Don’t forget: Ducey stuck it to voters

With one bold — really bold — stroke of his pen, Gov. Doug Ducey has sent a message screaming through Arizona. The will of the chamber, he declared, trumps the rights of the citizens he (supposedly) serves. It took Ducey about two seconds to sign one of the worst bills to emerge from this legislative session — one that topped the to-do list of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the power set that runs this state.

“We live in a state where citizens have significant input into the policymaking process,” Ducey said. “That’s a good thing, and this tweak to the law helps ensure the integrity of ballot measures moving forward.” This tweak to the law? Tweak? More like a wholesale slap-down of voters who dare to exercise their own power, as this state’s founders gave them the right to do 105 years ago.

House Bill 2404 isn’t about ensuring integrity. It’s about ensuring that never again will voters go around the powersthat-be and enact laws at the ballot box.

It’s about payback to the 58 percent of Arizona voters who raised the minimum wage. It’s about disrespect and a total disdain for and distrust of voters.

It’s about doing the bidding of those you were elected to serve.

“We are extremely gratified by the passage of this bill, which we believe will add greater rigor and integrity to the initiative process,” chamber spokesman Garrick Taylor said.

HB 2404 will make it more difficult, if not impossible, for Arizonans to make laws via initiative. By requiring that petition gatherers be paid by the hour rather than by the signature, it ensures that no one but the wealthiest of groups will be able to put proposed laws before voters.

If our leaders and their handlers over at the chamber didn’t like Proposition 206, they should have campaigned against it last fall.

If HB 2404 will reduce fraud, then it also should apply to politicians, as they pay for signatures for their nominating petitions. Curiously, it doesn’t.

If a ban on per-signature payment really is the answer, then they should lower the signature requirement to preserve citizens’ access.

It takes 150,000 valid signatures to get something onto the ballot — 225,000 if it’s a constitutional change. Long gone are the days when a few volunteers can mount a serious campaign.

The chamber and legislators moan about out-of-state special interests seeking to influence Arizona law. Yet they display not a whit of worry about out-of-state special interests that contribute to their political campaigns — often through “dark money” cutouts that make it impossible for us to know to whom they are beholden.

You want a return to citizen-driven initiatives? Then make it possible for citizens to exercise their rights.

HB 2404, though, isn’t about stomping out fraud. It’s about stomping out our rights. Remember this, Arizona.