Laurie Roberts

opinion columnist

With one bold – really bold – stroke of his pen, Gov. Doug Ducey has sent a message screaming through Arizona.

The will of the chamber, he declared, is more important than the rights of the citizens he (supposedly) serves.

It took Ducey all of about two seconds to sign one of the worst bills to emerge from this legislative session – one that topped the must-have list of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the power set that runs this state.

'Tweak?' More like a full rewrite

“We live in a state where citizens have significant input into the policy-making process," Ducey said in a prepared statement. "That’s a good thing, and this tweak to the law helps ensure the integrity of ballot measures moving forward.”

This tweak to the law? Tweak?

More like a wholesale slapdown of voters who dare to exercise their own power, as this state’s founders gave them the right to do 105 years ago.

ROBERTS: SOS: Ducey holds your rights in his hands

House Bill 2404 isn’t about ensuring integrity. It’s about ensuring that never again will voters be able to go around the powers-that-be and enact laws at the ballot box.

It’s about payback to the 58 percent of Arizona voters who raised the minimum wage in last year’s election. It's about disrespect and a total disdain for and distrust of voters.

It's about doing the bidding of those you were elected to serve.

"We are extremely gratified by the passage of this bill, which we believe will add greater rigor and integrity to the initiative process," chamber spokesman Garrick Taylor said.. "Hopefully, by shifting to a new payment structure, we will see less fraud and fewer invalid signatures."

What this is about: Control

And far, far fewer opportunities for voters to go rogue.

HB 2404 will make it more difficult, if not impossible, for Arizonans to exercise their constitutional right to make laws via initiative.

By requiring that petition gatherers be paid by the hour rather than by the signature, it ensures that no one but the most well-heeled of groups will be able to successfully mount an initiative campaign.

MONTINI: Ducey's swamp drains us ... of rights

It ensures control.

If our leaders and their handlers over at the chamber didn’t like Proposition 206, they should have mounted a serious campaign against it last fall.

If they truly believe that wholesale fraud is a problem, then they should beef up elections offices to root it out.

If a ban on per-signature payment really is the answer, then this new law also should apply to them as they hire petition gatherers to get signatures for their nominating petitions. Curiously, it doesn't.

Why not let citizens exercise their rights?

If a ban on per-signature payment really is the answer, then they should enact this change but at the same time lower the signature requirement to preserve citizens' access to the initiative process.

Currently, it takes 150,000 valid voter signatures to get something onto the ballot – 225,000 if it’s a proposed change to the state constitution. Then you have to collect half-again as many more to ensure you have enough..

Long gone are the days when a few citizen volunteers can stand outside the library and get enough signatures to mount a serious campaign.

ROBERTS: SOS 3.0, Arizona: You just took a hit

ROBERTS: SOS 2.0, Arizona: Our leaders are taking aim at your rights

ROBERTS: SOS, Arizona: You're about to lose a basic constitutional right

The chamber and legislators have spent a fair amount of time moaning about out-of-state special interest groups seeking to influence Arizona law. Yet they have displayed not a whit of worry about out-of-state special interest groups that contribute to their political campaigns -- often through dark money cutouts that make it impossible for us to know to whom they are beholden, In fact, they've actually made it easier for their benefactors to remain anonymous.

You want a return to citizen-driven initiatives? Then make it possible for citizens to exercise their rights.

HB 2404, though, isn’t really about stomping out fraud.

It’s about stomping out our rights.

Remember this, Arizona.