Voters face tax issues, ending of bilingual ed

PHOENIX – When Arizona voters go to the polls in November, picking a president and new state lawmakers could be the easy part.

The ballot also will include about 15 initiatives and referendums ranging from the elimination of bilingual education programs in public schools to changes in the state’s drug laws.

“This is the most I’ve ever seen,” said state elections director Jessica Funkhouser. In the last presidential election, the ballot included eight initiatives.

About half the measures were put on the ballot by the Legislature and half through petition drives.

Two of the measures address the same subject: how to spend the state’s $3.1 billion share of the multistate settlement with tobacco companies.

Healthy Children, Healthy Families is already on the ballot. Backers of Healthy Arizona 2 are expected to file the required number of signatures today, which is the deadline for getting initiatives on the ballot.

Voters also will decide whether to eliminate the state income tax, and whether to boost the state’s sales tax to raise $450 million a year for public schools.

Lawmakers and initiative supporters fear having so many issues to decide will confuse voters, causing a flurry of “No” votes.

“I don’t know whether people yet fully understand how fundamental some of these changes are for good and ill,” said Rep. Andy Nichols, D-Tucson, a backer of Healthy Arizona 2.

Ballots packed with initiatives are a trend nationwide, elections observers say. Reasons for the growth range from special-interest groups trying to circumvent state lawmakers to legislators not wanting to touch controversial issues.

One big problem with ballot initiatives is that voters often make their decisions with no more than a bumper sticker’s worth of information, said Sen. Dan Schottel, who decries the Legislature’s abdication on so many issues.

“The problem is, people are voting on sound bites,” he said.



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