Friends of Flagstaff’s Future’s Recommendations for the 2022 Voter Propositions
How Our Mission and Focus Areas Affect Our Recommendations:
These voting recommendations were considered in light of our mission as well as our focus areas. F3’s mission is to achieve a sustainable, just, and thriving Flagstaff through community education, engagement, and advocacy. Our focus areas include land use, open space, public spaces, climate change adaptation and resilience, affordability, local, resilient and equitable economy, water and natural resources, transportation, and civic engagement. F3 supports propositions that relate to the mission of F3 and address and improve our focus areas.
F3’s recommendations on these state, local, and citizen propositions were made after discussion and deliberation by a subcommittee of the F3 Board, followed by further discussion and voting by the entire F3 Board.
Propositions Referred to Voters By The State Legislature
Prop. 128 NO – This proposition would allow the legislature to amend or repeal Citizen Initiatives with a simple majority vote if Courts determine that any portion of the law is declared unconstitutional. This would overturn the Voter Protection Act that citizens passed in 1998 that requires a ¾ vote of the legislators to make changes and those changes can only be to “further the purposes” of the initiative. F3 strongly believes in civic engagement including the right of citizens to have input on and enact state laws through citizen initiatives.
Prop. 129 NO – This proposition would require Citizens Initiatives to have a single subject. Many initiatives brought forward by citizens groups have multiple subjects within the overall goal of the initiative. The Legislature, with this proposition, is trying to undo a Supreme Court ruling in 2017 that found that the single subject rule only applied to legislative statutes and not citizen initiatives. F3 believes that citizens have the right to bring initiatives forward for an overall goal despite having multiple subjects..
Prop. 130 Yes – This proposition will extend the Property Tax Exemption for disabled veterans that is currently in the Arizona Constitution to all disabled veterans who live in Arizona and not only those who became disabled while they were Arizona residents. F3 supports including all of Arizona‘s disabled veterans in this benefit.
Prop. 131 No Opinion – This proposition creates a Lieutenant Governor position in State Government. The Lieutenant Governor would be chosen post primary by the candidates running for Governor from their own political party and would be next in line if the governor can no longer serve. Currently, in Arizona, the line of succession for replacing a Governor could lead to a replacement from a different political party since it includes elected officials from all parties.
Prop. 132 No – This proposition would require a super majority (60%) of voters to pass Citizen Initiatives that include a tax or a fee rather than the current simple majority. This would give the 41% of voters opposed to an initiative the ability to block a measure that the majority want. This super majority rule already exists in the Arizona State Legislature and is hindering our ability to get funding for much needed services. F3 supports the ability of citizens to have input on state laws via citizen initiatives.
Statutory Changes Referred to Voters By The State Legislature
Prop. 308 YES – This proposition allows all Arizona students, regardless of immigration status, who have attended 2 years of high school in Arizona and graduated, to have in-state tuition. They also would be eligible for state financial aid. It repeals the 2006 Proposition 300 which prohibited this. F3 supports strong public education for all, including Dreamers.
Prop. 309 NO – This proposition requires a date of birth and voter ID to be written on mail In ballots and eliminates the two document alternatives to photo ID for in person voting. It is one of many ways the Arizona State Legislature is trying to make the simple act of voting difficult for citizens and County Recorders. F3 is concerned about the Arizona Legislature’s attack on voting rights and their attempt to restrict the ability of citizens to vote.
Prop. 310 YES – This proposition calls for a 1/10 cent state sales tax to go toward funding of rural fire districts which currently rely on property tax assessment on the district’s residents. There is a legal limit on their property tax increases which prevents full funding. There are 35 municipal fire departments and 144 rural Fire Districts in the State of Arizona. With this new sales tax all residents and visitors in Arizona would share the burden of funding these rural fire departments. These departments not only fight fires for home and business owners in their district but also answer emergency calls on the highways we all travel and fight forest fires that impact us all. F3 supports the protection of greater Flagstaff’s existing infrastructure from wildfire/fire and flooding.
Citizen Initiatives
Proposition 209 YES – The Predatory Debt Collection Act reduces the maximum interest rates on medical debt from 10% to 3% and increases the values of certain properties which are exempt from forced sale to prevent foreclosures and the seizure of assets below a certain threshold. Protected homes will now match the median home price in Arizona. F3 supports the ability of citizens struggling with medical debt to not be subject to egregious interest rates and loss of property.
Proposition 211 YES – The Voters Right to Know Act, also called the Stop Dark Money Act, requires that independent expenditures on political campaigns over $50,000 statewide and $25,000 locally must disclose the source of all contributions over $5000. It mandates the Arizona Clean Elections Commission to enforce the provisions of the act. F3 believes citizens have the right to know who funds political campaigns in Arizona.
Local Propositions
Proposition 441 YES – This city proposition addresses Flagstaff’s wildfire, flood, and wastewater infrastructure with a General Obligation bond for $57M. This includes improvements to fighting wildfire, increasing the water drainage capacity of Spruce Wash to address higher flows of storm water and mitigate flooding, and upgrading the infrastructure of Flagstaff’s two wastewater treatment plants to increase capacity and energy efficiency. If approved, this will result in the City’s secondary property tax rate remaining at its current level of $0.8000 per $100 of net assessed limited property value, if property values remain stable. F3 supports the protection of Flagstaff’s existing infrastructure from wildfire/fire and flooding.
Proposition 442 YES – This city proposition addresses Flagstaff’s Housing Emergency by creating rental and home ownership opportunities for residents of Flagstaff with a General Obligation bond of $20M. This will be achieved through redeveloping city-owned housing to create additional affordable units, repurposing existing available buildings into rental units, incentivizing the private sector to incorporate affordable rental housing in new developments, and expanding the successful home buyer assistance program. F3 recognizes that we as a community need to contribute to housing our most vulnerable citizens.
Proposition 445 YES – This Coconino County proposition extends the current County-wide half-cent sales jail tax for an additional 25 years. The extension of the jail tax will provide $18 million per year to run the County’s jails which cost about $22 million a year. The remaining costs of jail operation are covered by the County property taxes. The extension of the Jail District sales tax will allow the continuation of operation of the jails in Flagstaff and Page, as well as currently successful addiction treatment and job training programs that have significantly reduced recidivism. Because counties are required by Arizona Revised Statutes to provide jail facilities, failure of the proposition is expected to result in higher County property and sales taxes, increased recidivism, and a bill of up to 47% of the $20M total jail budget billed to the City of Flagstaff (and 12% for Page, and 1% for Williams). F3 recognizes that operating a county jail facility is a mandatory requirement of the County and supports the continuation of this funding through this existing sales tax.
Proposition 447 YES – The FUSD Proposition 447 Override requests voter authorization to exceed the Maintenance and Operations Budget Limit as authorized by voters in 2018. The existing override is scheduled to begin a phase down in the 2024-2025 year unless renewed by voters.This override would allow the maintenance and expansion of the present levels of service including maintaining current class size, funding full-day kindergarten, art, music and PE classes, extra-curricular activities, and gifted education, Advanced Placement classes, International Baccalaureate options, and STEM programs. The estimated secondary tax rate to fund the full override is approximately equal to the existing tax rate for the current override, thus homeowners will not experience an additional tax increase because of the override. F3 supports strong public education for all, especially in our underfunded public K-12 schools.
Proposition 448 YES – This propositions requests authorization for FUSD to issue general obligation bonds in principal not to exceed $100 million to provide funds for construction and renovation of school buildings, purchasing pupil transportation vehicles, supplying schools with furniture, equipment and technology and other items related to improving schools. The estimated secondary tax rate needed to fund the bond program is $40.42 per $100,000 of net assessed valuation for secondary tax purposes and is an increase of 35 cents per $100,000 of net assessed valuation per month from the current rate. F3 supports strong public education for all, including providing necessary infrastructure and learning environments for K-12 students.