Arizona has a long, proud history of direct democracy via ballot initiatives. It has served us well.
Voter initiatives are a check balance in the system – one of the only ways that we as members of the public can push back against the stranglehold that deep pocket special interests like the chamber of commerce have on the legislature.
For years, members of the state legislature proposed bills to prohibit smoking in public places like bars and restaurants. But year after year, deep pocketed, well-connected business lobbyists found ways to kill those bills using their bag of magic tricks like getting the speaker of the house or president of the senate to make sure the bills were never heard.
Finally, in 2006, a group of nonprofits and ordinary citizens took matters into their own hands and collected enough signatures to get the Smoke Free Arizona Act onto the ballot. That Initiative included a ban on smoking in public places (with exceptions) and included a 2 cent per pack tobacco tax for enforcement.
Business interests fought hard against it, even running their own weakened voter initiative. But in the end, enough people saw that the Smoke Free Arizona Act was good. It passed by a margin of 54.7% to 45.3%.
Now, the Legislature wants you to approve Proposition 132 which will require voter initiatives that include a tax or fee to pass with at least 60% of the vote. If Proposition 132 was in effect back in 2006 we might very well still have public spaces full of tobacco smoke.
Prop 132 is a bald-faced attempt to take your power away and give it to the deep-pocketed lobbyists & business interests.
Don’t let them. Please vote no on Proposition 132.
