Arizona Proposition 135: Proposed Emergency Declarations Amendment

A proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot, Proposition 135, aims to empower the Arizona legislature with the authority to terminate the governor’s emergency powers and end emergency declarations if passed. This significant change could reshape the balance of power during emergencies.

Will Humble, Executive Director of the Arizona Public Health Association, and Greg Blackie, Deputy Director of Policy at the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, joined “Arizona Horizon” to debate the potential impacts and implications of this amendment.

Blackie supports Proposition 135 and believes it’s beneficial because it ends emergencies after 30 days. However, the legislature can prolong the powers. 

“We think it’s important that we have limits on the powers of the governor during states of emergency. Emergencies do exist, and they require swift response, emergencies by definition are temporary, and so the response should also be temporary especially the powers delegated to the governor. So this measure simply provides reasonable limits by automatically terminating emergencies after 30 days unless the legislature chooses to extend those powers further,” said Blackie. 

Humble doesn’t support Proposition 135 and thinks voters should vote against it. 

“The definition of the word reasonable, so we have limits now of 120 days, and to extend that, if we had another public health emergency, the governor would need to go to the legislature to get a 30-day extension. To me, 120 days is reasonable, but 30 days and potentially one day is unreasonable,” said Humble. 

Humble claimed 30 days is not enough time for a state emergency, but it also depends on how severe the situation is. 

“Well no, it depends on the emergency. Let’s say you had a biological agent that was released. You’d have a much longer period than 30 days that you would need to implement some of these measures to help control it,” said Humble. 

Blackie believes 30 days is enough time, and it would then be up to the legislature to limit the powers.  

“Different emergencies require different responses, so the idea is that within 30 days, the governor should have a general idea of what’s going on and what the problem is, and that allows the legislature to come in and evaluate the circumstances and extend the emergency as long as necessary to respond but allows the legislature to narrow the scope of the powers,” said Blackie.