The Authoritarian AZ GQP Assault On Your Constitutional Right To Citizens Initiatives (Updated)

The Authoritarian Republicans in the Arizona legislature routinely refer legislative initiatives backed by right-wing special interests (e.g., the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Goldwater Institute, Center For Arizona Policy, Club For Growth, etc.) to the ballot so that these organizations will not have to spend any money on a petition drive to collect enough signatures to qualify their right-wing measures for the ballot.

The same Authoritarian Republicans in the Arizona legislature hate it when actual grassroots citizens initiatives that do spend the money on a petition drive to collect enough signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot actually succeed in collecting enough signatures to qualify, and the inevitable legal challenge from our corporate overlords at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry fails to convince our Republican-packed Arizona Supreme Court to prevent the measure from going to the ballot.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and their lickspittle lackeys, the Authoritarian Republicans in the Arizona legislature, really hate it when Arizona voters pass your own laws by citizens initiative, because voter approved laws are protected by another citizens initiative, the Voter Protection Act, Prop. 105 (1998). “We are your corporate overlords. We decide, and you shall obey!”

Recent examples are the Arizona Minimum Wage and Paid Time Off, Prop. 206 (2016), and the Tax on Incomes Exceeding $250,000 for Teacher Salaries and Schools Initiative, Prop. 28 (2020) (still in litigation).

Since the passage of these ballot measures, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and their lickspittle lackeys, the Authoritarian Republicans in the Arizona legislature, have been trying to nullify your constitutional rights to citizens initiative and referendum by passing a series of laws making it damn nigh impossible for anyone to successfully qualify a citizens initiative (or referendum) for the ballot. They are engaged in a de facto repeal of a constitutional provision, Ariz.Const. Article 4, Part 1, Section 1,  not by referring the question to the voters to surrender their constitutional rights, but rather by inflicting a death by a thousand cuts through legislation.

The latest Authoritarian Republican efforts to nullify your constitutional rights to citizens initiative and referendum will have to go to the voters in 2022. You need to send a resounding message, “Hell No!”, by soundly rejecting these Authoritarian Republican ballot measures.

The Associated Press reports, Arizona Legislature set to send initiative changes to ballot:

Republican lawmakers are poised to send two more measures changing the rules for citizen initiatives to the ballot for voter approval, joining another one that was referred to the 2022 ballot on Friday.

The measures that were cleared for Senate debate Monday would ask voters to change the state Constitution to require a supermajority vote [“Hell No!”] to pass their own laws and to confine them to a single subject. Both already passed the House and are now expected to get Senate votes in the coming days as the GOP-controlled Legislature races to adjourn for the year.

The measure approved for the ballot last week would change the Constitution and give the Legislature more power to alter citizen initiatives approved by voters if any portion is found to be unconstitutional. It would water down the Voter Protection Act, which sets a high bar for lawmakers to change voter-approved initiatives and prohibits changes that undermine voters’ intent.

Authoritarian Republicans have long complained about initiatives pushed by progressive groups, saying it’s virtually impossible for the Legislature to change them because of the Voter Protection Act and they often are backed by money from outside the state. [This is also true for conservative organization initiatives that Republicans support.] They have significantly tightened the rules in recent years to make it harder to get initiatives on the ballot and easier to kick them off, but this is the first time they have asked voters to change the rules themselves.

Democrats and progressive groups say initiatives are often the only way to do things like legalize marijuana or increase the minimum wage because GOP lawmakers consistently block any legislation on such issues. Voters raised the minimum wage in 2016 and legalized recreational marijuana last year.

The minimum wage initiative also required employers to provide minimum amounts of paid leave, a provision challenged by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other business groups. They argued they were separate issues that should not have been in one initiative.

The Arizona Supreme Court rejected that argument, saying the “single subject” rule that applies to laws enacted by the Legislature does not apply to initiatives.

Excuuuse me? The current state budget from GQP legislative leaders and Governor Ducey is larded with non-germane non-budgetary policy matters that clearly violate the single subject rule.

UPDATE: In Arizona, GQP Lawmakers Strip Power From A Democrat:

The Republican-controlled State Legislature in Arizona voted Thursday to revoke the Democratic secretary of state’s legal authority in election-related lawsuits, handing that power instead to the Republican attorney general.

The partisan move added more discord to the politics of a state already roiled by the widely derided move by Senate Republicans to commission a private firm QAnon conspiracy theorist to recount the vote six months after the November election. And it was the latest in a long series of moves in recent years by Republicans to strip elected Democrats of money and power in states under G.O.P. control.

The measure was part of a grab bag of proposals inserted into major budget legislation, including several actions that appeared to address conspiracy theories alleging manipulated elections that some Republican lawmakers have promoted. One of the items allotted $500,000 for a study of whether social media sites tried to interfere in state elections by promoting Democrats or censoring Republicans.

Even Robert Robb, the former flak for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Goldwater Institute, now the resident GQP apologist at the Arizona Republic agrees. Arizona’s budget bills are clearly unconstitutional. Will someone sue?

So what Authoritarian Republicans are actually saying is that “we can do whatever the hell we want because we can, but the citizens of this state will be held to the single subject rule because we need another tool in our tool box to keep your damn citizens initiatives from ever qualifying for the ballot.”

Republicans want voters to change that give up ther constitutional rights.

“It’s unfair to the people who you ask to vote to have more than one subject matter,” Republican Rep. John Kavanagh told a Senate committee in March. Voters may to back a measure with issues they support though it contains other issues they don’t, he said.

Locking in a single subject rule will make it harder for groups to get comprehensive initiatives like the minimum wage increase before voters and easier for courts to nitpick to kick them off, said Joel Edman, who leads the Arizona Advocacy Network.

“The trick is that what qualifies as a single subject is in the eye of the beholder,” he said.

Republican Rep. Tim Dunn is sponsoring another measure that would require initiatives to get 55% of the vote instead of a simple majority. He called the initiative process a “petri dish” for outside spending and said popular measures will still pass.

Hugo Polanco, a lobbyist for the progressive group Living United for Change in Arizona, told the Senate Government Committee in March that lawmakers were being hypocritical by wanting to require a supermajority for voter initiatives while they can pass legislation with a simple majority.

“This is clearly a power grab by the Legislature,” Polanco said.

Ariz.Const. Article 2, Section 2:

All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.

Ariz.Const. Article 4, Part 1, Section 1:

Section 1. (1) Senate; house of representatives; reservation of power to people. The legislative authority of the state shall be vested in the legislature, consisting of a senate and a house of representatives, but the people reserve the power to propose laws and amendments to the constitution and to enact or reject such laws and amendments at the polls, independently of the legislature; and they also reserve, for use at their own option, the power to approve or reject at the polls any act, or item, section, or part of any act, of the legislature.

(2) Initiative power. The first of these reserved powers is the initiative. Under this power ten per centum of the qualified electors shall have the right to propose any measure, and fifteen per centum shall have the right to propose any amendment to the constitution.

(3) Referendum power; emergency measures; effective date of acts. The second of these reserved powers is the referendum. Under this power the legislature, or five per centum of the qualified electors, may order the submission to the people at the polls of any measure, or item, section, or part of any measure, enacted by the legislature[.]

Prediction, voters will not choose to reduce their own power as the GOP Legislature runs amok trying to preempt and grab power from the Secretary of State, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Corporation Commission, municipal and county governments. #azleg https://t.co/Z7HS86FUaz

— Arizona House Democrats (@AZHouseDems) June 28, 2021

Another measure approved by the Republican-controlled House on Friday and previously approved by the Senate would amend the Voter Protection Act, which was approved by voters in 1998 after lawmakers overturned a 1996 initiative legalizing medical marijuana.

The act prevents lawmakers from changing a law passed by initiative unless it both “furthers the purpose” and gets a three-fourths vote of the Legislature.

Lawmakers can directly refer any measure to the ballot for voters to consider with just a majority vote. Republicans have one-vote majorities in each chamber and put the Voter Protection Act measure on the ballot with no support from Democrats.

Your constitutional right to citizen referendum of bad laws passed by Authoritarian Republicans is also about to be put to the test once the legislature declares sine die this week.

The Arizona Mirror reports, Public education groups ready referendum, lawsuits on tax cuts and other budget items:

A coalition of public education advocacy groups that banded together last year to pass higher taxes on the wealthy to increase teacher pay and boost school funding are now looking at ways to stop Republican legislators and Gov. Doug Ducey from undermining that tax increase in a state budget that includes massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

The Arizona Education Association, Stand for Children, and Children’s Action Alliance told Arizona Mirror they and other organizations are weighing their options, including challenging the tax cuts in court or going back to voters with a citizen referendum aimed at blocking the tax cuts from ever taking effect.

In 2020, the groups all joined forces to advocate for the Invest in Education Act, which added a 3.5% surcharge on all income greater than $250,000 for individuals or $500,000 for joint filers. The measure, known as Proposition 208, was approved by voters in November.

Almost immediately, Republican lawmakers began looking for ways to ensure the wealthy wouldn’t have to pay more in taxes. Because the state constitution bars lawmakers from repealing or directly negating voter-approved measures, legislators had to find other ways to reduce taxes for those Arizonans.

One of those ways is implementing a so-called “flat tax” scheme, bundled with the annual state budget, that would minimize the additional taxes Prop. 208 imposed on the wealthy. Another is to establish a new business individual income tax with a 4.5% flax rate that some taxpayers can opt into, as proposed by Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, in Senate Bill 1783. Any taxpayers who filed under the proposed business individual income tax created by SB1783 would be exempt from the Prop. 208 surcharge.

Legislative budget analysts said SB1783 would cut an estimated $263 million to $378 million from Prop. 208 revenues every year. That amounts to roughly one-third of the $970 million the Invest in Education Act was projected to raise annually.

The new tax measures would mean that those who have a taxable income above $500,000 would pay at least 40% less in state taxes, while those who make between $30,000 and $70,000 would owe the state between 4% to 9% less in taxes, according to legislative analysis.

Gov. Doug Ducey is touting the giveaway to his wealthy friends as a way for Arizona to “stay competitive.” If enacted, he boasted it would be the “largest income tax cut in state history.”

The groups say they could sue on the grounds that the new tax legislation undermines a voter-enacted law. Or they could organize a referendum, which would require them to gather at least 118,823 valid signatures within 90 days of the legislative session adjourning in order to force voters to decide the fate of the tax changes. If the groups succeed in collecting the signatures they need, the law won’t go into effect unless and until voters approve it.

There is recent precedent for education groups turning to voters: In 2018, when legislators extended school vouchers to all Arizona students, Save Our Schools Arizona gathered enough signatures to put the matter on the ballot. Voters rejected the voucher expansion through Proposition 305.

Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, said these tax proposals are a “blatant tax giveaway” to millionaires — and are a punishment to teachers who advocated and succeeded in passing Prop. 208.

[T]he move also outraged Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who is running for governor in 2022, who said the “policy issues tacked on to the budget … (are) a shocking abuse of power.”

Gau said she is confident that the public will be able to successfully mobilize to block some policies in the budget.

“If we’ve proven anything, give teachers and parents something to mobilize around and we can get the job done,” Gau said. “We are certainly not afraid of doing what’s right.”

David Lujan, president and CEO of Children’s Action Alliance, said legislators are ignoring states residents most in need, like the 161,000 children who have no health insurance.

“This legislature’s response to that is to give a huge tax cut to the rich,” he said. “That is just unimaginable to me, that that will be their solutions to some of the problems that Arizonans are facing today.”

On Thursday morning, as the House of Representatives moved to advance the same changes to how state residents are taxed, Rep. Lorenzo Sierra suggested that legislators won’t have the final say.

“Today is not the end of the story. The fight will go on in the courts — the courts of public opinion, the courts of law. The fight will go on at the ballot box,” said the Democrat of Avondale. “We will put things on the ballot that get the people heard.”

There will be at least three petitions circulating to address election integrity issues.  Additional petitions may be added as circumstances merit, depending on what the legislature does.

• PEVL Purge: A citizen referendum seeking to stop implementation of SB 1485, which throws voters off the PEVL list if they don’t vote using their early ballot in two consecutive election cycles. Sponsored by Arizona Deserves Better.
• Ballot Curing Curtailment: A citizen referendum seeking to stop implementation of SB 1003, which reduces the ballot curing timeframe from 5 business days to 7 pm on election night.  Sponsored by Arizona Deserves Better.
• Stop Dark Money: A citizen initiative to require the disclosure of the source of campaign financing.  Sponsored by Voters Right to Know.”

The two referenda require 170,000 signatures submitted within 90 days of when the legislature adjourns sine die. The Stop Dark Money initiative has until July 2022 to collect 300,000 signatures.

Contact your local county Democratic Party to volunteer. I strongly recommend that the organizations circulating these petitions have your lawyers hold training sessions with volunteers before sending them out to go over all the hyper-technical requirements that the Authoritarian Republicans have required through legislation as an easy means of invalidating petitions of otherwise valid signatures to keep citizens initiatives and referenda off the ballot.

Keep in mind that the Arizona Senate is also talking about a special session after the QAnon conspiracy theory Cyber Ninja Dude issues his bogus report on the GQP sham “fraudit.” Whatever Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws the Authoritarian Republicans want to enact in that special session will also have to be subject to a citizen referendum effort.

If all of these measures make it onto the 2022 ballot, the Authoritarian Republicans are setting up a large turnout of angry voters (midterm elections are typically low turnout) which may contain the seeds of their own destruction. Karma baby!