Arizona Court Refuses to Allow $43B Transportation Proposal on Nov. Ballot

DALLAS - The Arizona Supreme Court yesterday killed hopes of placing a $43 billion transportation bond initiative on the November ballot, upholding the secretary of state's disqualification of the petition and a lower court's refusal to reconsider it.

The petition to place the proposal on the ballot was disqualified earlier this month by Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer because it lacked enough valid signatures under precedent in the state that requires 95% of signatures be valid based on verification of a sample of those submitted.

Proponents went to court to prove that the petition was valid, needing to successfully verify only 100 signatures that had been rejected. But Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Aceto ruled that the backers of the so-called TIME initiative waited too long to challenge the secretary of state's decision.

Aceto's ruling also keep off the ballot the "Our Land, Our Schools" initiative that would have allowed voters to decide whether to permanently conserve 570,000 acres of state trust land and eliminate requirements that some state land be put up for bidding at auction. That petition was about 160 signatures short, according to attorney Paul Eckstein, who worked with both campaigns.

Backers of the TIME initiative, including Gov. Janet Napolitano, were confident that the proposal would make the ballot even after Brewer ruled the petition lacked enough valid signatures.

The initiative would have funded roads, rail, highway, and other transit projects over 30 years. Some of the key projects included expansion of Interstates 40, 17, 10 and 8, commuter rail between northern Arizona and the region south of Tucson, expansion of light rail in the Phoenix area, and a street-car or rapid-bus system in Tucson.

Meanwhile, Brewer certified a ballot initiative that would make it much harder for a future TIME proposal to win voter approval.

Proposition 105, also known as the "Majority Rules Initiative," would require any future ballot initiative that would raise taxes or require businesses to increase spending be approved by a majority of registered voters.

Currently, voter initiatives require only a majority of the votes cast in an election to pass. Under this proposal, in effect, not voting would become a "no" vote.

Ironically, the voting requirement of the ballot measure would not apply to Proposition 105 itself.

Despite qualifying Proposition 105 for the ballot, Brewer raised concerns about the verification of signatures on the petition. The sampling process projected that 98.46% of the signatures on the petition were valid, Brewer said, but she questioned the process that allowed a referendum to go before voters with less than 100% of the required number of signatures.

"I remain concerned that our legal system has set a precedent that allows a citizen initiative to be qualified for the ballot despite not having met the minimum signature requirements set in law," Brewer said. "Nevertheless, I will once again abide by my legal counsel's advice and prior court precedent that establishes that I am to certify such a measure for the ballot."

The Majority Rules proposal's chief backer is Jason Le-Vecke,who owns the Carl's Jr. and Pizza Patron franchises in Arizona and has spent $600,000 supporting the measure.

Voter approval two years ago of a measure creating a state minimum wage higher than the federal figure motivated Le-Vecke's interest in the initiative. That measure, which also required minimum wage increases tied to inflation, won more than 65% of the 1.5 million votes cast. But under Le-Vecke's proposed new rules, the measure would have failed because only 38% of the 2.5 million people registered voted for it. Turnout in general elections typically averages from 45% to 65% in Arizona.

So far, eight ballot measures have qualified to be on the November ballot.

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