The Breakfast Meeting

This morning I went to a meeting to discuss Majority Rules (Prop 105) an initiative on the ballot this coming November. Our meeting was at Matt's Big Breakfast.

Matt's is probably the best breakfast in town with a full menu of delectable treats including Arizona's best griddlecakes. The location is small and almost always has a line out the door but during the week, if you're there early enough, there is usually seating available. If you have to wait, trust me, it's worth it.

Now that we've established that the meeting location was adequate and met the culinary needs of the meeting participants let's talk about Majority Rules. Prop 105 is intended to stifle the initiative process by requiring 50% + 1 of all registered voters to approve ballot initiatives that increase spending in any way. Think this through for a second, average turn-out for an Arizona election in a non-presidential year is around 62% causing a ballot initiative to gain 81% of the vote to make up for the 38% who stayed home. Here's the major flaw: There are more than 130,000 deceased voters still on the voter rolls in counties across the state. Majority Rules not only gives a voice to apathy but also to deceased voters.

That means ballot initiatives that increase state fees for an individual (i.e. licensing fees), creates a board or commission, or puts more money in Arizona's public schools would now be impossible to pass by the Arizona electorate.

This initiative literally gives full autonomy to the Arizona legislature to shape statutory and constitutional policy. I think most of us can agree that giving a legislature and a Governor, who has run the state into a $2.2 billion deficit, that kind of power is bad for Arizona's future.