Since this week 12 was the last week for regular committee hearings, there was a mad dash to get bills heard so that they could advance on to upcoming full chamber votes. However, the highlight of the week did not come from standing committee hearings, but from an interim committee, namely the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. The purpose of this hearing was to hear a presentation by the Auditor General and her staff regarding K-12 source and use of funds; and the AZ Board of Regents involvement in real estate transactions. This hearing lasted over two hours, but here are the two highlights.
K-12: It seems that there are some irregularities in the way that some school districts have been using the money they have received. It seems that they have been using Covid 19 moneys to fund the 20% teacher salary increases. This raises two questions.
What happened to the money that the legislature appropriated for this purpose?
What happens when the Covid 19 money runs out in 2024?
Hopefully, we will have answers to those two questions sooner rather than later.
A detailed analysis of every school district in the state is available at the Auditor General’s website. To access your school district click HERE
ABOR: It seems that the AZ Board of Regents has delegated real estate leasing to the universities with little or no oversight, and the universities may have been engaging in activities not in the best interest of the AZ taxpayers. This may have to be investigated in greater detail by the legislature.
A video of the whole hearing should be available at the state legislature’s website within a day or two. To view it, click HERE Then look for the line that reads “03/31/2023 Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
The governor, not to be outdone, had some fireworks of her own.
First, her press secretary resigned under fire as a consequence of very ill-advised, virulent remarks about shooting those that disagree with her.
Then, she released some of her frustration by vetoing some important and beneficial bills. Among those, three that we are tracking are:
| SB1063 | food; municipal tax; exemption… |
| SB1096 | firearms; contracts; prohibited practices |
| SB1250 | employers; vaccines; religious exemption |
For a complete list of the bills vetoed, click HERE
For a list of all the bills sent to the governor, click HERE
Among the bills that advanced in the legislature, perhaps the most significant is HCR2033
| HCR2033 | primary elections; eligible candidates |
This bill is important for two reasons. First, it defines more narrowly the role of parties in primary elections. Second, since it is a constitutional amendment, it bypasses the governor and goes directly to the people as a ballot measure in the 2024 general election.
Next week, most of the action will be full chamber, third reading votes. The timing of these votes is very hard to predict or get information about because we do not get advanced notice, as we do with committee hearings.
However, there will be committee activity in appropriations committees. After this coming week, all committee activity will cease.
For a peek at what will be happening next week, check out our call to action by clicking HERE