Just before Thanksgiving and with all the votes finally counted, Arizona officials met to certify the state’s results from an election in which Arizonans chose free enterprise. From state ballot measures to local ballot measures to state legislative races, free enterprise notched key victories up and down the ballot. Although several positive ballot measures came up short, Arizonans made clear that the principles of free enterprise matter and rewarded candidates who support those principles. An outline of some of the key results is below.
Ballot Measures
Prop 312 – This crucial measure allowing property owners to apply for property tax refunds if a county or municipality fails to enforce nuisance laws passed with more than 58 percent of the vote statewide. As a result, Arizonans will be able to recover certain costs associated with unmitigated expenses related to homelessness, vandalism and property crime, and drug use. There are potentially billions of dollars at risk in lost property values if these laws go unenforced, and Arizonans recognized the importance of the rule of law and private property protections to our free enterprise system. This measure will hopefully cause local governments to embrace the rule of law and reconsider turning a blind eye to such nuisance crimes, which, in the aggregate, represent high stakes for Arizona.
Glendale Prop 499 – This initiated measure was rejected, for good reason, by more than 56 percent of Glendale voters who refused to impose a $20 per hour minimum wage for hospitality workers. The measure also would have imposed other standards and workplace restrictions for the industry. If passed, this extreme measure would have reduced Glendale’s GDP by hundreds of millions of dollars and put thousands of jobs at risk. The harms of extreme proposals like this one include reduced hours, lower eligibility for benefits and less consistent schedules for employees as well as higher prices and more confusion for customers. Separately, a statewide minimum wage measure failed to collect enough signatures to even make it on the ballot. In both cases, Arizonans saw through these proposals and rejected the harm they were being asked to enact.
Two other legislative referrals, Prop 138—which would have preserved the tipped wage credit and protected tipped workers from future harmful ballot measures—and Prop 315—which would have helped rein in state regulatory overreach—were both, unfortunately, part of a long slate of measures rejected by voters. Both proposals are worth additional consideration and may come up again in future legislative sessions.