by admin | Jun 20, 2016 | News and Updates
The “Open and Honest” elections ballot initiative is overwhelmingly unpopular with voters when they learn that not only does the initiative fund politicians’ campaigns with taxpayer money, but also support a state bureaucracy to run the program.
According to the recent poll published by the Club, a compelling 79 percent of voters were less likely to support the ballot initiative after learning their tax dollars would contribute to more government. Almost equally disdainful to voters was the initiatives mechanism for extracting the tax dollars – surcharges on traffic citations and tax credits.
“It is clear of all the areas Arizonans wish to invest – education, the economy, infrastructure – Clean Elections is not one of them,” said Scot Mussi the Club’s President. “Voters are already dubious that their money is spent efficiently by government. Taxpayers should be reticent to give new money to a state bureaucracy, especially one doling out funds to politicians.”
The initiative would significantly boost the amount of tax dollars political candidates would receive. For legislative races, the average candidate would receive approximately $80,000 to run for office, nearly double the amount allowable presently. An expansion of the program would necessitate an expansion of the agency itself.
Voter hesitancy is well founded as ballot initiative’s legitimacy has been called into question. Considering the initiative references state statutes that don’t even exist, it is likely it will be challenged in court if it does get the requisite signatures. Given the confusion surrounding this ballot initiative, Arizonans would be well served by simply “declining to sign” and saying “no” to their hard-earned tax dollars going to politicians and more bureaucracy.
by admin | Jun 13, 2016 | News and Updates
Currently there is a massive effort underway to get several “California-style” initiatives on the ballot in November. The Club encourages anyone approached on the street by one of these petition carriers to “decline to sign.” One of the initiatives likely to get the signatures necessary to qualify jacks up the minimum wage and mandates minimum state-wide paid sick time.
Specifically, the measure increases Arizona’s minimum wage from the current $8.05, to $10 starting January 1st, 2017 – and tops out at a whopping $12 an hour in 2020, then defaulting back to increases based upon the cost of living index. Additionally, if passed, it would mandate businesses with more than 15 employees provide 40 hours of paid sick time and 24 hours of annual paid sick time for businesses with less than 15 employees.
This voter protected act would have a devastating effect on Arizona’s economy. Minimum wage schemes set an arbitrary floor on every industry, every business, and every job – and divorces wages from the actual economic value a position creates. As a result, minimum wages do not heed any more buying power for the people they purport to help, but instead increase costs and therefore create an eventual pressure to increase prices. Mandatory paid sick leave is another invention of the left which seeks to create policies in a vacuum outside any economic realities.
However the real intent of these “worker welfare” movements is more and more obvious. The campaign “Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families” is being pushed by the union-backed organization LUCHA (Living United for Change in Arizona) who since 2013 has advocated the “Fight for $15” for fast food workers and other out-of-state union groups. The battles are for minimum wage and paid sick leave; the war is unionization of the total workforce. This is evidenced by the fact that this very initiative exempts workers under a collective bargaining agreement. In other words, we have hit a new level of hypocrisy. If this was about creating the workers’ paradise, and not about incentivizing unionization, there would be no exceptions.
As if this all wasn’t damaging enough, the initiative has another kicker, which allows cities and towns to pass more generous wage and benefit mandates. With cities such as Tempe, Flagstaff, Phoenix, and Tucson – Arizona can expect to have a patchwork of employment laws – making doing business across city borders an arduous endeavor.
Arizonans should be wary this election season. Union groups and leftist interests are out in full force – trying to make the Grand Canyon State look more like an increasingly bankrupt California. If voters are wise, they will reject destructive ballot initiatives such as this one.
by admin | Jun 9, 2016 | News and Updates
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 9th, 2016
CONTACT: Scot Mussi: (602) 508-6088
Poll Shows Voters Overwhelmingly Oppose Taxpayer Money for Politicians, Proposed ‘Clean Elections’ Initiative
Phoenix, AZ—The Arizona Free Enterprise Club today released the results of our latest poll showing that a vast majority of voters strongly oppose taxpayer money for politicians and the proposed ‘Clean Elections’ initiative.
The Club’s in depth poll, conducted by the Tarrance Group, shows that 70% of voters are against using taxpayer money to fund candidates running for political office, only 25% are in favor.
Additionally, when voters know that the proposed ‘Clean Elections’ initiative requires taxpayer funding of political campaigns, only 30% of voters support the measure, while 60% are opposed.
“Voters clearly do not think it is a good idea use taxpayer money to fund candidates for political office,” Club President Scot Mussi said. “Giving taxpayer money to politicians so that people can deal with more robocalls and junk mail is a definite loser with voters.”
The results also show that a large majority of voters find it hypocritical that supporters of the initiative are advocating for new campaign finance reporting requirements that they themselves refuse to follow.
72% of respondents stated that they would be less likely to support the ‘Clean Elections’ initiative knowing that the organizations funding the measure and supporting new donor disclosure requirements refuse to disclose their own donors. To date, the three organizations financially supporting the initiative have not disclosed any of their donors for the effort, in direct violation of the act.
The live telephone poll of 500 respondents was conducted June 4th through the 6th and has a 4.5% margin of error.
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The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is a 501(C)(4) policy and advocacy group that is not affiliated with any other organization. For more information please visit www.azfree.org
by admin | Jun 9, 2016 | News and Updates
MEMORANDUM
TO: Arizona Free Enterprise Club
FROM: dave sackett
RE: key findings from a survey of voter attitudes in Arizona
regarding clean elections initiative
DATE: June 7, 2016
________________________________________________________________________
The Tarrance Group is pleased to present Arizona Free Enterprise Club with the key findings from a survey of voter attitudes in Arizona regarding the proposed Clean Elections ballot initiative. These key findings are based on telephone interviews with N=500 registered voters throughout Arizona. Responses to this survey were gathered June 4-6, 2016 and the margin of error associated with a sample of this type is + 4.5% in 95 out of 100 cases.
KEY FINDINGS
- Arizona voters are strongly opposed to the use of their tax dollars to fund candidates for political office. Only 25% are in favor of their tax dollars “being used to fund candidates for political office.” Sixty-nine percent (69%) are opposed to such an action, and only 6% are unsure. There is significant intensity to this opposition, with 48% indicating they “strongly oppose” their tax dollars being used in this fashion.
- More than two-thirds of both men and women voters, as well as voters of all ages, indicate they are opposed to their tax dollars being used to fund candidates for political office. This is also the case for 65% or better of voters in every single region of the state.
- Only one in three Democrats – thirty-three percent (33%) – favor the use of their tax dollars to fund political candidates, while 58% of Democrats are opposed to this, as are 58% of self-identified liberals. There are more than 60% of Democratic women and 18-54 year old Democrats that are opposed to having their tax dollars used to fund candidates for political office.
- Opposition to the use of tax dollars to fund political candidates rises to 69% among Independent voters, and opposition to having their tax dollars used to fund candidates for political office rises to seventy-two percent (72%) among Independent women. Fully 79% of Republicans are also opposed to this use of taxpayer funds.
- The response to this inquiry is dramatically negative among minority voters, with 76% of African American voters and eighty-three percent (83%) of Hispanic/Latino voters indicating they are opposed to the use of their tax dollars to fund candidates for public office. Among minority Democrats, fully 70% are opposed to the use of their tax dollars in this manner.
- Arizona voters also take great offense at the hypocrisy of an organization that would sponsor a ballot initiative to “require non-profit groups and organizations that support or oppose ballot initiatives to disclose their donors” but, at the same time, refuse to disclosure their own donors.
- Fully seventy-two percent (72%) of Arizona voters indicate that this would cause them to be less likely to support the initiative. Feelings on this factor are also very intense, with 55% indicating that this information would cause them to be “strongly less likely” to support the ballot initiative.
- This sentiment exists throughout the electorate, with over 70% of both men and women and over 70% of voters of all ages indicating this would cause them to be less likely to support the ballot initiative.
- Fully eighty-eight percent (88%) of African American voters and seventy-seven percent (77%) of Hispanic/Latino voters indicate that this information would cause them to be less likely to support the ballot initiative
- Just as important, this hypocrisy impacts Arizona voters in the same way, regardless of their party registration or political affiliation. Over seventy percent of both Republicans and Democrats, and 76%) of Independents, all indicate they would be less likely to support this ballot initiative based on this information.
# # #
by admin | Jun 6, 2016 | News and Updates
Yesterday Glenn Hamer at the Arizona Chamber published a great piece on the defective and highly misleading “Clean Elections” ballot initiative, a measure that would substantially increase taxpayer money for politicians to fund their campaigns.
The article included an excellent catch on their part, discovering and exposing the hypocrisy of the liberal groups pushing the measure. In addition to more taxpayer money for politicians, the initiative proposes new draconian campaign finance laws that require non-profit organizations (such as the Club, NRA or NFIB) that support or oppose ballot measures to register all of their contributors and supporters onto a government database.
The Club strongly opposes the creation of a government registry that tracks the issues and causes people support, and so it seems the backers of the initiative do so as well. To date, the three liberal organizations funding the ballot measure (Environment AZ Inc.,AZ Advocacy Network and Every Voice) have not disclosed any of their donors for the effort, in direct violation of their initiative.
If their initiative were law today, they would be subject to audits, investigations, fines and possible dissolution of their organizations. If they can’t even follow the draconian rules set forth in their own initiative, how do they expect the rest of us to. Rules for thee, not for me must be their motto.
Below is the article from the Chamber in its entirety:
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Hamer Times: The Arizona Clean and Accountable Elections Act is taxpayer-funded politics on steroids
Posted on June 2, 2016 by Glenn Hamer
If you believe individuals and businesses in Arizona should be able to engage in the political process without barriers that limit speech or that make compliance so cumbersome as to discourage participation, then you need to be aware of a concerted effort to quash political speech in this state.
Here are four things you need to know about a speech-chilling initiative that could be coming to the fall ballot:
The Arizona Clean and Accountable Elections Act is taxpayer-funded politics on steroids. If you don’t like the current scheme of taxpayer-funded political campaigns in Arizona, then brace yourself for this initiative attempting to secure a spot on the November ballot. It recycles bad ideas like installing a new matching funds provision and a new tax credit of up to $10 per tax filer, and it would put the unelected Clean Elections Commission in charge of campaign finance enforcement instead of the secretary of state, who is held accountable to the voters.
Tax dollars for politicians? Of all the things Arizonans’ tax dollars could go toward – education, transportation, health care – paying for junk mail and robocalls doesn’t make the list by a longshot. But the backers of the initiative would rather divert tax dollars from the general fund into candidate campaigns, which means that all of us, regardless of whether we support taxpayer-funded elections, are paying the price for this scheme. To add insult to injury, this new initiative would increase the base amount of money candidates get to run their campaigns. In the past, these checks to politicians have been used for campaign expenditures like nights on the town and margarita machines. Talk about voter contact!
Do as we say… Under the initiative, any entity that spends more than $10,000 supporting or opposing a ballot measure would be required to provide a list of names to the Clean Elections Commission that contributed more than $1,000 to the organization. This isn’t disclosure, it’s intimidation. Individuals should be able to contribute to politically engaged organizations without being tracked by the government.
…but not as we do. With all of the campaign’s soaring rhetoric about transparency and disclosure, surely the Clean and Accountable Elections Campaign is disclosing the source of every one of its dollars, right?
Not so much.
According to filings with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office and the campaign website, the campaign is funded by something called Environment Arizona, Inc. (which shares an office with Arizona PIRG) and an out-of-state entity called Every Voice.
Who funds these groups? According to Every Voice’s website, one of their top contributors is “Anonymous” as well as non-profit groups and labor unions.
We’re sure the list of the contributors who make up this network of donors will be published any day now…
Don’t buy this initiative’s claims of transparency and better politics. It’s nothing more than another attempt to put taxpayers on the hook for campaigns and to mute the speech of individuals and businesses that would exercise their voice in the political arena.
http://www.azchamber.com/blog/hamer-times-the-arizona-clean-and-accountable-elections-act-is-taxpayer-funded-politics-on-steroids/
The “Open and Honest” elections ballot initiative is overwhelmingly unpopular with voters when they learn that not only does the initiative fund politicians’ campaigns with taxpayer money, but also support a state bureaucracy to run the program.
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