Senator J.D. Mesnard has introduced Senate Bill SCR 1022. This bill would split each current legislative district into three separate House districts, for a total of 90 such districts. The introduced bill reads, in part, as follows:
A. The Senate shall be composed of one member elected from each of the thirty Senate districts established pursuant to this section. Each senate district shall consist of exactly three geographically separate House of Representatives districts.
B. The House of Representatives shall be composed of ninety members, one of whom is elected from each of the ninety House of Representatives districts established pursuant to this section.
The concept of expanding the number of state representatives is not new to Sen. Mesnard. During the 2022 legislative session, he introduced Senate Bill SCR1012, which contained the exact same language as this session’s SCR1022.
The 2022 bill died via amendment. It was struck with a Strike Everything Amendment that replaced the original bill with language dealing with voter ID.
As is nearly always the case with legislative bills, opinions are split on SCR1022.
The positive side of this bill is that it may improve representation. Currently, each district is represented by two members who are elected at large within their district. Having multiple sub-districts represented by members individually would help advance the concept of community of interest representation. This benefit would accrue whether it is applied to the current number of representatives or is combined with the addition of thirty new representatives.
Common logic tells us that if doubling the number of house districts is a good thing, then tripling it would be better. Not necessarily so, because enacting the former would retain the current number of representatives, but implementing the latter would require a huge, 50%, increase in personnel.
Implementation of SCR1022 would entail a lot more than just hiring and compensating additional personnel. There would be cost increases throughout the legislative branch of government, most notably, perhaps, the need for a new, larger building.
Since the actions called for in SCR1022 entail an amendment to the AZ constitution, the enactment process consists of clearing both chambers of the legislature and approval by the voters via a ballot measure.
If this bill can not pass in its current form, there is still plenty of time to make corrections that would make it palatable to a majority of legislators and members of the public.
SCR1022 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Government Committee on February 4.
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