendrix, Rachel Jones, and Austin Smith
The one that made the ballot was supported by the Republican leaders in both chambers. NO.
Prop 135 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2023. A proposal to amend the state's constitution to limit the governor's emergency powers. This looks to be a two-fer - it's both a push-back against Covid mitigation efforts and the election of Democrat Katie Hobbs to the job of governor. Started life as HCR2039, introduced by Joe Chaplik and Alexander Kolodin (no similar Senate bill). NO.
Prop 136 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024. A proposal to amend the state's constitution to allow anyone to sue to make a voter-proposed ballot go away. Another attempt to limit the ability of voters to propose laws. Started life as SCR1041, sponsored by JD Mesnard (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2049, proposed by Neal Carter). NO
Prop 137 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024. A proposal to amend the state's constitution to eliminate judicial retention elections. There's a sneaky clause in it to exempt the anti-choice justices on the Arizona Supreme Court who are up for retention this year (and face a campaign to remove them from the bench) from this year's election. Started life as SCR1044, proposed by David Gowan and Janae Shamp (no similar House bill). Hell NO.
Prop 138 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024. A proposal to amend the state's constitution to pay tipped employees 25% less than minimum wage. Supported by industry; opposed by decent human beings. Started life as SCR1040, sponsored by JD Mesnard (no similar House bill). Hell NO.
Prop 139 - referred to the ballot by the public. A proposal to amend the state's constitution. Would create a constitutional right to an abortion.
Hell YES. The only measure worthy of support.
Prop 140 - referred to the ballot by the public. A proposal to amend the state's constitution. Would create a jungle primary where all candidates would run in a single primary, regardless of partisan affiliation, and twice the number of candidates as offices to be elected would go on to the general election. Do I believe that AZ's primary needs fixing? Yes. Do I believe that a jungle primary will do it? No.
Like ineffective term limits, this is just a lazy way to address a problem.
NO.
Prop 311 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2023. A proposal to amend the state's laws to create a cash death benefit for the spouses or children of first responders killed in the line of duty. The measure would pay for the death benefit by imposing an additional fee on people convicted of crimes. It also characterizes police officers/sheriff's deputies/etc. as "first responders". Started life as SCR1006, proposed by David Gowan (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2025, proposed by Kevin Payne). As defendants convicted of crimes already have many fees imposed on them and firefighters/EMTs/etc. aren't known for killing unarmed civilians and don't deserve to be equated to police officers of any sort, NO.
Prop 312 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024. A proposal to amend the state's laws to create an ability of people with homes to apply for a property tax refunds if they feel that their municipalities don't do enough to hide homeless people. Started life as HCR2023, proposed by Ben Toma (a similar measure was introduced in the Senate, SCR1006, proposed by veritable rogues' gallery of sponsors - Warren Petersen, Shawnna Bolick, Frank Carroll, John Kavanagh, Sine Kerr, Wendy Rogers, TJ Shope, and Justine Wadsack). NO.
Prop 313 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024. A proposal to amend the state's laws to require that someone convicted of child sex trafficking receive a punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Started life as SCR1021, sponsored by many members - Bolick, Bennett, Borrelli, Carroll, Farnsworth, Gowan, Hoffman, Kavanagh, Kern, Kerr, Mesnard, Petersen, Rogers, Shamp, Shope, Wadsack, Biasiucci, Bliss, Carbone, Carter, Chaplik, Cook, Diaz, Dunn, Gillette, Grantham, Gress, Griffin, Heap, Hendrix, Jones, Livingston, Marshall, Martinez, McGarr, Montenegro, Nguyen, Parker B, Parker J, Payne, Peña, Pingerelli, Smith, Toma, Willoughby, and Wilmeth (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2042, proposed by Bliss, Biasiucci, Carbone, Carter, Chaplik, Cook, Diaz, Dunn, Gillette, Grantham, Gress, Griffin, Heap, Hendrix, Jones, Livingston, Marshall, Martinez, McGarr, Montenegro, Nguyen, Parker B, Parker J, Payne, Peña, Pingerelli, Smith, Toma, Willoughby, and Wilmeth). As the legislature thinks this is a good idea, so NO.
Note3: I had to use copy-and-paste for lists this long.
Prop 314 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024. A proposal to amend the state's laws to enshrine bigotry. If passed by the voters, it would make undocumented immigration into the U.S. a locally-enforced crime. There are other clauses in the measure, but all are about the R mantra of "fear the other". Started life as HCR2060, proposed by Ben Toma (no similar Senate bill). Oh, Hell NO.
Prop 315 - referred to the ballot by the legislature in 2024. A proposal to amend the state's laws to all but eliminate rulemaking by state agencies. Would mandate that the legislature approve any rule created by a state agency that would increase regulatory costs by $500K over five years. Started life as SCR1012, proposed by Anthony Kern, Jake Hoffman, Wendy Rogers, Justine Wadsack, Laurin Hendrix, Rachel Jones, and Alexander Kolodin (a similar measure was introduced in the House, HCR2052, proposed by Cory McGarr, John Gillette, Gail Griffin, Justin Heap, Rachel Jones, Alexander Kolodin, Barbara Parker, and Austin Smith). NO.
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