What is the Cost of Proposition 102? - By Mark R. Kerr

So what is the cost of Proposition 102, the proposed state constitutional amendment to define marriage as solely a union between a “man and a woman?”

According to the JLBC (Joint Legislative Budget Committee), the actual cost for drafting the initial bill was minimal.

With the draft, the bill has to be filed and considered by the Arizona Legislature, the state House of Representatives and state Senate.

For Fiscal Year (2008) that ended on June 30, the operational budget (staff (including elected officials) and expenses) for the Arizona House was $18,174,200 and for the Arizona Senate, $9,183,100, totalling $27,357,300.

So for one “legislative day,” the cost (including the leap day) would be $74,746.72.

During the past session, there were three Concurrent Resolutions dealing with the subject SCR (Senate Concurrent Resolution) 1038, HCR (House Concurrent Resolution) 2065 and SCR 1042.

These three measures took a total of 20 days, SCR 1038 - 3, HCR 2065 - 6, and SCR 1042 -11. This was the only bill dealing with putting a proposed amendment on the November 4 general election ballot.

With the twenty days the Arizona Legislature (as well as the staff) dealt with this issue, it brings the cost to $1,494,934.43.

Next is making registered voters in Arizona aware of this and other ballot proposals, as well as judges up for consideration in the state’s publicity pamphlet.

According to Kevin Tyne with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office, $1.2 - $1.3-million was spent on the 2006 publicity pamphlet, which had 19 ballot propositions and consisting of 240 pages.

For the 2008 election, the publicity pamphlet will consist of only 121 pages (50.416% of the 2006 version). Using the low figure given by Tyne and multiplying it by the 2008 pamphlet percentage size, the total cost will be $605,000.

Proposition 107 was the ballot measure in 2006, consisting of seven pages (ballot measure, arguments, etc.) or 2.92% of the publicity pamphlet for this election.

In 2008, Proposition 102 will consist of 10 pages or 8.27% of this year’s publicity pamphlet.

So with that, multiplying the 2008 percentage size for Proposition 102 to the total cost for this year’s pamphlet, the cost will be $50,033.50.

In 2006, the Center for Arizona Policy and their supporters, paid Sproul and Associates, a conservative, anti-LGBT political consulting firm to get the signatures needed, 183,917 valid, registered Arizona voters to qualify for the ballot, costing, according to the campaign reports for Protect Marriage Arizona (Committee #: 200602711), $252,884.55 or $1.375 per signature.

With that rate, and the new signature requirements due to the increase numbers of registered voters (230,047), the cost or “gift to the Center for Arizona Policy,” was $316,314.63.

What is the cost of Proposition 102 (and Arizona’s same sex marriage law)? At this point, $1,861,282.56.