Arizona voters elect state legislators to represent their voices, respect their time, spend their tax dollars responsibly and focus on what you really need. That’s why it’s frustrating to watch, time after time, as the Republican majorities take the easy way out. That is skipping the hard work of hammering out bipartisan policy and instead abusing the ballot referral process to push personal pet projects, unpopular policies, and/or special-interest desired initiatives directly onto the ballot and forcing all of us to vote on it. This is lazy governing and is the exact opposite of delivering for our people.

So far this session, 24 referrals have passed out of either chamber. That’s unserious. It’s expensive. And it’s a lazy shortcut. And the people paying the price? All Arizonans. 

Every time lawmakers shove one of their extreme, unserious bills onto the ballot, it misleads voters who already have many decisions to make, stretches ballots to be up to four full pages (as we saw in 2024), and adds hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs born by taxpayers to run elections, staff time, legal reviews, printing and administration. Even worse, some of these ideas have already been rejected by voters, only to be repackaged and forced back onto the ballot.

Why? So Republicans can avoid compromise, avoid debate and push hyper-partisan measures on our collective tab.

Look at what they forced us to vote on in 2024: Arizonans decisively rejected Proposition 134, Proposition 136, Proposition 137 and Proposition 138, measures that would have restricted direct democracy, added new geographic requirements for petition signatures, created additional legal hurdles in the signature-gathering process and even eliminated judicial retention elections. Once again, the public was burdened with this exercise at our own expense. As Arizona voters have proven, these deceptive referrals, often introduced as a legislator’s pet project or at the behest of a special interest group, are costing taxpayers valuable resources and delaying election results by making our ballots multiple pages long.

Let’s look at some of the measures heading your way.

HCR 2001 / SCR 1001, an all-out assault on the way Arizonans vote, making it harder for everyday people to participate in our democracy.

Then there’s SCR 1023, dismantling the independence of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission by expanding it and restricting how districts are drawn.

And finally, HCR 2003 is a far-right attack on our schools. This is a targeted attack on civil rights, a distraction from the real issues Arizonans care about, like affordable housing, public schools, and health care.

Arizonans have spoken again and again. Voters want schools that work, homes that are affordable, health care that’s accessible, and an economy that lifts up working families.

I’ve co-sponsored ballot referrals to support public education, to support workers and to protect our sacred right to vote. I am the primary sponsor of a measure to enshrine marriage equality in our state Constitution, to protect families from any efforts to undermine equality.

The ballot referral process was created as a constitutional tool to give the people a voice, not for politicians to game the system when they can’t govern.

It’s time for accountability. Arizonans deserve better, and they shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s political shortcuts.

Brian Garcia is a Democratic Arizona House representative for Legislative District 8.