Payday lenders have already put up close to $9 million in a bid to persuade voters to keep the industry alive in Arizona.

And there's still more than two months to go before the election.

The cash is being spent to preserve a special provision in state law now enjoyed by the lenders.

Arizona law generally limits the annual interest on loans to 36 percent.

But lawmakers agreed in 2000 to carve out a special exception for payday loans.

The practice allows people to borrow up to $500 for up to two weeks, with the lender agreeing to accept a postdated  check written out for the amount sought plus up to $17.85 per $100 borrowed.

That law, however, self-destructs in 2010 - meaning the payday loan stores close up unless the statute is extended, something lawmakers have so far been unwilling to do. Proposition 200 bypasses the Legislature, taking the case directly to the public.
To help sell the measure, backers are agreeing to slightly lower fees - $15 per $100 borrowed - and providing interest-free extensions to those unable to pay off the debt after two weeks if they make timely payments.

All that spending, however, does not guarantee success.

Two years ago, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. spent close to $8.8 million in its effort to get voters to ban smoking in public places but not in bars. That proposal, however, got only 43 percent of the vote, as Arizonans instead adopted a more comprehensive smoking ban - one financed with just $1.8 million.

The figure, however, is still far from the record set in 2002, when American Indian tribes put up $21.1 million to let them keep the right to operate casino style gaming and allow expansion into new areas such as blackjack.

That measure also guarantees Indians the exclusive right to operate casinos in exchange for a share of the profits.

So far the opposition to payday lenders is being financed by much smaller donations, including $13,000 from the Center for Responsible Lending in North Carolina, and $10,000 donations from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 99 and the Service Employees International Union.

Several other initiative campaigns have already hit seven-digit spending.

The Arizona Association of Realtors has ponied up all of the $2.4 million in support of Proposition 100.

That measure would constitutionally ban the state from ever enacting a tax on the sale or transfer of real estate, a levy that does not now exist but has been proposed in the past.

There is no organized opposition.

On a related front, Proposition 201, a proposal to require developers to provide 10-year warranties on new houses, is so far being financed with about $360,000 from Sheet Metal Workers International Association. The opposition, has collected about $87,000, virtually all of that from the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona.

Businesses organized as Wake Up Arizona have so far provided about $375,0000 for Proposition 202.

That measure, which has so far raised nearly $525,000, would dilute many of the provisions of the law adopted by the Legislature last year, which allows a judge to suspend or revoke the licenses of any firm found guilty of knowingly hiring undocumented workers.
Funding for a proposal to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage has reached at least $1.3 million.

The largest contributors to Proposition 102 - two Mesa couples, David and Nancy LeSueur and Wilford and Kathleen Andersen, and

Gary and Lori Wagner of Peoria, and the Pete King Corp. of Phoenix - each gave $100,000.

Opponents have so far accumulated less than $8,000.

Backers of a plan to make it harder for voters to approve new taxes or spending have so far collected more than $1 million.

More than 60 percent of that comes from MJKL Enterprises, the firm run by Jason LeVecke that owns the Carl's Jr. and Pizza Patron franchises in Arizona, with an additional $150,000 from the PDG Trust, which is controlled by LeVecke.

Proposition 105 would require the approval of at least 50 percent of those registered to vote, not only for new taxes but also for any plan that would mandate more spending, not only by the state but by any private group.

Opposition has been organized by two officials of the Arizona Education Association, which has raised about $93,000, with $50,000 of that from the Arizona School Boards Association.

Close to $1 million already has been raised for Proposition 104, a measure designed to wipe out any affirmative action programs in Arizona which give any preferences in public employment, contracts and hiring based on race, sex or other factors.

However, Secretary of State Jan Brewer killed the initiative because thousands of signatures on petitions to put the measure on the ballot were found to be invalid.

Proposition 103, which would put 570,000 acres of state trust land off-limits to development, is so far being financed largely with more than $714,000 from the Nature Conservancy out of a total $1.1 million collected.

More than $434,000 has been raised for Proposition 101.

That measure would constitutionally bar state enactment of any universal care plan that requires individuals or businesses to obtain health insurance or pay into a special fund.