The big news this week did not come from the legislature, which is having a hard time accomplishing anything worthwhile, or from the governor, who continues to sign only bills that cleared both chambers by unanimous, or nearly unanimous, votes.
The headlines were captured by the supreme court as a result of having rejected as unconstitutional, a referendum challenge to last year’s flat tax bill.
Neither the underlying bill, SB1828, nor the resulting statute did anything to curtail, undermine, reduce, or in any way shape or form harm education funding. Therefore, it is hard to understand why organizations like the AZ Education Association and Stand for Children would object to allowing people to keep more of the money they earned. That is, until we learn that they have objectives like “education equity” and “racial justice”, which are buzz words of the radical left. Their agenda is the advancement of socialism. The education issue is only a convenient cover. Showing a tax cut to these organizations has the same effect as showing a cross to Count Dracula. This was a very well deserved defeat for them.
More on this subject may be found in a recent AZ Daily Independent article, which may be accessed by clicking HERE.
There was some modest legislative activity this week, including the following:
| SB1211 – (NOW: materials; activities; review; posting; schools) |
| Failed as a result of Rep. John joining Democrats in their NO vote |
| Survived the Senate COW – still alive |
| Survived the Senate COW – still alive |
| Still alive – no activity scheduled for next week yet |
| Cleared senate, sent back to house for concurrence |
| Cleared senate, sent back to house for concurrence |
| Cleared senate, sent to governor |
| Cleared house final vote, sent to governor |
| Cleared senate, sent to governor |
| Cleared senate, sent to governor
|
It appears that next week’s activity at the legislature will center around the budget, for which reaching an agreement seems even more difficult than in recent years.
On the governor’s side, we also saw some modest activity.
As of the time of this writing, according to the AZLEG website, 196 bills have been sent to the governor and 167 have been signed. None has been vetoed.
We are finally seeing some of the more important and controversial bills clearing the legislature and going to the governor, among them:
HB2498 – COVID-19; vaccination requirements; prohibition
HB2507 – religious services; essential services
HB2591 – border security fund; administration
HB2616 – mask mandates; minors; parental consent
Let’s hope that he signs all of these.
Those who wish to contact the governor and express their opinions may do so using the following contact information:
VIA E-MAIL https://azgovernor.gov/engage/form/contact-governor-ducey
VIA TELEPHONE Phoenix: 602.542.4331 Tucson: 520.628.6580