Voters will have lots to say 'no' to at polls

As first lady, Nancy Reagan used to counsel teenagers with a simple message: "Just say, 'no'" to drugs.

Voters would be wise to keep that same advice in mind before endorsing any of the hallucinogens being peddled before voters, primarily by deep-pocketed, self-serving interest groups.

No on Tempe/Kyrene School Unification: The proposed 43,000-student district won't save money on administrative expenses based on the unification commission's own research, and with zero transition dollars and Tempe Union High School, Tempe Elementary and Kyrene districts having to equalize different pay scales for teachers, tight budgets will get at least $8 million tougher if this passes. So a "yes" vote is a vote for larger classes and eliminating noncore subject areas, such as art and music.

No on Proposition 101: Medical choice if you don't want affordable health care for everyone. In this country, you have the right to own a gun, but many can't access a doctor. The United States spends more than twice as much per capita on health care than any other country in the world. Medical bills are the single largest source of personal bankruptcy, according to a Harvard study. If you're sick, you're not profitable to insure - so insurance is premised on mixing sufficient numbers of healthy people at low enough rates that we can afford to cover those sick. Prop. 101 ties our policymakers' hands far too much in coming up with effective health-care reform.

No on Proposition 105: Majority rules? If you're scratching your head, you should be. We already require a majority of voters to approve an initiative. The owner of many Carl's Jr. franchises doesn't like that so he's bankrolled this initiative to pre-empt any taxation via initiative that might run counter to his business, and alcohol interests have joined in. Prop. 105 requires any initiative that raises taxes or fees to need the majority of every registered voter to pass. Anyone who doesn't show up at the polls is an automatic "no," and about 20 percent of those who vote skip the initiatives, so affected initiatives would need more than 80 percent of the vote to pass, a virtual impossibility. If Prop. 105 had been law, the statewide smoking ban, higher minimum wage, independent redistricting commission, English immersion education requirement and health-care coverage for those in poverty all would have failed. Municipal citizen initiatives would also be covered. We need reforms to the initiative process, but this one leaves residents no avenue but the Legislature.

No on Proposition 200: Payday reform by the payday loan industry. The payday loan industry is desperate to avoid the sunset provision on July 1, 2010, of the law that allowed it to move into Arizona. It has yet to convince our conservative Legislature to grant it an extension, so it has poured $11 million into a campaign to mislead voters. On paper the reforms look fair: a slight fee reduction, a statewide database, no more than one loan at a time, and a once-a-year longer repayment period. In fact, that's been the law in Florida since 2002 - and 20 percent of payday loan business there comes from borrowers who take out at least 20 loans a year and the average borrower takes out eight loans annually with 75 percent of second loans taken out within five days of the first. In other words, the two-week payback period doesn't work - after paying it off so quickly, borrowers run into a cash shortfall and have to take out another loan - and few borrowers choose the 60-day repayment plan. This is about profits, not people.

Read complete initiative recommendations at MakeDemocracyWork.org.

Dave Wells holds a doctorate in Political Economy and Public Policy and teaches at Arizona State University. Reach him at Dave@MakeDemocracyWork.org.