This week 6 of the legislative session is, or should be, one for the record. It was no doubt the most active week of the session for two reasons.
First, the budget was front and center. The Republican leadership finally succeeded in herding all the cats into one unified body and passing a workable budget. Then, of course, came the expected and inevitable veto by the governor. Now we are back to a typical good and evil struggle to reach a point at which both parties can claim victory without too much undue harm to the taxpayers.
Second, this was the last week when bills could be heard in committees of the original chamber. Therefore, there was a mad rush to get action on as many bills as possible. Among the ones we are tracking, 39 experienced this action. Other than the sheer number, it was pretty much routine, with some notable exceptions.
SB1245 – VLT; cities and towns; counties This bill failed, as well it should. First, this bill would have created an unfair redistribution of funds. It would have done it by taking Vehicle License Taxes and instead of spending the revenue where the tax was collected, it would have placed it in the general fund to be distributed according to population. If that was not enough, it would also mandate that the funds be used for any transportation purpose, thereby allowing them to be used to subsidize public transportation. These revenues are collected for the purpose of building and maintaining roads, not trolleys and trains. An interesting fact about this is that it failed in spite of a YES vote by two Republicans, Kern and Farnsworth.
SB1221 – health information organizations This bill cleared the committee unanimously, 7-0, but it should not have. It provided for the sharing of medical record of minors. No matter how noble the cause, this path tends to lead into a slippery slope that no one should favor.
HB2316 – federal government; mandatory vaccinations; prohibition This bill failed as the result of a NO vote by Rep. Gress. At first glance, this bill appears to be quite good. After all, what could possibly be wrong with a prohibition on federal government mandatory vaccinations? The problem is that it would not do that, but one does not find out until one reads the bill carefully. Various attempts to fix this bill via amendments failed, so the only alternative was to kill it and start fresh elsewhere.
SCR1025 – parents’ bill of rights This is a referral to the voters for a constitutional amendment. Undoubtedly, introduction of this bill was well-intended. If successful, it would transfer, almost verbatim, to the state constitution, the current parent’s bill of rights that currently resides in ARS 1-601 and 1-602. The good thing about doing this is that it would be nearly impossible to weaken this bill of rights. The bad thing is that it would be nearly impossible to improve it. Once something becomes voter protected in Arizona, it is nearly impossible to change. This is not a bad bill, but it is ill advised because the current bill is working well, and we need the flexibility of a statute to adapt to future changing conditions.
Here is a complete list of that happened this week with the bills we are tracking:
What about next week? It is a good thing that legislative junkies got a double fix this week, because next week they are in for serious withdrawal.
Resulting from the upcoming crossover of bills from one chamber to the other, there will not be any committee activity next week, except for Appropriations and Rules.
But there is no need to fret. Most likely, the following week will be teeming with committee activity.