This fourth week of the second regular session of the 55th Legislature was punctuated by a fair share of mischief, three of which stand out above the others.
First, we reached the dubious achievement of having 1,500 bills introduced. This current legislature is hellbent in maintaining the long-standing tradition of placing quantity ahead of quality. Yes, there is justification in approaching some controversial issues from different angles, to determine the best path to success. But even so, it seems that this could be accomplished with less than half of the bills introduced. We at Peoples Lobbyists are tracking 430 of those bills, and by the time the dust settles, will have reacted to about 200.
The second mischievous act would have been funny if it were not so sad to witness a grown man throw a temper tantrum. One would think that the Speaker of the House would be above that, but that was not the case with Rusty Bowers when he killed house bill HB2596 – elections; revisions; mail-in; identification; tabulation
In a not-so-amusing publicity stunt, he assigned this bill to an unprecedented 12 committees. A less flamboyant assignment of 3 or 4 would have been sufficient.
House bill HB2596 was a comprehensive election integrity bill. If it were enacted, it would cure over 90% of what is causing all those “irregularities” in our election process. Because of that, it faced a very uncertain future in its travel through the legislative process. However, that process should have been followed and it should not have been torpedoed by Mr. Bowers.
The third mischievous act was performed by the Republican members of the Senate Transportation and Technology Committee, as they unanimously voted in favor of senate bill SB1356 – transportation tax; election; Maricopa county
If enacted, this bill will place a tax hike for Maricopa County on the November ballot.
This tax, approved by voters a few years back, would have expired at the end of 2025. If the scheme succeeds, it will be extended for another 25 years.
One interesting fact about this is that the exact same bill has been introduced in the House as HB2598 – transportation tax; election; Maricopa county. This bill is scheduled for a hearing in the House Transportation Committee on Wednesday. Maybe we the people can send a message by encouraging the Republican members of this committee to defeat this bill. We can forget the Democrats. They never met a tax increase they didn’t like.
One act that does not rise to the level of mischief, but is troubling, is the advancement in the Senate Government Committee of Senate Bill SB1056 – misplaced ballots; invalidity; misdemeanor; damages
This bill is undoubtedly well-intended as a means to stop the practice of mysteriously finding “misplaced” ballots days or weeks after the election is over. The trouble with SB1056 is that prohibiting the counting of ballots that were misplaced through no fault of the voter may be unconstitutional. Perhaps this bill may be amended to correct this.
For a complete report on the bills that we have been tracking, go to REPORT
Next week promises to be at least as interesting as this one. Among the bills we are tracking that will experience action next week, 6 deal with masks and vaccines, 13 with election integrity, 6 with education, and 2 with taxes.
Full details may be obtained by clicking on UPCOMING