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Edited by Al Ortiz
Two more ballot measure certifications are needed for Ballotpedia's Tuesday Count to hit the century mark. However, until then the total number of ballot-certified measures stands at 98 measures in 31 states with four ballot additions this week. The states which had a hand in bumping up the total were Alaska, Arizona and Missouri, which all sent legislative referrals to their 2012 general election ballots for voters to decide.
Starting in Arizona, a whopping three ballot measures secured a spot on the ballot, leaving the state with a total of seven measures that are up for a public vote in the fall.
The three measures deal with various topics including government financing, property and taxes.
Proposals in Arizona included House Concurrent Resolution 2056, which would mandate that the annual distribution from the state Permanent Fund be 2.5 percent of the average monthly market values of the fund for the immediately preceding five calendar years. This would take effect from fiscal year 2013 to fiscal year 2021.
The next proposal, Senate Concurrent Resolution 1001, authorizes the Arizona Legislature to enact a process to exchange trust land if the exchange is related to protecting military installations and managing lands. The last measure, Senate Concurrent Resolution 1025, would limit the annual growth in the limited property value of locally assessed properties. The limit would begin in 2015.
All three proposals are legislatively-referred constitutional amendments.
A majority vote is required in the Arizona State Legislature to send a constitutional amendment to the ballot. Arizona is one of ten states that allow a referred amendment to go on the ballot after a majority vote in one session of the state's legislature.
Jumping to Alaska, in 2010, two bonding propositions found their way onto the ballot via legislative referral, where they were both approved. This year, state lawmakers added another bonding proposition, this time in hopes of improving the state's public transportation.
Bonding Proposition A would allow for a general obligation bond to be issued for the purpose of transportation projects in the state. The general obligation bond would not exceed $453,499,200. This brings Alaska's statewide ballot measure count to four.
Finally in Missouri, a judicial appointment question survived legislative session to make the ballot in November. The state constitutional amendment, which was certified on May 10, would grant the governor the power to appoint 4 persons to the Appellate Judicial Commission, the body responsible for choosing nominees for the Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court. The governor currently has the power to chose three of the seven total members.
In other ballot measure news, citizen initiative supporters in Massachusetts will now try to clear their last hurdle in order for their proposals to obtain ballot access this year. Since the state implements an indirect initiated state statute process, initiative organizers who turned in sufficient signatures by the initial November 23 petition drive deadline had their potential ballot measures reviewed by the Massachusetts General Assembly. Four efforts successfully turned in signatures by this deadline, therefore all four were reviewed by the state lawmaking body.
May 2, 2012 was the last day for the assembly to enact legislation similar to any proposed law. However, since the general assembly did not choose to make any of the four ballot proposals a law, supporters must now gather additional signatures to obtain ballot access. Those signatures must be obtained from about 1/2 of 1% of voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election and supporters must submit them to local clerks.
Validated signatures must then be turned in by the first Wednesday of July to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office. Since the deadline falls on a national holiday, July 4, that deadline could be either July 3 or 5.
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