A new bill, introduced by Republican Representative David Marshall, aimed at prohibiting unreasonable defunding of law enforcement agencies, has just cleared its first two hurdles on its way through the legislative process.
On January 27, House Bill HB2221 – law enforcement; defunding; prohibition passed the Public Safety & Law Enforcement Committee 8-7, along party lines. It also cleared the House Rules Committee, so it is ready for consideration by the full House.
The provisions of this bill are very simple and straight forward:
- Cities and towns are not allowed to reduce law enforcement budgets below the previous year, unless it is part of an overall reduction in which the law enforcement budget is reduced by the same percentage as the rest of the budget.
- The penalty for failure to comply is a reduction in the state’s shared revenue equal to the reduction in law enforcement funding
HB2221 is clearly intended to head off the often-fashionable trend of irresponsible local governments to yield to “defund the police” demands.
Despite its initial success, the journey of HB2221 through the legislative process may be a bit bumpy.
In the last three years, bills with basically the same language as that of HB2221 have been introduced and all have failed, as follows:
2022 – SB1354 – https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/77268
Sen. Rogers – Held in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
2023 – HB2756 – https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/79612
Rep. Marshall – Held in the House Committee of the Whole.
2024 – HB2120 – https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/81965
Rep. Marshall – Held in the Senate – Did not get a third reading vote.
Since Republicans had a majority during all that time, it must be concluded that what caused those bills to fail was lack of support by Republicans.
However, that may have changed. In the last election, Republicans increased their majority in both chambers. As a result, now it is impossible for any one member of the caucus to prevent a bill from advancing.
It is reasonable to assume that if HB2221 reaches Hobbs’ desk, she will veto it, but that may not happen because she may want to moderate her position on some issues.
She will be facing a credible challenge in the primary election. Since there is no one in Arizona who is politically further to the Left than Hobbs, that credible challenge must come from a “moderate” Democrat.
If the Republicans field a candidate with wide political appeal, Hobbs will have to give the appearance of being a moderate, and she cannot do that if she continues to use her veto pen as she has in the past.
Overall, it seems that the language in HB2221 has a better chance of becoming law this year than it has had in the last three.
Good ideas do not make good law. There have been times when defunding LE departments have been completely justified, and there will be again – to argue otherwise is to put too much faith in people with power, little accountability, and institutional forbearance. Furthermore, part of our government’s system of checks and balances is federalism, and this negates that.
I’m a hard ‘no’.
The Police deserve more money and Police on the streets, not less.
What a waste of time. I want less government, so does MAGA, this does the opposite.