Editor:

Lynne Weaver's characterization of Proposition 117, of which I was the prime sponsor in referring to the ballot, was inaccurate on a number of counts and begs for a rebuttal. While I can appreciate Ms. Weaver's frustration in her repeated failures to gain support for her version of California's Proposition 13, she damages her credibility by suggesting that Proposition 117 is not good for property taxpayers.

Editor:

In your July 12, 2012 edition, reporter Steve Ayers gave an unfavorable review of Proposition 117, which is on the November General Election ballot. Mr. Ayers suggested that any fifth grader with basic math skills could understand that Prop 117 won’t be good for taxpayers. While Mr. Ayers accurately described the simple mathematical calculation for determining property tax rates, adults who actually pay property taxes know he glossed over the real story.

A Tea Party activist asks Secretary of State Ken Bennett to check into Barack Obama’s birth certificate and Bennett springs into action, launching an investigation.

"This,” he said, “is a constituent from Arizona, whom I work for.”

Nearly 300,000 constituents ask Bennett to put a sales tax initiative on the ballot and once again Bennett springs into action, launching all 19,071 petitions into the trash.

From the political notebook:

I don't know whether the courts will allow the initiative enacting a permanent 1 percent sales tax and divvying up the spoils between educators and contractors to make it to the ballot. But in addition to the procedural screw-up, the initiative is a drafting mess. It deserves to be tossed from the ballot for incompetence.

A JLBC analysis of the Quality Education and Jobs initiative shows that, in its sixth year, the sales tax money earmarked for the “Quality Education and Performance Fund” would dry up. The analysis is based on one interpretation of how revenues from the tax increase are distributed. The proposal sets aside $500 million of the first $1 billion in revenues for the Quality Education and Performance Fund. In FY14, the first year of its implementation, that money is intact, according to the analysis. The initiative also sets aside $125 million each year to pay for inflation in the K-12 system.

The Quality Education and Jobs Committee described its filing of two versions of its one-cent sales tax initiative as a “clerical error” and a “hyper-technicality” that shouldn’t thwart the will of nearly 300,000 voters who want to see the measure on the November ballot. But Kevin McCarthy, president of the Arizona Tax Research Assn and a critic of the initiative, scoffed at the characterization, arguing the funding difference for K-12 education between the two versions is more than $600 million.

This editorial was written and originally appeared in the Sierra Vista Herald.

Sometimes the law has to be the law. It’s black and white, not gray.

That is the situation for Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who on Tuesday rejected petitions with more than 290,000 signatures from supporters of the Quality Education and Jobs initiative.

The petitions sought to put a question on the Nov. 6 ballot asking Arizonans if they want to continue the 1-cent sales tax set to expire this year.

PHOENIX (CBS5) -
The push for a permanent 1-cent sales tax in Arizona has hit a roadblock.

The secretary of state's office threw out more than 290,000 petition signatures Tuesday that would put the issue on this November's ballot.

The initiative is intended to extend the 1-cent sales tax and specifically earmark funds to public education programs hit hard by recent budget cuts.

Secretary of State Ken Bennett said that the signatures were rejected because a couple paragraphs from the original version didn't match the petition people signed.

Supporters of a sales-tax initiative that could go to voters in November plan to file suit today against the Arizona secretary of state to ensure that it does.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Ken Bennett rejected the approximately 290,000 signatures filed Monday by the Quality Education and Jobs campaign, led by Tucsonan Ann-Eve Pedersen.

PHOENIX — Backers of extending the state’s temporary 1-cent sales tax submitted more than 290,000 signatures Monday to put the issue on the November ballot.

But at this point all they’ve really done is guaranteed a court fight.

Backers of the Quality Education and Jobs initiative said the state cannot afford to give up the $1 billion a year that will go away once the voter-approved tax ends this coming May. The measure, if approved, would make the levy permanent, with a specific set of instructions of how the money is divided.