October 4, 2006 - There are 19 statewide ballot questions. Those numbered 100 plus are state constitutional amendments, 200s are statutory changes, 300s are statutes referred by the Legislature. Statutes passed by voters are quasi-constitutional amendments that cannot be modified by the Legislature without either a super-majority vote or referral to the voters again for approval.

Registered voters should receive in the mail a heavy pamphlet from the Secretary of State with full texts of those measures, along with arguments filed pro and con, same for local proposition 400.

Most of them suck - they're bad ideas whose times have come. The initiative process now belongs to any special interest group or kookie millionaire with enough bucks to pay the professional petition passers (often out of state gypsies) the several hundred grand needed to get this stuff on the ballot.

"Citizen participation" disappeared some time ago. Except in small jurisdictions, the signature requirements are too large for volunteer efforts.

Referendums are required for constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature and they are sometimes used to propose an alternative to an initiative. This consists of opposing a really bad idea with a not so bad idea, instead of just opposing the bad idea in the first place. Bad idea with the most votes wins. Those using this ploy also employ counter initiatives. We have an example of the latter with Props 201 and 206 and the former with 105 vs. 106.

I won't have enough time or space to go over all 20 in the next four weeks, so here's some general comments.

Read the pamphlet but pay most attention to the analysis by Legislative Council explaining what the measure actually does. Note the massive hyperbole present in many of the comments - which anybody can file for a nominal fee. Some are blatantly false and even stupid.

Folks with a big enough axe to grind to find hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy enough signatures to get these on the ballot will see to it their talking points are presented for a few hundred more. Many of the comments were ghosted by the consultants who make really big bucks on this process - much more than from candidates.

Check the opportunity for self-promotion. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Goldwater offers his opinion on seven of them, cheap exposure for a statewide election. Unfortunately for him he lost the GOP primary before the booklet was published. Others, including a Peoria School Board candidate, are equally unavoidable for comment.

Some groups discuss multiple issues. The Arizona Libertarian Party is absent from the discussions, one more indication of its slide into even greater irrelevancy. The LP once knew this was a great way to let lots of people know who they are and what they believe. They finally caught up with the major parties in at least one category - loss of institutional memory.

There are three props that have no negative argument filed against them, 101, 104 and 302. Prop. 101 involves taxation, and if all the conservative anti-taxers don't oppose it, it's probably harmless. Likewise 104, which involves municipal debt. Prop. 302 raises legislative pay from $24,000 to $36,000 and requires negative comment.

Pay raises cannot be recommended by the Legislature. They appoint a commission to do it for them. Proponents argue higher salaries get better people. BUNK! (Add $60 a day tax-free per diem for non-Maricopa County folks, plus mileage and other bennies including pensions that accrue at double that of ordinary state employees.)

Higher pay gets more slugs to run because it pays more money than they make. Check Illinois, California and states where legislative pay is triple ours and tell me they get better people. Then check New Hampshire where the pay is $200 a month and they have the lowest per capita taxes in the nation. Detect a correlation?

Try Philadelphia 1776 and 1787 where the pay was zero. The quality of participants has been declining since.

More on the other 16 props later.

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EMIL FRANZI

EMAIL FRANZI

BUT WATCH WHAT YOU SAY!

About Emil Franzi

Emil Franzi is the owner and host of "Inside Track" on KVOI - 690AM and KAPR - 930AM in Douglas. The program airs on Saturdays from 12 pm till 5 pm.

Franzi currently writes a weekly column for the EXPLORER (formerly the NORTHWEST EXPLORER). He filled the TUCSON WEEKLY with close to a million relevant words from 1993 to 2004 and was an OpEd regular with the Az Daily Star from 1994 to 1998. His writing has also appeared in PHOENIX Magazine, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, and the late CITY MAGAZINE in Tucson.

But then, Franzi is an iconoclast.

This website is Franzi's baby, put together with work, faith, and a little help from his friends, like Tom Danehy, Joyce Downey and Mike Tully. The concept -- politics, books, humor, the Old West, movies, "Pet Talk" and letters -- is Emil's. This unique brew seems to work. This website averages more than a thousand "hits" a day and keeps growing.

You can read Emil Franzi's views on all things political and cultural, as well as opposing views, on our "Politics and More" page.