Arizona Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act — Ballot Language

Filed with the Arizona Secretary of State pursuant to Article IV, Part 1, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution.

PETITION HEADING

INITIATIVE MEASURE TO BE SUBMITTED DIRECTLY TO THE VOTERS

Petition Serial Number: [Assigned by Secretary of State]

Filing Date: ________________

OFFICIAL TITLE: Arizona Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act

SIGNATURES REQUIRED: Pursuant to Article IV, Part 1, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution, the number of signatures required for a statutory initiative equals ten percent (10%) of the total votes cast for all candidates for Governor at the last preceding general election.

Based on the November 8, 2022 gubernatorial election total of approximately two million five hundred fifty-nine thousand (2,559,490) votes cast for all candidates for Governor, the required number of valid signatures is TWO HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED FORTY-NINE (255,949) (Arizona Secretary of State, 2026 Election Cycle).

NOTE: In November 2024, Arizona voters DEFEATED Proposition 134, which would have imposed per-legislative-district signature distribution requirements on citizen initiatives. The initiative process remains intact, signatures may be collected statewide without geographic distribution mandates.

100-WORD DESCRIPTION — (for petition signature sheets)

This initiative establishes the Arizona Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act in five divisions: (1) state-operated food distribution centers selling groceries at production cost plus five percent, modeled on the military commissary system operating at Luke AFB, Fort Huachuca, and Davis-Monthan AFB; (2) public health programs addressing hierarchy- driven disease and heat mortality; (3) education modernization extending the K-20 pipeline through Arizona's universities; (4) public service requirement and resource library for qualifying citizens; (5) general provisions and appropriations. Protected by the Voter Protection Act (Proposition 105, 1998). The Legislature cannot repeal it.

BALLOT TITLE — (as it would appear on the ballot)

PROPOSITION ____

ARIZONA FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

A "yes" vote shall have the effect of establishing state-operated food distribution centers selling groceries at production cost, creating health equity programs for tribal communities and heat-vulnerable populations, and modernizing Arizona's education system through a K-20 developmental pipeline, all protected by the Voter Protection Act.

A "no" vote shall have the effect of retaining the current system in which Arizona's food distribution relies exclusively on commercial retail, Arizona ranks last in per-pupil education spending, and the Navajo Nation remains the most extreme food desert in the United States.

BALLOT TEXT

The People of the State of Arizona enact as follows:

DIVISION I, ARIZONA FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

    Establishes state-operated food assurance centers where all Arizona
    residents may purchase grocery products at production cost plus a
    five percent (5%) facility surcharge. Modeled on the United States
    military commissary system (10 U.S.C. § 2484), which has operated
    at-cost food distribution for one hundred fifty-seven (157) years
    and currently operates at Luke Air Force Base, Fort Huachuca, and
    Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, on Arizona soil.

    Creates ten (10) pilot centers within two (2) years, including
    centers in Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma, Flagstaff, and tribal communities
    including the Navajo Nation and Tohono O'odham Nation. Yuma, where
    ninety percent (90%) of America's winter leafy greens are grown by
    workers who cannot afford to eat the food they harvest, shall be
    the first center operational.

    Requires Arizona-first procurement: fifty percent (50%) Arizona-
    sourced products within three (3) years, seventy percent (70%)
    within five (5) years.

    Establishes mandatory tribal partnership provisions: no food
    assurance center may be placed on tribal land without express
    consent of the relevant tribal government. Tribal centers shall
    integrate with existing tribal food sovereignty programs.

    Creates the Arizona essential goods program for clothing, household
    supplies, tools, educational materials, and heat mitigation supplies
    at below-retail pricing.

    The USDA Food Dollar Series documents that the farm share of the
    food dollar is 24.3 cents. The remaining 75.7 cents is markup. In
    Arizona, this markup is visible at the border, the same food
    products cost dramatically less one hundred yards south in Nogales,
    Sonora. This program eliminates the markup for Arizona residents.

DIVISION II, ARIZONA HEALTH EQUITY ACT

    Designates food insecurity, socioeconomic hierarchy, and
    environmental heat exposure as medical conditions with documented
    physiological pathways, based on:

The Whitehall Studies (Marmot, 1967-present): Among 10,308

    employed British civil servants with universal healthcare, the
    lowest grade had three times (3x) the mortality of the top grade.
    Hierarchy kills independent of poverty.

Sapolsky's thirty-year baboon studies: Subordinate social

    position causes elevated cortisol and atherosclerosis. When
    hierarchy collapses, biology normalizes.

Blackburn's Nobel Prize research (2009): Chronic stress shortens

    telomeres, hierarchy literally ages you at the DNA level.

    Establishes the Arizona Tribal Health Equity Initiative to address
    the diabetes epidemic in Arizona's twenty-two (22) tribal nations.
    One in five (1 in 5) Navajo adults have Type 2 diabetes, among the
    highest rates in the world. This is not genetic destiny. It is the
    biological consequence of imposed food deserts, chronic stress, and
    the destruction of traditional food systems.

    Addresses heat mortality: nine hundred seventy-seven (977)
    heat-related deaths occurred in Arizona in 2024. Heat kills the
    subordinated, those without shelter, cooling, or water. The
    resource library model directly addresses the material conditions
    that kill in Arizona's extreme climate.

    Designates food assurance centers as cooling stations during heat
    emergencies.

DIVISION III, ARIZONA EDUCATION MODERNIZATION ACT

    Extends compulsory education from age sixteen (16) to age
    twenty-five (25) through a K-20 developmental pipeline, phased
    beginning with ninth graders in the 2029-2030 academic year. K-20
    counts grade levels, not ages, high and low performer variation is
    acknowledged.

    Integrates Arizona's K-12 system, ten (10) community college
    districts (including the Maricopa County Community College District),
    Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and Northern
    Arizona University into a single continuous educational framework.

    Provides fully funded in-state tuition for all Arizona residents in
    the K-20 pipeline. Needs-based living stipends for students below
    two hundred percent (200%) of the federal poverty level.

    Implements the Vitruvian Quotient (VQ) framework, eight measurable
    domains of human intelligence (Knowledge, Reasoning, Emotional,
    Language, Creative, Social, Motor, Biological) mapped to
    neurological substrates, replacing single-metric assessment.

    WHY EDUCATION IS NON-NEGOTIABLE: Suniya Luthar's research (2003,
    NIH) proves that affluent children without developmental structure
    exhibit HIGHER rates of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression
    than children in poverty. Material abundance without the
    educational gate produces pathology. Division I feeds bodies.
    Division II heals them. Division III builds the human beings
    capable of sustaining both. Without Division III, the program fails.

    Arizona ranks last in education spending. Arizona teachers walked
    out in 2018 to protest it. Arizona voters passed Proposition 208
    to fund it and the courts struck it down. This division is what
    Arizona has been fighting for.

DIVISION IV, ARIZONA PUBLIC SERVICE AND RESOURCE LIBRARY

    Establishes a mandatory public service requirement of two to four
    (2-4) years following K-20 pipeline completion. Approved service
    includes state and local government service, emergency services,
    military service, public education, healthcare in underserved
    communities, environmental conservation, and tribal community
    service as defined by tribal governing bodies.

    Upon completion of BOTH the K-20 pipeline and the public service
    requirement, Arizona residents unlock full resource library access:

TIER 1 (Food): All food assurance center products at cost.

    Available to ALL residents regardless of K-20/service completion.

TIER 2 (Clothing/Household): Semi-permanent goods at cost with

    anti-hoarding limits. Primarily for qualified residents.

TIER 3 (Durables): Housing, transportation, and major appliances

    through usage-based allocation (one primary residence, one primary
    vehicle). Qualified residents ONLY.

TIER 4 (Currency): Luxury, custom, and specialty goods remain in

    the market economy. The resource library does not eliminate markets.
    It provides a floor below which no qualifying citizen falls.

    This model extends the military commissary principle, material
    security earned through developmental maturity and civic service,
    to the Arizona taxpayers who fund it.

DIVISION V, GENERAL PROVISIONS

    Appropriates one billion twenty-five million dollars
    ($1,025,000,000) across five departments. Establishes phased
    effective dates: food and health programs launch immediately upon
    voter approval; education curriculum begins 2029-2030; public
    service and resource library effective July 1, 2030, with first
    qualifying cohort in 2036-2037. Self-sufficiency target: food
    assurance operational independence within seven (7) years.
    Severability clause. Repeal of conflicting provisions.

FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY

ESTIMATED INITIAL APPROPRIATION: One billion twenty-five million dollars ($1,025,000,000), representing approximately five and five-tenths percent (5.5%) of Arizona's FY 2027 General Fund operating budget appropriations of approximately eighteen and six-tenths billion dollars ($18,639,851,000) [SOURCE: AZ FY2027 Executive Budget Summary, Governor Katie Hobbs, January 2026, page 66, "General Fund Sources and Uses" table]. Full implementation target at three hundred nine dollars ($309) per resident per year, multiplied by Arizona's population of approximately 7.6 million residents [SOURCE: AZ Office of Economic Opportunity, "Arizona at-a-Glance: Population & Employment Trends," April 2025; U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts AZ V2025 confirms 7,623,818 as of July 1, 2025], equals approximately two billion three hundred forty-eight million dollars ($2,348,000,000), representing approximately twelve and six-tenths percent (12.6%) of the FY 2027 General Fund. The initial appropriation funds the pilot phase; the full program scales over five (5) years.

    Division I (Food & Commodity Assurance):       $300,000,000
    Division I (Essential Goods Program):          $50,000,000
    Division II (Health Equity):                  $100,000,000
    Division III (Education Modernization):       $500,000,000
    Division IV (Public Service & Resource Library): $75,000,000

FISCAL CONTEXT:

Arizona SNAP benefits brought $2,015,194,104 to the state in

    FY 2024. This program costs approximately half of what the federal
    government already spends to partially mitigate the problem this
    program solves.

Arizona taxpayers already fund the federal commissary system

    through income taxes, providing at-cost food to military families
    at three (3) Arizona installations while 889,600 Arizona civilians
    receive SNAP because they cannot afford retail food prices.

The food assurance program targets operational self-sufficiency

    within seven (7) years through facility surcharges, reducing
    ongoing general fund requirements to capital improvement only.

Healthcare cost offsets: The Marmot gradient research predicts

    measurable reductions in chronic disease, emergency room visits,
    and Medicaid/AHCCCS expenditures in served communities.

Heat mortality cost offsets: Each heat-related death and

    hospitalization carries direct medical costs and lost economic
    productivity. The essential goods program's cooling supplies and
    the food assurance centers' cooling station designation directly
    reduce these costs.

PROPONENT STATEMENT

Arizona feeds America in winter and cannot feed itself.

Yuma County grows ninety percent (90%) of the nation's winter leafy greens. The agricultural workers who harvest them are food insecure. Meanwhile, the United States military commissary system, funded by YOUR taxes, has been selling food at cost for one hundred fifty-seven (157) years at Luke Air Force Base, Fort Huachuca, and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The proof that at-cost food distribution works is ALREADY OPERATING on Arizona soil. This measure extends that model to every Arizona resident.

The Navajo Nation, twenty-seven thousand square miles, one hundred eighty thousand people, has thirteen grocery stores. ONE IN FIVE Navajo adults have Type 2 diabetes. This is the most extreme food desert in America, and it exists within a state that feeds the nation. The gradient between Scottsdale and the Navajo Nation is not between states, it is within THIS state, under the same sun.

Nine hundred seventy-seven Arizonans died of heat in 2024. They died because survival resources, shelter, cooling, water, are distributed by the socioeconomic gradient. Heat death is hierarchy death.

But material abundance alone does not work. Luthar's research proves that affluence without developmental structure produces pathology, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, at rates higher than poverty. That is why Divisions III and IV exist. Division III builds the educational pipeline; Division IV channels mature citizens into public service and unlocks the resource library. Arizona ranks LAST in education spending. Arizona teachers walked out in 2018. Arizona voters passed Proposition 208 to fund education and the courts struck it down.

This measure does what Proposition 208 tried to do, and more. And this time, it is PROTECTED.

The Voter Protection Act (Proposition 105, 1998) ensures that once Arizona voters pass this measure, the Legislature cannot repeal it. The Legislature cannot gut it. The Legislature can only amend it with a three-fourths supermajority AND only to further its purpose. This is the highest legislative protection bar in American state politics.

The food grows here. The commissary operates here. The gradient kills here. The science is settled. The math works.

Vote YES.

This act is protected by Arizona's Voter Protection Act. Once you pass it, it stays passed.

SUBMISSION CLAUSE

Shall there be enacted in the Arizona Revised Statutes the Arizona Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act, establishing state- operated food assurance centers selling groceries at production cost, creating health equity programs for tribal communities and heat- vulnerable populations, and modernizing Arizona's education system through a K-20 developmental pipeline, with an initial appropriation of approximately one billion twenty-five million dollars ($1,025,000,000), protected by the Voter Protection Act (Proposition 105, 1998)?

    YES / FOR THE MEASURE ____________

    NO / AGAINST THE MEASURE ____________

SIGNATURE LINES

WARNING: It is a class 6 felony to sign an initiative or referendum petition with a name other than one's own or to knowingly sign one's name more than once for the same measure or to sign a petition when not a qualified elector of this state. (A.R.S. § 19-119.01)

    Printed Name: ___________________________________

    Signature: ______________________________________

    Date: ___________________________________________

    Address (including city and zip code):

    ________________________________________________

    ________________________________________________

    County of Registration: _________________________

PROCESS

STEP 1: File application with Arizona Secretary of State (description

        and full text).

STEP 2: Receive official serial number and title.

STEP 3: Prepare petition sheets conforming to A.R.S. § 19-121.

STEP 4: Collect 255,949+ valid signatures from registered Arizona

        voters (10% of 2022 gubernatorial vote total).

STEP 5: File petitions with Secretary of State not less than four (4)

        months before the target general election.

STEP 6: Secretary of State certifies signatures and places measure on

        the general election ballot.

STEP 7: Simple majority of voters approves the measure.

STEP 8: THE VOTER PROTECTION ACT ACTIVATES. The Legislature cannot

        repeal it. Cannot supersede it. Can only amend it with 3/4
        supermajority AND only to further its purpose. It stays passed.

END OF BALLOT LANGUAGE

    Arizona Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act
    Citizen Initiative, Statutory Measure
    Filed pursuant to Article IV, Part 1, Section 1,
    Arizona Constitution

    "The food grows here. The proof model operates here.
     The Navajo Nation has thirteen grocery stores for
     twenty-seven thousand square miles.
     Pass it. The Voter Protection Act ensures it stays passed."

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