PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on efforts to change laws affecting citizen initiatives in Arizona (all times local):
4 p.m.
Republicans on an Arizona Senate panel have advanced a new proposal they say is needed to put checks on the citizen initiative process.
Democrats and voting rights groups call the proposal making initiatives subject to a tougher legal standard part of a concerted effort to make it harder for citizens to pass their own laws.
The proposal approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday raises the legal standard for challenges to initiatives. House Bill 2244 says measures are subject to a “strict compliance” test.
Republicans have been pushing initiative changes since voters approved a minimum wage increase in November.
A House panel on Wednesday is considering another proposal imposing new rules on petition circulators. Gov. Doug Ducey last week signed a measure banning per-signature pay for those circulators
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2:30 p.m.
Arizona House Republicans are joining their Senate counterparts in considering whether to revive stripped out parts of a bill targeting initiative that was signed by Gov. Doug Ducey.
A proposal that emerged in the House Tuesday revives parts of House Bill 2024 that were removed before it was sent to the governor last week. That proposal makes it illegal to pay petition circulators for each signature they gather.
The new House proposal set for a hearing Wednesday adds a slew of registration and penalty provisions on those circulators. It also makes a committee pushing an initiative responsible for legal violations committed by a circulator and makes a series of other changes.
A Senate panel on Tuesday is expected to add a provision making initiatives subject to a tougher legal standard.
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