Arizonans are casting their ballots for the 2024 election—and while the presidential and congressional races are garnering much of the attention, it’s often state and local government that have the biggest impact on Arizonans’ day-to-day lives. Here are three state- and local-level initiatives that voters should reject:
Vote NO on Prop 140 to Preserve the Integrity of Our Elections
Funded by out-of-state special interests, the ironically named “Make Elections Fair Act” imports California’s disastrous election system to Arizona. This measure would eliminate our system of “one person, one vote” whereby the candidate with the most votes wins, and replaces it with an arbitrary ranking system controlled by a single, partisan politician.
The result would be an election process that creates long and confusing ballots with mixed voting schemes, delays election results by causing more errors, increases litigation, and disenfranchises voters—particularly those registered as independents.
Arizonans should preserve the integrity of our elections and vote NO on Prop 140.
Vote NO on Prop 479 to Stop the Largest Tax Hike in Arizona’s History
In 1985, Maricopa County voters passed what was billed as a temporary, 20-year sales tax increase to complete the Valley’s freeways. In 2005, a new tax was passed that included a substantial amount of funding for light rail which, by all metrics, has been an abysmal failure.
Now, 40 years after the passage of the first “temporary” tax, county voters are being asked to support Prop 479, a new $30 billion tax increase—the largest tax hike in Arizona’s history. Nearly 40% of this new tax increase funds light rail-related projects, even though fewer than 1% of Valley residents use light rail. In fact, there are at least 20 miles of new light rail in the regional transportation plan funded in large part by Prop 479, in addition to billions more in transit costs related to the new and existing light rail lines.
Disturbingly, the tax also funds “road diets,” which wipe out existing streets in an effort to force Arizonans out of their cars. This is not what residents had in mind when they originally agreed to pay more taxes to fund Maricopa County freeways. At a time of excessive housing costs, runaway inflation, and rising costs of basic goods and services, residents should not be expected to pay even more in taxes for government projects that they will never benefit from.
Maricopa County voters should vote NO on Prop 479, and send this boondoggle back to the drawing board.
Vote NO on Irreparably Damaging Glendale’s Economy
Glendale’s Hotel and Event Center Minimum Wage Protection Act forces Glendale businesses to hire union workers. It does so by creating a complicated metric of compensation from which unionized shops are exempted, thereby coercing businesses to agree to terms they would never otherwise accept.
If passed, this measure would increase the cost to consumers, force businesses to leave the city boundaries, and fail to deliver any sort of meaningful raise for employees.
The massive boom in Glendale’s hospitality industry over the past several years has boosted the local economy and created thousands of new jobs. This measure would eviscerate these gains, irreparably damaging the city’s economy.
Vote NO on the Hotel and Event Center Minimum Wage Protection Act.
Austin VanDerHeyden is the Director of Municipal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute.
