New Year’s Propositions

You read that right. Not New Year’s resolutions that nobody keeps. “Propositions” to frame the 2016 ballot, for which the hard work must begin now.

Democrats in Arizona have for far too long been passive and playing defense, i.e., trying to stop a bad GOP bill from passing now and then.

When is the last time Democrats went on offense with an aggressive policy agenda in the Arizona legislature and/or through citizens initiatives?

This calls for a dual track strategy: submit a bill and file a citizens initiative, pursue both at the same time. Yes I am well aware that initiatives cost tons of money. But the cost of doing nothing is much higher, as Democrats learned to their dismay in 201o and 2014.

Tax Reform

The first priority for Arizona is to get its fiscal house in order. This means long overdue tax reforms to end structural revenue deficits, and in order to accomplish this Arizonans must first repeal the anti-democratic Proposition 108 (1992), which requires a two-thirds super-majority vote of each chamber of the legislature to impose any new tax or higher tax rate, or to reduce or eliminate any special interest tax exemption or tax credit.

No tax reforms are remotely possible so long as a tyranny of a minority of anti-tax zealots and defenders of special interest tax exemptions and credits can prevent any meaningful tax reforms.

With the bloodletting over proposed budget cuts coming as soon as next week, now is the time to be circulating petitions among angry Arizonans for the repeal of Prop. 108.  Should the courts agree with Tea-Publican legislators that Gov. Brewer’s Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion plan required a two-thirds vote because of Prop. 108, there will be 300,000 Arizonans potentially kicked off of AHCCCS, more than enough signatures to qualify repeal for the ballot. And they will be motivated voters. Get this initiative filed now!

Dark Money in Politics

Terry Goddard promised supporters that even if he was not elected Secretary of State, he would pursue a citizens initiative to shine a bright light of transparency on dark money in Arizona politics. It’s time to make good on his promise.

Luckily for Goddard, there is California’s model campaign finance law (which was recently strengthened by the California legislature). Campaign finance disclosure reforms: follow California’s model law. This goes well beyond the trivial reforms proposed by Michele Reagan and likely to pass a GOP-dominated legislature that relies heavily on dark money in campaigns.

The voters of Montana passed an initiative (I-166) in 2012 directing their congressional representatives in Congress to seek the repeal of Citizens United, but the operative provision was later struck down by a state court. Montana Initiative, Directing Montana Legislators to Work for a Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United, Struck Down.

This does not mean that Democrats should not pursue a similar ballot measure in Arizona. After all, Arizona Tea-Publicans put measures on the ballot that get struck down by the courts all the time. Repealing Citizens United has broad support across all ideological lines.

Move The Election of Statewide Offices to Presidential Election Years

Arizona has always had low voter turnout in comparison to other states, but the 2014 election was the lowest voter turnout since 1998, and 1942 during World War II before that. It is pathetic that our statewide elected officials are elected by a small minority of eligible voters. No democracy can be sustained this way.

Arizona nominally improves voter turnout in presidential election years. Move the election of statewide offices to presidential election years so that at least a plurality of eligible voters, as opposed to a small minority of eligible voters, may elect statewide offices.

This will do more to improve voter turnout than the ridiculous “Top Two Primary” initiative being promoted by former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson. This fool idea has already been rejected by Arizona voters once, and is proving to be a dismal failure in California.

Raise the Minimum Wage

Arizonans overwhelmingly approved Proposition 202 in 2006, raising the state minimum wage by citizen initiative with a built-in cost of living adjustment (COLA). Just one problem: proponents were not aggressive enough in setting the basis year and formula for the COLA adjustment.

Arizona’s minimum wage went to $8.05 per hour on January 1, 2015. While this is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour (effective July 24, 2009), it is still well below what it would be if the base year used for adjustment was 1968, when the minimum wage was at its peak purchasing power. Adjusted for inflation, this amount would be $10.90 per hour. See, Raise The Minimum Wage. Amend the the basis year and formula for the COLA adjustment.

Remove the Stain of State Sanctioned Discrimination

The federal courts have struck down Article 30 of the Arizona Constitution, approved by voters as Proposition 102 (2008), amending the Arizona Constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman only. Same-sex marriage is now a reality in Arizona.

But this artifact of state sanctioned discrimination should be repealed and removed from the Arizona Constitution, much in the same way that former slave states repealed constitutional provisions for slavery and Jim Crow laws in state constitutions.

It should be paired with a separate ballot measure to amend the Arizona Civil Rights Act (ACRA) to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation in employment, public accommodations, and housing in the same manner as other protected classes currently covered under the ACA. This is broader coverage than the proposed federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

This is the appropriate response to SB 1062, which would have granted a legal right to discriminate based upon an individualized “religious liberty” objection. The current religious exemptions in the ACRA have proved sufficient to address religious concerns.

A version of this bill has been submitted in the Arizona legislature every year since at least 1994, but it has never been approved by the Arizona legislature. Its time has come.

ERA Now!

Along the same line, women should enjoy full equal protection of the law under the federal and state constitutions. Last year Rep. Victoria Steele (D-Tucson) introduced HCR 2016 (.pdf), a resolution recommending the ratification of the federal Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It had bipartisan support among its cosponsors, but went nowhere. As I suggested at the time, “Put an ERA Amendment to the Arizona Constitution” on the ballot.

With women guaranteed  full equal protection of the law under the Arizona Constitution, courts would be required to apply the strict scrutiny standard of review for state action affecting women, rather than a rational basis or heightened scrutiny standard of review. This has the potential to put Cathi Herrod and the Center for Arizona policy out of the business of writing anti-abortion laws.

Recreational Marijuana Use (?)

Fellow blogger Steve Muratore is a big proponent of the Colorado-style law for recreational marijuana use, which may qualify for the ballot in 2016. I only mention it here to allow him an opportunity to make his case for this ballot measure.

Personally, I do not believe that this ballot measure is the best use of limited financial resources and personnel to frame the ballot for 2016. It does not have the broad impact on the lives of most Arizonans that tax reform, election law reform, civil rights guarantees, and raising wages does.

There are many deserving proposals, but they must be prioritized.

Democrats should pursue their policy objectives through ballot measures the same way that Tea-Publicans have so effectively used ballot measures to frame the ballot to turn out their voters. Stop playing defense, stop being so passive. Go on offense and be aggressive in your policy objectives. America loves a fighter who will stand up for the underdog. Be that fighter!

UPDATE: A comment reminded me that I somehow inadvertently left out a ballot measure that I have long advocated for:

A Constitutional Amendment to Guarantee The Right to Vote

Most Americans are unaware that neither the federal nor Arizona Constitution guarantees your franchise to vote as a fundamental constitutional right; it is a privilege of citizenship. As such, courts review the actions of state legislatures to restrict the right to vote under the minimal rational basis standard of review.

An amendment to the Arizona Constitution which declares that “A citizen’s franchise to vote is a fundamental constitutional which shall not be infringed without due process of law” would guarantee the right to vote as a fundamental constitutional right, and court review of legislation affecting the right to vote would require the strict scrutiny standard of review. This would be a game changer in Arizona.