AZ: Legislative Update
Arizona’s November ballots will be very long. Three of the statewide ballot measure came directly from voters who have spent months and millions of dollars collecting signatures to advance their proposals:
- The One Fair Wage Act: increase States’s minimum wage by $1 more than cost of living increases for the next two years, add to current minimum wage for employees that work for tips and to remove current exemptions from state minimum wage
- The Arizona Abortion Access Act: establish constitutional right to abortion access
- The Makes Elections Fair Arizona Act: open primary elections, allowing voters to consider all candidates for particular office rather than just in voter’s political party
As well as Eleven other measures came from legislators:
- Prop. 133: Establish legislative authority over primary election procedures, preventing ranked-choice voting
- Prop. 134: Require citizen initiatives to obtain voter signatures from every legislative district in the state, rather than from anywhere in the state
- Prop. 135: Amend state constitution to reduce a Governor’s authority during state of emergency
- Prop. 136: Allow anyone to pursue legal action challenging the constitutionality of proposed amendments to AZ constitution
- Prop. 137: Eliminate judicial elections and prevent voters from ending terms of current Supreme Court justices
- Prop. 138: Alter minimum wage laws for tipped workers, allowing a reduced wage if employees make a specified amount in tips
- Prop. 311: Create a new $20 fee on criminal convictions to fund a $250,000 payment to families of first responders killed in line of duty
- Prop. 312: Create process for property owner to apply for primary property tax refund from their city, town, or county if they document expenses that were necessary to mitigate the local government’s policies or failure to enforce laws on specific “public nuisances,” including the effects of homelessness and public drug or alcohol use.
- Prop. 313: Require life imprisonment for someone convicted of sex trafficking of a minor child.
- Prop. 314: Establish new crimes for immigration violations, require eligibility verification for public benefits, and increase penalties for drug offenses involving fentanyl.
- Prop. 315: Expand legislative oversight of state agency rulemaking, requiring state agencies to obtain legislative approval for any proposed rule estimated to increase regulatory costs by more than $500,000 within five years.