The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a union-backed ballot initiative was so misleading it had to be thrown off the ballot this November.
The measure, Proposition 207, was framed by progressives as a way to restore funding cuts to education. As the Arizona Republic reported, “Prop. 207 would have raised income-tax rates by 3.46 percentage points to 8 percent on individuals who earn more than $250,000 or households that earn more than $500,000. It also would have raised individual rates by 4.46 percentage points to 9 percent for individuals who earn more than $500,000 and households that earn more than $1 million.”
Based on the outlet’s calculations, the state income taxes of an Arizonan who, for instance, made $750,000 a year would have increased from $33,000 to about $53,000 had the proposal been adopted.
That’s objectionable on its own. But it’s the way the petitions described the proposed changes that compelled the court to throw the measure out. In a typical case of poor math comprehension, the petitions referred to the proposed tax-rate increases as “3.46 percent” and “4.46 percent,” not the true 76 and 98 percent tax increases that were threatened for these six-figure earners.
As the court determined, that “creates a significant danger of confusion or unfairness,” sufficient to warrant removal from ballots in November.
It’s a huge loss for the teachers unions. In order to get the measure on ballots in the first place, advocates had to dedicate an incredible amount of money and manpower from April to July, gathering nearly 270,000 signatures in 10 weeks. Then again, perhaps that work was made easier by the language on the petitions.
The court’s decision could also potentially have the effect of stealing the thunder from planned Democratic turnout operations in November’s competitive midterm elections. Arizona has a hotly competitive Senate race this fall and a somewhat competitive governor’s race.
