So, last night four ballot measures passed, which will serve to almost guarantee a major economic down turn in the state of Arizona.
Prop 201 effectively bans smoking in all public places in this state. Any restaurant, bar, or workplace effectively.
Prop 202 raises the minimum wage in Arizona to $6.75, AND even worse, index links it to cost of living; which means the minimum wage here is going to go up 2-5% every year.
Those two propositions right there are going to put thousands of Arizona bars and restaurants out of business; and tens of thousands of service workers out of work. Then there's the convenience stores and gas stations that will be closing... the list goes on.
Prop 203 adds an $0.80 tax to all cigarette packs, to pay for "universal pre-school" for the children of Arizona. Of course it also creates a huge, unelected commission to administer this, and a new bureaucracy surrounding it, and hundreds of new government jobs etc... etc...
Proposition 204, would require every livestock owner in the state to rebuild all their livestock pens and stalled to be larger. Yes, every farmer, every pen.
This of course is going to put many of those farms out of business; and will almost certainly cause those that aren't bankrupted by the change to fire large numbers of their staff; combined with the minimum wage increase which is likely to do the same.
Combine that with the democrats taking control of congress, and possibly the senate nationally (there's a strong republican majority in both houses in this state); and I predict a HUGE economic downturn in Arizona in the next two years.
