If the Arizona State Legislature adheres to the goal of a 100-day session, we are almost 80% done because we just finished the 11th week. This is a good time to look back and evaluate where we are in terms of significant accomplishments.
Sadly, as of the writing of this review, this legislative session is failing miserably in terms of passing legislation that deals with 6 subjects that we at Peoples Lobbyists consider crucial, which are K-12 education, border security, tax relief, election integrity, vaccine/mask mandates, and curbing of executive dictatorial authority.
One notable exception, regarding election integrity, is bill HB2492 – voter registration; verification; citizenship It has cleared both chambers and is expected to be delivered to the governor by Monday, 3/28. We are encouraging everyone to contact the governor by email at https://azgovernor.gov/engage/form/contact-governor-ducey or by phone at Phoenix: 602.542.4331 Tucson: 520.628.6580
For a complete list of bills that have been transmitted to the governor, go HERE
What could be the best news this week did not come from the legislature, but from the courts. It was the judgement that portions of HB2839 are unconstitutional. It now appears that we have restored election by voters as the method of choosing precinct committeemen.
While the subject of how precinct committeemen are chosen is not a prime concern for most citizens, this whole fiasco has brought to the forefront two issues that should be of great concern to citizens and that we at Peoples Lobbyists have been stressing for years:
- Legislators do not read the bills they vote on. It is imperative that they do.
- It is insane to introduce 1,700+ bills. Fewer than ¼ of those should be sufficient.
Did our beloved politicians learn a lesson from this? We hope so, but are not betting on it.
Elsewhere there was a lot of legislative activity, some good, some bad.
Among the good bills that advanced this week:
SB1362 – early ballot on-site tabulation
This bill does away with the current practice of taking weeks to tabulate early ballots
HB2710 – registrations; counting procedures; observers; verification
This bill has several good provisions in it, but the most significant in terms of election integrity is that it eliminates that poll observers can only be appointed by party leaders.
HB2786 – voter registrations; ballot requests; source
Specifies that early ballot and active early voter list request forms must only be distributed by a political party, county recorder or election official.
Lots of bad bills advanced this week, including the following:
HB2112 – classroom instruction; race; ethnicity; sex
This excellent bill, dealing with critical race theory, was introduced by Rep. Udall. But just about the time we were ready to cut Udall some slack for doing a good deed, she stabbed us in the back again. It was amended with a strike-everything amendment, and not a very good one at that, because it was an unwarranted tax break for corporations .
HB2685 – artificial intelligence; requirements
NOW: transportation tax election Maricopa County
This is a sneaky, strike-everything that replaces original language with the language of bill SB1356. It is a tax increase which provides that, subject to voter approval, the Maricopa County sales tax surcharge be extended by another 25 years.
For a complete report on the bills that we have been tracking, including links to the text of the bills themselves, go to REPORT
WHAT IS NEXT ?
Next week promises to be a humdinger of legislative activity. It is the last week that committee hearings may be conducted, and those are limited to appropriations. Therefore, there has been a mad race to get bills scheduled in both house and senate appropriations committees. A significant portion of the bills so scheduled are strike-everything bills, which constitutes an effort to sneak past casual observers, legislation that could not pass under full disclosure. One of the most egregious examples of this is senate bill SB1180. This bill began life as a technical correction bill. Everyone knows that technical correction bills are introduced specifically to be the recipients of strike-everything amendments, so no one was surprised when it SB1180 was stricken with language pertaining to COVID-related expenditures. But many of us did not expect a second strike-everything amendment, this one dealing with a variety of expenditure and salaries topics.
Buried deep in the bowels of the last strike-everything amendment to SB1180 is provision 14 of 20, which requires that legislative salaries be “no less than 60% of the governor’s salary.” It would be interesting to know how many taxpayers are aware of this impending salary increase for legislators.
For a sneak peek at this and other measures coming up next week, click on UPCOMING
For a lot of tools and information to assist grassroots activists, go to Arizona’s People’s Lobbyist