We just finished week 17, which means we are a good two weeks past the 100-day goal for finishing the legislative session.
The last two weeks have been quite light in terms of legislative activity for two reasons.
One reason is that controversial bills that normally require 31 votes in the House to pass, have been put on hold until the 31st Republican House member is fully in place.
The other reason is that there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes activity on the budget.
All that is about to end. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors finally appointed a replacement for ousted representative Harris, and there appears to be some agreement regarding the budget.
On Friday, May 5, the Maricopa BOS appointed Julie Willoughby to replace Liz Harris. Willoughby was the logical choice because, in the last general election, she lost to Harris by 270 votes, which was less than 0.2%. For all practical purposes, it was a statistical dead heat. Why the BOS took so long to decide is anyone’s guess.
Also on Friday, Jim Small, of the Arizona Mirror, reported on Twitter that the governor and the legislature are very close to an agreement on the budget. This makes it possible that we may have a budget as early as the end of next week. It is still a long shot, but we can always hope.
The one nagging question that remains is what will happen to all those controversial bills that are still pending, once a budget is agreed upon. Traditionally, once the budget is out of the way, the legislature adjourns sine die before the ink is dry on the budget documents.
However, this year it may be different. Many of these controversial bills are headed for a governor’s veto simply because she refuses to sign any bills that give Republicans any credit, and that includes some bills that had support from Democrat legislators. The Republicans may want to send those bills to the governor so that they may use her vetoes as campaigning tools during the next election for governor.
REMINDER: To find out what bills are coming up for action, go to https://www.azleg.gov/active-bills/ fill out the required information, and click on “Refresh Data”.