Sneaky bad bill alert: HB2546

It's scheduled to go before the AZ Senate's Judiciary and Elections committee this week.

It passed in the House unanimously but certain folks may not have read it.

Proposed by Lupe Diaz (R-LD19), the bill would add a section to Arizona state law to mandate that county recorders oversee school board elections.

Problem?  It completely bypasses county boards of supervisors.

And the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the current Maricopa County Recorder, Justin Heap, aren't best of friends.

To put it mildly.

From Votebeat, written by Jen Fifield, dated 2/27 -

In Arizona’s Maricopa County, a public ‘battle’ for control of elections

Maricopa County’s new recorder is rejecting an agreement that splits control of the county’s elections between his office and supervisors, and is threatening to sue the supervisors if they don’t give him more power.

Recorder Justin Heap’s protest puts control over elections in the state’s most populous and high-profile swing county up in the air and sets up a messy fight between prominent Republican officials that could affect voters, with local elections approaching in May and the 2026 gubernatorial election looming.

As of now, the AZ associations for school superintendents and counties oppose the bill.

Legislative schedule - week starting 3/3/2025

There aren't any strikers listed on agendas at this point, but that is something that is subject to change at a moment's notice.

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority).  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill become a very bad one. 

On Monday, 3/3 

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House and Senate Rules meet at 1 p.m. in their respective rooms.  On the agendas: many bills.  They may meet more than once this week, but, as of now, they're on the schedule once.

Senate Finance meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 13 bills.

House Health & Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: five bills.  Includes SB1072, capping the time limit for certain complaints to the medical board at one year (if the board hasn't handed down a judgement after having the complaint for year, then the matter in considered to be closed). .

On Tuesday, 3/4 

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Senate Natural Resource meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: five proposals and three presentations.  The presentations are slated to be from industry bigwigs, which is fair, because all of the proposals read as if they were written by industry lobbyists.

House Education meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: four bills.

On Wednesday, 3/5 

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House Government meets at 9 a.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: three bills, all propaganda.  SB1013 would require all counties and municipalities to have a 2/3 vote of their supervising council/board in order to raise a fee or tax; SB1015 would bar a municipality or county from regulating blockchain technology; and SB1023, which would bar, with certain exceptions, all businesses and governmental entities in AZ from contracting with a company for "critical infrastructure" if that company it controlled by, or by citizens of, China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia.

Since Russia is included, I'm guessing that this isn't an idea that Cheeto wants to see take hold.

Senate Health and Human Services meets at 9 a.m.in SHR2.  On the agenda: six bills, four House bills to be voted on and two Senate bills to be discussed.

Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency meets at 9 a.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: seven bills, including a couple that read as if they were written by industry lobbyists.

House Ways & Means meets at 10 a.m.in HHR3.  On the agenda: one bill.

Senate Government meets at 10 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: three bills.  All ugly. HB2062 is an anti-trans bill; HB2113 would bar the flying of rainbow flags et. al. over public land; and HB2221 would bar municipalities from reducing police budgets.

Senate Education meets at 1:30 p.m.in SHR1.  On the agenda: four presentations touting private education and four bills.  Includes HB2018, which would give public money to private companies who operate "degree granting private postsecondary" institutions.

Senate Judiciary and Elections meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 23 proposals. Includes HB2546, placing Justin Heap and other county recorders in charge of school board elections.

Mandating that someone like Heap, who is notorious for his hatred for his hatred of democracy, be in charge of ANY elections, is a bad idea that does nothing to benefit the public interest.

Senate Public Safety Committee of Reference (COR) meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: one presentation.

Senate Public Safety meets at 2:10 p.m. (or upon adjournment of COR) in SHR109.  On the agenda: 12 bills.  Includes HB2684, an anti-homeless people pedestrians in roadway medians bill

House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: three bills.

On Thursday, 3/6 - Nada.

"Religiously unaffiliated" people outnumber those people who profess loyalty to a particular sect

So don't be surprised when certain group redouble efforts to imposed their stated religious standards on the rest of us.

Without bothering to actually, ya know, adhere to the standards they want others to follow.

From NPR - 

Christianity declines among U.S. adults while 'religiously unaffiliated' grows, study says

The portion of the U.S. population identifying as Christian has declined significantly over the last two decades, but a massive new Pew Research study finds that trend may be leveling off.

The study, which surveyed 37,000 Americans, found that 62% identify as Christian. By comparison, when Pew did a similar study in 2007, 78% said they were Christian.

Pew's main website is here.

Their report on the study is here.

From the study itself -

That's national.

The gap is even wider in Arizona.

There seem to be an education-related pattern at work here.  Can you figure out what it is? (Hint: The more education someone has, the less likely they are to be an evangelical Christian.) -

GOPer legislators lied? I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!

That was sarcasm, for folks who aren't regular readers - I'm not really shocked.

From KJZZ, written by Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services -

9th U.S. Circuit: GOP lawmakers acted with discriminatory intent when adopting new AZ voting laws

A federal appeals court concluded there is evidence Arizona legislators acted with discriminatory intent when they approved some 2022 laws requiring proof of citizenship to vote.

In a 79-page ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said federal law decides who can vote in federal elections. And that, wrote Judge Ronald Gould for the majority, supersedes legislation approved by Republican lawmakers to deny a ballot to those without such proof.

In many ways, Tuesday's ruling is not a surprise. It affirms what U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton concluded two years ago.

"Acted with discriminatory intent" is judge-speak for "you're full of shit", but because of their wish to adhere to their profession's decorum, they couldn't say that directly.  I'm not a professional, so I can -

The GOPS in the AZ legislature were (and usually are) full of shit.

As judges are also trained attorneys, it took them 79 pages to be tactful.

I recommend reading the entire article - there are good parts of the article; too many to cite here.

Bounties.

State Sen. Jake Hoffman wants public funds to finance the victimization of people he already hates.

From AZ Mirror, written by Gloria Rebecca Gomez, dated 2/20 -

Arizona Republicans want to pay police bounties for immigrant deportations

Arizona police departments would be incentivized to target people they believe are undocumented under a Republican bid to award them a $2,500 bounty for every arrest that ends in a deportation. 

The move represents the GOP legislative majority’s latest foray into immigration policy, which has taken on a decidedly hostile tone in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election victory and his stated goal of deporting millions of immigrants. 

[snip]

Sponsored by Sen. Jake Hoffman, the leader of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus who has built a reputation for hard-ball politics and controversial proposals, Senate Bill 1111 would set up an “Arizona Deportations Fund.” That fund would be used to disburse bounties of $2,500 to law enforcement agencies every time the arrest of an undocumented person leads to their removal from the country by federal officials.

 

The bounty bill was created by a striker, amending a bill from Hoffman, that while a bad one, was a more conventionally bad one.

The amended bill is absolutely vile.

However, I believe that it can be made palatable with one minor change.

Instead of giving a financial reward to local law enforcement agencies for targeting people with skin darker than a Sun City golfer's tan, award them bounties for going after people who have committed treason, use their positions of public trust to give aid and comfort to traitors., or simply profit from treason.

Hoffman and his ilk may not like that (if nothing else, such a provision would utterly decimate the R caucus membership), but it would actually benefit civil society.

Unlike Hoffman's bigotry-filled scheme.

There are some interesting names running for office next year

Or, in some cases, *another* office, as some of these folks are current office holders.

Note: Just because someone has filed a Statement of Interest or form a committee for  run for a particular office doesn't mean that person will appear on a ballot for that office.  It's early yet and things can, and probably will, change before ballots are set.

Note2: This presumes that there will be elections going forward.  With Cheeto and co-president Musk (and their hatred of democracy) running things, that's not a given.

All of the following is based on Statements of Interest (SOI) filed and committees formed.

Warren Petersen (R), the current president of the state senate, is running for Arizona Attorney General.  He filed an SOI on 1/26 and amended an old committee for this run on 1/31.

Making official something everyone already knew, former candidate Karrin Taylor Robson (R) is running for governor.  She filed an SOI on 2/12 and amended an old committee for this run on 2/12.

Jarrett Maupin (R) is running to unseat Yassamin Ansari (D) is CD3.  He filed an SOI on 2/5.  He hasn't formed a committee as yet.

No ally of Joe Arpaio should be allowed within even sniffing distance of an elected office.

I looked at Maricopa County statements of interest and newly-formed committees.  I didn't find anything there - all of the SOIs were from people looking at the office of Justice of the Peace or Constable.  There are a couple of former legislators on that list but they're running for re-election, so I'm going to ignore them.  As for the county's committee listings? I didn't find anything there, though the County's search function is problematical and I may have missed something.

However, as I stated at the beginning of this post, it's still early, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/23/2025

It's shaping up to be a relatively quiet week at the Capitol (there are some very bad bills under consideration this week, but only three committees meeting), but could change in a heartbeat.  Committee meetings could be scheduled, and bad amendments could be proposed, at any time.  As such, anything I write here comes with the caveat - 

"As of this writing."

It's something that's true every week that the Arizona State Legislature is in session, but it's truer this week than most weeks.

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority).  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill become a very bad one. 

On Monday, 2/24 

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House and Senate Rules meet at 1 p.m. in their respective rooms.  On the agendas: many bills.  They may meet more than once this week, but, as of now, they're on the schedule once.

House Appropriations meets at 10 a.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: 22 bills, five with strikers scheduled to be offered.  One, proposed by Republican Jeff Weninger, proposes to amend HB2325 to create a "pilot program" for the state's budget via blockchain technology (the requirements look to be so specific as to constitute a de facto single source contract ["de facto" means "in everything but name]); another, proposed by Republican Justin Olson, would amend HB2926 to both implement a work requirement for AHCCCS eligibility and to discontinue AHCCCS eligibility for people whose income is above the federal property level if the federal government doesn't subsidize AHCCCS to the tune of 90% (currently, it's 80%).

My guess is if that makes it the governor's desk, it'll be vetoed.  One that I don't expect to make it to the governor's desk is a striker to to HB2496, proposed by Democratic member Nancy Gutierrez.  It would turn the bill into one that would increase the penalty for leaving a firearm where it can be and/or is accessed by a minor.

On Tuesday, 2/25 

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Senate Appropriations meets at 9 a.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: 32 bills, three with proposed strikers.  Surprisingly enough, there are some bills worthy of support; not surprisingly, all were proposed by Democratic members. SB1571, from Theresa Hatathlie, would fund a study on the communities affected by the closure of the Navajo Generating Station; SB1575, also from Hatathlie, would fund the construction and operation of a dialysis unit in a certain hospital in Apache County; and SB1671, from Sally Gonzales, which would add Native American traditional healing services to things that are covered by AHCCCS.

On Wednesday, 2/26 

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Senate Education meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: nada (for now, anyway).

On Thursday, 2/27 - nada.

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/16/2025

There's some sneakiness and some unintended irony in this week's bills; there's also lots of ugly veto-bait this week (to be fair, it IS the Arizona State Legislature, so ugly bills are the norm for them).

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority).  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill become a very bad one. 

On Monday, 2/17   

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House and Senate Rules meet at 1 p.m. in their respective rooms.  On the agendas: many bills.

Senate Federalism meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: five bills, all bad.  SB1150 would allow the transfer of state trust lands to private hands; a Mark Finchem-proposed striker to SB1278 a Department of Natural Resources paid for by the state's General Fund; SB1498, also from Finchem, would mandate that federal law enforcement personnel obtain the written permission of the relevant county sheriff before making an arrest or conducting a search or seizure in the state.  An exception is carved out for immigration agents (of course); SCR1006, asking the voters to allow SB1150 and to take the voters' expression of approval for any trust land transfer out of the mix and insert the governor's approval; and SCR1018, a love letter to Congress about supporting the transfer of federally-controlled land into state hands.

Senate Finance meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 20 bills.  Lots of bad here.  Personal fave: SB1298, John Kavanagh's proposal to expand the property tax exemption given to religious institutions and organizations that profess to be religious in nature.  This one has Center for Arizona Policy written all over it.  

Senate Military Affairs and Border Security meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: seven bills.  Lots of bad here.  Personal fave: SB1495, a scheme from Wendy Rogers (and cosponsored by a rogues' gallery) to remove the AZ National Guard from the national chain of command.

House Health & Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: 11 bills.  Includes HB2165, restricting what SNAP recipients can buy.  The bill failed, on a 6-6 vote, in committee the first time it was considered.  An amendment has been proposed by the committee chair.  That may be enough to secure an additional R vote, but the bill will still be about committee members demonstrating their hatred for poor people.

House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: six bills.  Includes HB2800. a hyper-specific bill disallow cancellation or non-renewal of a fire insurance policy within a certain proximity of a governor-declared natural disaster or wildfire.

House Public Safety & Law Enforcement meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: nine bills, mostly bad. 

On Tuesday, 2/18 

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House Education meets at 1:30 p.m. in  HHR1.  On the agenda: one bill.  HB2058 will be subject to a striker.  The original bill failed in committee on a 0-11vote.  The striker is about exempting students from vaccinations requirements in higher ed.

Senate Appropriations meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: 24 bills, some bad, some less so.  Includes a Mark Finchem-proposed striker to SB1583.  The striker looks to do an end-run around a lawsuit pertaining to giving money to the rodeo grounds in Prescott.

Senate Natural Resources meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 21 bills, most looking as if they were written by industry lobbyists.  Also, there are many strikers.

House Commerce meets at 1:30 p.m.in HHR5.  On the agenda: 18 bills, lots of strikers.

House Education meets (again) at 2 p.m.in HHR1.  On the agenda: 14 proposals.  Lots of strikers.  Personal fave: a striker to HB2725 that would both mandate that public school students take and pass a certain amount of civics courses in order to promoted past eighth grade AND exempt certain homeschooled and private school transfers from that requirement.  Of course, there is part that would better applied to state legislators, Cheeto, Musk, and ALL Trumpkins -

House Natural Resources, Energy & Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 13 bills.  Four have proposed strikers.  Most bills and striker read as if they were written by industry lobbyists.  Personal fave: HB2059 though, reads like a combination of the wet dreams of industry lobbyists and pure R ideologues.  It would bar all public employees in Arizona from aiding the feds in any way, if the matter relates to natural resources.

House Regulatory Oversight meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: four bills.  Includes HB2031, a proposal to abolish a large number of boards, commissions and professional licenses; and HCR2024, asking the voters to get rid the use of lethal injection for capital punishment, and instead use a firing squad.

On Wednesday, 2/19 

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House Government meets at 8 a.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: 15 bills, many ugly.  Includes: HB2547, which would bar public funds from going to any person who even talks about abortions (they use the word "promotes"); and HCR2049, demanding that the federal government stop being the federal government.

House Judiciary meets at 8:30 a.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: 15 bills.  Many bad.  Includes HB2340, elevating the penalty for the murder of a law enforcement to death or natural life in prison; HB2786, allowing for the use of a motor vehicle speed inhibiting device in lieu of a driver's license suspension for one or more speed related infractions (this should be required of ALL sitting legislators); and HB2681, essentially banning the use of abortion inducing drugs here.  This bill is subject to an amendment that may or may not be a striker (the amendment is not labeled as such of the agenda but on the bill documents page, it is so labeled.)

Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency meets at 8:30 a.m. in SHR109.  Lots of ugly here.  On the agenda: 22 bills, five of which have proposed strikers where the language isn't yet available.  Personal fave: SB1627, a proposal from Shawnna Bolick to mandate that all executive branch agency heads send federal agency directives and interpretations of federal agency rules to four legislators, named by position.  The agenda also includes SB1584, a move to end affirmative action in public hiring in Arizona; SB1586, making a healthcare provider who provides gender transition services to a minor personally liable for all detransition costs incurred within 25 years; and SB1296, increasing requirements on those receiving unemployment insurance(UI) benefits and making it easier to disqualify them from receiving UI.

House International Trade meets at 9 a.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: no bills and three presentations.  I expect that two of those may get interesting - one is from the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and one is from the Canada Arizona Business Council.  And we are in the Age of Cheeto.

Senate Government meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 14 bills, four of which have proposed strikers where the language isn't yet available.  Most are identified on the agenda with the word "government", so I expect that when the actual language is revealed they'll turn out to be be things that pass on party line votes.  Personal fave: SB1593, expanding who can sue a municipality or county over something passed with an emergency clause.

Senate Health and Human Services meets at 9 a.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 22 bills.  Personal fave: SB1302, Mark Finchem's attempt at sneakiness.  Among other things that seem good in an "awww, shucks" sort of way, it appropriates more than $130 million in each fiscal year thru 2030 for the care of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. On the other hand, his proposal includes a clause that allows a legislatively-controlled entity to take away that funding -

House Ways & Means meets at 10 a.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 10 bills, most about reducing revenue.

Senate Education meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 23 bills.  Personal fave: SCR1028, Shawnna Bolick's ploy to do away with majority rule on school bond votes by requiring that such votes require 60% support to pass.  Also includes SB1694, withholding state funding for institutions of higher education that offer DEI courses; and SB1227, a ploy to put school cell phone bans and placing police officer in schools into the same bill.

Senate Judiciary and Elections meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 29 bills.  Lots of VERY ugly bills here.  Personal fave: SCR1020 ploy to have the voters do away with the merit selection of county judges in large counties.

Senate Public Safety meets at 1:30 p.m.in SHR109.  On the agenda: 17 bills.  There's some bad here, but has one bill that falls into the "we have too much time on our hands" category - SB1270, Wendy Rogers' bid to bar operating a motor vehicle while an animal is on the driver's/operator's lap.

House Science & Technology meets at 2 p.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: seven bills.  Curiously, many look to have been assigned to another committee; in this case, House Public Safety & Law Enforcement (this phenomenon has occurred with other bills on other agendas, but not to the extent that it occurs here) -

House Transportation & Infrastructure meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 10 bills.

On Thursday, 2/20  -

Senate Government meets at 10:30 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 14 bills, four of which have proposed strikers where the language isn't yet available.  The agenda looks to be the same as for the previous meeting.

Senate Judiciary and Elections meets at 1 p.m.in SHR2.  On the agenda: 29 bills.  

House Public Safety and Law Enforcement meets at upon the adjournment of the floor session. in HHR1.  On the agenda: 11 bills.

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/9/2025

Some (very) bad bills this week, some anti-choice bills, some anti-LGBTQ+ bills, some political indoctrination bills, and an attempt at humor.

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority).  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill become a very bad one. 

On Monday, 2/10 

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House and Senate Rules meet in their respective rooms.  On the agendas: many bills.

House Health & Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: 10 bills, including HB2126, a proposal to mandate that a health care provider grant parents access to any online portal used by their child.  My hesitation with this one is rooted in the fact that most of bill's cosponsors are utterly vile human beings.

House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. is HHR3.  On the agenda: six bills, most of which read as if the were written by an industry lobbyist.  Includes Gail Griffin's HB2083, a ploy to ensure that industry is represented on Arizona's Game and Fish Commission; HB2552, Lupe Diaz' proposal to expand wildlife hunting to allow dogs to be used to kill animals; and HB2588, Griffin's proposal to require the Game and Fish Department to expand the issuance of landowner hunting permits.  Interestingly, there's no requirement actually *own* the land they're hunting on, only that it be privately owned.

House Public Safety & Law Enforcement meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1. On the agenda: eight bills.  Includes HB2606, further busting the state's budget by another $50 million by using it fund local police agencies' border enforcement actions and the indoctrination training of their officers to "fear the other,." and HB2664, giving the sheriff on Gila County $3 million from the state's General Fund. The sheriff of Gila County looks to be someone who's opposed to Covid mitigation measures.

Senate Federalism meets at 2 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: two bill, but one of them is from Mark Finchem, and it's a doozy. His SCR1012 is subject to a striker proposed by Finchem to turn a technical correction measure into a love letter to Congress, asking them to propose an amendment to the US Constitution declaring that the states have absolute authority over campaign spending.

Senate Finance meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 11 measures. includes SB1496, JD Mesnard's proposal to make sure that provisions that are work-related are added to what a "qualifying charitable organization" has to engage in for donations to that organization to qualify for a tax credit.

Most of the proposals are about reducing state revenue.

Senate Military Affairs and Border Security meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: five bills.  Includes SB1294, John Kavanagh's ploy to force the Arizona Department of Administration to lease the state prison in Marana for a dollar per year to the feds (read: Trump/Musk and their acolytes) to house immigrants.

On Tuesday, 2/11 

=

House Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: 12 bills. Personal fave: HB2411, a "we need more booze at golf courses" bill.

There was a legislative attempt at humor with this one -

House Education meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda:  nine bills.  Personal fave: HB2724, allowing leaders of the Hitler Youth "patriotic youth groups" 10 minutes access to school kids to indoctrinate them.

House Natural Resources, Energy & Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 14 bills, many of which read as if the were written by an industry lobbyist.  Personal fave: HCR2046, blaming forest mismanagement and salt cedars for the decrease in water in the Colorado River and not usage.  I'm not making this up.  I wish I was.

House Regulatory Oversight meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: four bills, two of which are very bad.  Personal fave: HB2630, deeming that any person whose nomination for a director position at an agency whose nomination is rejected the state senate (read: Jake Hoffman) is not allowed to work in any position in that agency.

Senate Appropriations meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: 11 bills.  Includes SB1374, Mark Finchem's scheme to take $10 million from the state's General Fund in order to conduct a special census authorized by the bill itself.

Senate Natural Resources meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda:10 bills, most of which read as if they were written by an industry lobbyist.  Personal fave: SB1212, making the application of fertilizer, biosolids, and/or soil amendments to lands leased from the state are presumed to be "reasonable."

There's a high "ick" factor here - basically, the bill says that poisoning state land is "reasonable."

On Wednesday, 2/12 

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House Judiciary meets at 8:30 a.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: 13 bills, including HCR2037, asking the voters to legalize bombs, rockets, grenades, silencers, machine guns, sawed-off shotguns and rifles, and IEDs (and more!).  All are currently considered to be "prohibited weapons" under AZ law.

House Government meets at 9 a.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: five bills.  All bad, but my personal fave is HCR2042, asking the voters to ban affirmative actions.

Senate Health and Human Services meets at 9 a.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 17 bills.

House Judiciary meets again at 10 a.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: one bill.

House Ways & Means meets at 10 a.m.  Eight bills.  Most reduce revenue accrued by or money spent by the state, a county,  a municipality, or an agency of one of those.

Senate Government meets at 10 a.m. in SHR1,  On the agenda: five bills.  A majority of which are bad.

Senate Education meets at 1:30 p.m.in SHR1.  On the agenda: 22 bills and a presentation from Grand Canyon University.  Many bad, some sneaky bad.  Personal faves, and not sneaky, or even subtle about it: SB1694, denying state fuds to state universities that offer even a single course pertaining to DEI; and SB1321, allowing The Klan Youth Corps "Patriotic Youth Membership Organizations" to use schools as recruiting and indoctrination centers,

Senate Judiciary and Elections meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 24 bills.  Many ugly.  Personal faves: SB1441, a proposal to make school board elections partisan; SB1722, creating grounds for a civilian to sue over scientific research they don't like/deem to be "fraudulent".

Senate Public Safety meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: 16 bills.  Approximately 1/2 are ugly.  Personal fave: SCM1001, Wendy Rogers' ploy to rename Arizona route 260 after Cheeto.

House Appropriations meets at 2 p.m.in HHR1.  On the agenda: three bills.  Most seem harmless, but HB2420, passed House Education on a party line vote.

House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda:  11 bills, most anti-democracy.  HB2038 will be subject to a striker requiring a registering voter to present "satisfactory" proof on U.S. citizenship in order for that registration to be valid; and HCM2004, Gail Griffin's love letter to Congress asking them to exempt military bases. etc. from the Endangered Species Act.

House Science & Technology meets at 2 p.m. is HHR5.  On the agenda: two bills.

House Transportation & Infrastructure meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3,  On the agenda: three bills.

On Thursday, 2/13 

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House Health & Human Services meets (again) at 1 p.m. in HHR4. 11 bills.  Includes HB2439, requiring the the websites for AHCCCS and all other state agencies refer pregnant women to organizations that don't provide abortions.

Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency meets at 1 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: nine bills.  Includes SB1556, relating to adult hemp beverages. The .pdf of the bill and the section of law it's amending is 124 pages long and there are many change clauses proposed in the bill.  The length of the bill makes me uncomfortable.

The original quote is from W.C. Fields and goes “If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”

My update for the Age of Cheeto: "If you can't dazzle 'em with facts, bury 'em in bullshit."

Andy Biggs: The man who would be governor believes that part of the job description is *hates* a LOT of things".

I fully realize this post may actually help him in the R primary, but so?  The fact that certain Rs will vote for him says a LOT about them and their characters.

Not just hating on migrants and health care choice for women (all Rs hate those things),but he's pretty eclectic in his hate.  He hates many things.

Since the first of the year, he has proposed 82! bills and resolutions.

He's well-rounded by R standards; in addition to abortion and people with skin darker than a Sun City golfer's tan, he hates -

Poor people

Criminals being held accountable for their acts (and I'm not even talking about Cheeto and his bad acts, though he's sponsored a lot of legislation intended to protect Cheeto)

The humanities

Covid mitigation measures (there are many examples of this; I picked only one)

Workplace safety

FISA

Healthcare in general

Democracy

Pakistan (not sure where that one came from)

Give him time though - now that he's running for governor, I'm sure he'll get his on some more.

Cheeto won AZ, right? So why is he trying to hurt AZ with his tariffs?

Geez, when I started researching this post, I was only thinking the number of people with Mexican ancestry in Arizona (2.3 millions Hispanic people in AZ, with 84% of them having some Mexican ancestry or the number of snowbird who migrate here from Canada,

From The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) -

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From KNXV (Phoenix Channel 15), written by Garrett Archer, emphasis theirs -

Data: What products does Arizona trade with Mexico and Canada

From January to November of 2024 Arizona companies made over $24 billion of trade with Mexico and Canada.

Mexico is by far, the state’s largest trading partner with census data showing $10.6 billion worth of imports passing through customs to Arizona as well as $8.2 billion in exports. Canada, the state’s second largest trading partner does $5 billion in trade with Arizona, which is split evenly between imports and exports.