AZ Legislature Week In Review – Week Ending January 20, 2023

az capitol

The second week of the current session was light in terms of meaningful activity. The one exception was what happened at the joint (both house and senate) appropriations committees hearing. At this hearing, there was the customary presentation of the governor’s budget by staff. These presentations are notably boring, but this time there were some fireworks regarding the governor’s plan to gut Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA’s).

This effort was led by Rep. Matt Gress (LD4), who, as a former budget director, is no stranger to budgets and the budget processes. The entire hearing took close to two hours, and a video of the whole proceedings may be viewed by clicking HERE but the lively portion may be viewed by fast forwarding to minute 23:50.

Regarding other committee hearings, there were no surprises regarding the bills we are tracking at AZ Peoples Lobbyist. Here are the results:

HB2008 – ASRS; contribution prepayment Passed
HB2003 – corporate income tax; rates Passed
HB2003 – corporate income tax; rates Passed
SB1001 – pronouns; biological sex; school policies Passed
SB1011 – municipalities; partisan elections Passed
SB1013 – colleges; universities; free speech zones Passed
SB1021 – attorney general; legislature; legal challenges Passed
HB2061 – food; municipal tax; exemption Passed
SB1005 – unjustified actions; parental rights Passed
SB1023 – residential picketing; offense Passed

Next week, the legislative activity will be dominated by three topics, elections, education, and government. These are topics that should be of interest to all citizens. For a detailed list of upcoming activity and comments regarding that activity, click HERE.

We are looking forward to an interesting week at the capitol.