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.