Monthly Archive for Arizona
Arizona Stories Posted in August 2008
Affirmative-action initiative fails to make ballot
Category: Affirmative Action · State: Arizona · Source: Arizona Republic
An initiative that would amend the Arizona Constitution to ban affirmative-action programs in the state was disqualified from the ballot Thursday by Secretary of State Jan Brewer. Proposition 104, known as the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, becomes the third measure this year to be booted from the ballot because of failure to submit enough valid signatures to the state. Prop. 104 proponents vowed to appeal, probably early next week. In other action Thursday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Aceto dealt a setback to supporters of a proposed transportation initiative as he refused to restore the measure to the ballot. Supporters of the TIME initiative, dealing with signature problems similar to the civil-rights measure, now plan to appeal to the state Supreme Court. The Arizona Civil Rights Initiative initially submitted 334,735 signatures to the state. But following petition reviews by the Secretary of State's Office and the state's 15 county recorders, that number was whittled down to 194,961 valid signatures. That's short of the 230,047 required for a Constitutional amendment.
Initiative thrown out for lack of signatures
Category: Property Rights · State: Arizona · Source: Tuscon Explorer
Measure seeks to allow state to sell land to local governments at market value Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer last Friday disqualified Proposition 103 — the “Conserving Arizona’s Water and Land Initiative” — from appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot. Proponents of the measure seek to reform the Arizona State Land Department and how its holdings are managed and sold. According to the state constitution, the land department has to put lands up for sale at public auction. The initiative would change that, allowing the state to sell the lands directly to local governments for purposes of conservation. The measure also would have set aside 570,000 acres of the state land department’s 9 million acres for permanent protection. But the measure lacked the minimum number of signatures to make it on the ballot, according to Brewer.
Tax hike for new roads fails to get on ballot
Category: Transportation · State: Arizona · Source: East Valley Tribune
An ambitious statewide transportation measure, championed by Gov. Janet Napolitano and a cadre of Arizona’s most powerful interest groups, has failed to make the November ballot. Secretary of State Jan Brewer announced Monday that Proposition 203, the TIME initiative, had fallen thousands of signatures short of the 153,365 needed to qualify. Nearly half of the 260,698 signatures submitted by last month’s deadline were tossed out. “I am very surprised that a ballot measure ended up with over 42 percent of its signatures being invalid,” Brewer said in a statement. “That is among the largest overall invalid rates that I can recall ever seeing from a citizens initiative drive.” The initiative, backed by business and economic development groups, would have asked voters for a 1-cent state sales tax hike to finance $42 billion worth of freeways, trains, buses and other transportation needs.
Judge: Redo wording on 1-cent tax plan
Category: Taxes · State: Arizona · Source: Arizona Daily Star
The group backing an initiative on the November ballot to raise the state sales tax to fund transportation won a battle to get the proposal's description rewritten in the voter information pamphlet. The initiative would add a penny tax on each dollar spent to pay for 30 years' worth of road and transit projects statewide. Supporters went to court over the wording in a state voter information pamphlet approved by a legislative committee, saying it would sway voters to say no.
Backers face trouble with ballot initiatives
Category: Arizona · State: Arizona · Source: Arizona Republic
Too many proposals and not enough time are adding up to heartburn for backers of several state ballot initiatives. Some of the proposals that supporters hope to put before voters this November are chalking up higher-than-normal error rates, potentially imperiling their chances of getting on the ballot. This could have consequences for ballot measures that seek to preserve state trust land, to increase the state sales tax to pay for transportation projects and to block any attempt to institute a real-estate-transfer tax.
Other Monthly Archives for Arizona
- August 2008 (5)