The main task of any legislature is to legislate. In Arizona, we do an excellent job of it, especially if we consider the quantity of bills introduced. As of the time this writing, the number of introduced bills was 868, and we are only one week into the legislative session. This indicates that the final count may be close to last session’s 1,700+ introduced bills.
To most casual observers, this may seem like an excessive number of legislative bills. To some extent, they may be correct in their assessment. Therefore, we decided to take a closer look at some bills and comment on them from the perspective of average citizens.
| HB2412 | augmentation; Phoenix; Pinal; Tucson; AMA |
Everyone we asked had the same interpretation, based on the short title. They thought that AMA meant the American Medical Association and augmentation referred to breast implants. That misinterpretation is easy to understand in an era when it is so fashionable for some men, who think they are women, to seek a feminine appearance.
As it turns out, this is a serious bill dealing with the augmentation (increase) of water supplies. A simple tweaking of the short title would have avoided confusion.
| HB2401 | appropriation; Taylor rodeo grounds; expansion |
Many bills dealing with local issues contain language to the effect that the subject addressed by the bill is a matter of statewide concern. Is the funding of a local rodeo grounds a matter of statewide concern? It could be, but there is nothing in this bill that would indicate it.
| HB2506 | Dolores Huerta; Cesar Chavez; holiday |
It is the role of the state legislature to create official holidays, and it could be that these two individuals are worthy of that honor. But the introduction of this bill appears to be more an attempt by its sponsor to cater to his constituency than an expectation that it will be embraced statewide.
There are two takeaways to be derived from these observations.
One is that the language of the short title of bills could be improved to reflect more closely the purpose of the bill.
The other is that perhaps we do not need to introduce 1,500+ legislative bills. Perhaps we could increase efficiency by limiting bills to those that address areas of real concern for citizens, like taxes, education, elections, and a few others.