Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Steve Montenegro filed an appeal with the Arizona Supreme over a trial court judge striking a pro-Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) proposition off the fall ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment, Proposition 145, “Prohibit State Confiscation of Military Family Empowerment Scholarship Account Funds and Void Conflicting Laws Amendment,” would save the state’s expansive ESA program from a competing ballot measure that would gut one quarter of it.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic former Governor Janet Napolitano, ruled on July 28 that Prop. 145 violated the Arizona Constitution because it contained more than one subject. Article XXI, Section 1 states in part, known as the Separate Amendment Rule, “If more than one proposed amendment shall be submitted at any election, such proposed amendments shall be submitted in such manner that the electors may vote for or against such proposed amendments separately.”
Prop. 145, which originated in the state legislature as HCR 2048, would prevent the state from confiscating money from the ESAs of children from military families, and void any ballot measure passed after November 1 that violates Prop. 145. The latter language is directed at a competing anti-ESA ballot measure, Prop. 212. Prop. 212, titled the “Protect Education Act,” would significantly shrink ESAs, mainly by limiting them to families earning $150,000 annually.
If Prop. 145 passes, it would void all of Prop. 212, not just the part affecting military children. Prop. 145 includes this language: “This paragraph does not limit this subsection to scholarship account programs that are established and maintained by this state for only children of military families.”
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