
This third week of the legislative session provided a good amount of interesting activity. Some of it was good, some bad, but all entertaining.
The event that attracted the most attention this week was the resignation of Sarah Brown, director of the governor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting. Her last day on the job will be February 12. Under most circumstances, the resignation of the governor’s top budget official during key budget negotiations would be quite disruptive and unwelcomed. However, those who suffered through one or more of her presentations in legislative committee hearings will likely agree that this is a resignation that was considerably overdue. She has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of knowledge about the budget process. The latest snafu coming out of her office was this year’s governor’s budget, which was nt balanced, except by omitting some mandatory expenses.
Among the bills that AZ Peoples Lobbyist is tracking, 38 were scheduled for hearings this week. Of those bills 33 passed, mostly along party lines. None failed, but 5 were postponed. Here are some highlights:
SB1128 – air quality; causation; state boundaries This bill is aimed at correcting a major problem with the way the federal government deals with pollution in Arizona. Our state has been saddled with standards that cannot be met because of two reasons. First, the standards keep on shifting. Once we meet a level of pollution control, the bar is raised. Second, we are being penalized because of pollution that is being produced outside Arizona and as such, out of our control. This bill passed 5-3, along party lines.
SB1058 – retirement; reemployment; school resource officers A very important challenge for schools is hiring school resource officers (SRO’s) because the pool of potential candidates has been dwindling. SB1058 aims to increase that pool by waiving the requirement that retirees forfeit some benefits if they are hired as SRO’s. This bill passed 6-1. The only NO vote came from Senator Hoffman. .
HB2227 – bond; override; contributions; contracts; prohibition This bill prohibits contractors from bidding on school projects that are funded by bond issues or overrides if they contributed to the campaign to pass the bond issue or override. This is as clear a case of conflict-of-interest prevention as any, yet it has failed every time a bill with this provision is introduced. This time it was held. It is very likely that it will be scheduled again soon.
Here is the list of the tracked bills that saw action this week.
Next week promises to be another interesting and exciting week, because many of the bills scheduled for hearings are quite controversial.