Trust land initiative would join referendum on ballot
by Paul Davenport
Associated Press

ARIZONA – Voters apparently will have a choice of competing measures on management and conservation of millions of acres of Arizona state land heldin trust for public schools and other beneficiaries.

The state has 9.3 million acres of trust land provided by the federal government at statehood. Under the Arizona Constitution and federal law, the land and the income it produces must be used to benefit schools or other designated purposes that now don’t include conservation.

The Legislature last week voted to put a referendum on the ballot. Backed by groups representing ranchers, farmers and home builders, the measure wouldimpose new planning requirements for trust land intended to have the state produce more money for public schools and other beneficiaries but also allow some land to be set aside for open‑space conservation.

On Friday, supporters of an initiative–a measure originally proposed before the referendum was introduced–planned to file what they said were more than enough voter signatures on petitions to qualify it for the November ballot.

The initiative supporters, who included conservation groups  and the Arizona Education Association (AEA), said they collected 301,000 voter  signatures, well above the 183,917 signatures required for proposed state constitutional amendments.

Like the referendum, the initiative would set new planning requirements to boost income for beneficiaries. But it also would designate more land for conservation and create a new board to oversee the Land Department’s administration of trust land.

“Increased revenues from the sale of state trust lands will go directly into the classroom, and better‑planned communities and open space will ensure a better qualify of life for our kids,” AEA President John Wright said in a statement prepared in advance of the petition filing. “This conservation‑education partnership is a once‑in‑a‑lifetime opportunity.”

Home builders, ranchers, conservationists and education groups were all in one camp on the issue in 2004 when they asked the Legislature to put a compromise proposal on that year’s ballot. But that effort–the product of years of negotiations–fell short, leading to the rival efforts now proposed.

Other initiatives already filed for the November ballot include ones to restrict public smoking, create a new state minimum wage higher than the existing federal one and randomly reward Arizona voters with a lottery‑like payout.