For three weeks, the legislature was a bit sluggish in terms of action on bills. This is typical, especially for the first year of a two-session legislature. But it has stepped into high gear for this fourth week.
As is typical for this point in the session, all the activity centered around committee hearings in the chamber of origin. Next week we will begin to see some Committee of the Whole (COW) action, and possibly some third-reading votes.
Not surprisingly, the three areas of most significant activity were education, taxes and elections.
In education, overriding the Aggregate Expenditure Limit passed handily in the House education committee. The mirror bill in the Senate is scheduled for a committee hearing next week.
Regarding taxes, the prohibition on taxation of residential rentals passed in both House and Senate committees. The prohibition on taxation of food for home consumption advanced in Senate committee.
In the elections front, we had a mixed bag. Some bills passed out of committee, and some were held and rescheduled for next week. In fact, the activity next week is going to be quite heavy in the elections field.
For those who are keeping track, we now have 1,413 bills introduced. Curiously, there were more Senate bills introduced (719) than House bills (614). This is strange because there are only half as many senators as there are representatives. We at AZPEOPLESLOBBYIST are tracking 225 bills. Of those, 24 were scheduled for action this week, with results as follows:
Next week, among the bills we are tracking, 30 are scheduled for action. By far, the biggest player will be election integrity, with a sprinkling of education, taxes, and social issues. Check out the full list HERE
It promises to be an interesting week for those of us who pay attention to these important matters.