help with ballot initiatives

[hippiegranny]

could some AZ Duers help me with the follwing? I am filling out my mail in ballot today:

Prop 100 - Relating to the exchange of public lands.

Prop 101 - Relating to referendum measures for the expenditure of
public funds

Prop 102 - Referendum on the state becoming owners or shareholders in
any company or corp. (this sounds like a no to me, but the language can
be cornfusing)

Prop 103 - Relating to requirements for temporary Justices of the
Peace.

Prop 104 - Pertains to rules for the timing of initiative petitions.

Prop 105 - Relating to the composition of members of the state
education board.

Prop 300 - Regarding State Legislator salaries. (I would like to vote
for the Dems getting a raise and crazy, angry, ultra-religious Reps
taking a cut!)

and:

How about the Central AZ Water Conservation Commission? We get to pick
5 of the following: Lewis, Bitter-Smith, Bray, Deibel, Donahoe,
Hendricks, Kohloff

[69KV]

1. Hope this helps

100 and 101 are definite no votes. 100 is the same land swap thing that has been voted down at the polls six times before, and they are trying to pass it again. All the environmental groups are opposed to it. 101 is a Repuke thing which would require that any new ballot measure specify a new source of money to fund it, other than the General Fund. The Repukes didn't like things like Clean Elections passing in recent years and they want to prevent it again.

102 is a tougher call but I voted against it. There are some Democrats in favor of it, including Governor Napolitano. Most Republicans are for it too, but the libertarian Goldwater Institute is opposed. I would argue against it on the grounds that it would make universities too dependent on corporations, encourage universities to shift away from academics and toward lucrative research which can be commercialized, and might encourage the commercialization of more technologies which are harmful to privacy.

103 - biggest no brainer on the ballot. Vote "yes". The reason for it goes something like this: A court decided not long ago that due to some arcane wording in the state constitution, justices of the peace pro tem (temporary or substitute justices) had to be lawyers and had to reside in the county, even though regular justices of the peace do not. This caused a backlog of cases in the courts, and left courts in rural counties unable to deal with such things as domestic violence protection orders in a timely way, because there aren't enough attorneys available in some places to serve as pro tem justices. This would remove the rule so the courts can do their job again.

104 - most liberal groups are opposed. I don't have a strong opinion on it really, but voted no. It would move the filing date for ballot initiatives back three months, giving opponents of the initiative more time to organize a no campaign.

105 - I voted no on this one too. Adds a charter school representative to the state Board of Education. I don't like charter schools, think they are part of a religious right attack on the public school system, and thus, don't think they have any business having representation on an official state education board. But there's really no organized opposition to 105, and no liberal group has come out either against or in favor, so I don't think it's such a big deal if it passes. If it was, we'd be seeing more opposition.

300 - Your call, whether you think the state legislature deserves a pay raise or not. I do not. If it was majority Democratic instead of Republican, I probably would have voted in favor.

on edit: The Arizona Republic (Repuke newspaper that endorsed Bush and carpetbagging sleazebag Rick freaking Renzi) is making the exact opposite recommendations on all the above ballot measures than I am. No surprise there.

[hippiegranny]

2. thank you!

this helps alot.