Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Live blogging the Senate Veterans Committee meeting

2:29 HB2001, pertaining to state monuments, passed 7 - 0. Meeting adjourned.

2:27 SB1407, sponsor by LD17 State Rep Ed Ableser pertaining to military members and health club contracts, passes 7-0.

2:26 Bill held to give Gowan time to come over from the House; if he doesn't make it, I think this one is going down.

2:23 Harper states that the bill's language is from freshman state Rep. David Gowan.

2:21 Melvin - "During an election, the more signs the better." He could *never* get elected in Scottsdale.

2:19 Burton-Cahill, Alvarez, and the Cities and Town guy are pointing out that the striker is poorly written (overly broad). Melvin defending it.

2:15 I was in error when I wrote that Sen. Hale was here; it's actually Sen. Alvarez. Hale walked in while I was typing this.

2:14 Meeting gavelled into order. No votes yet because not all sens are here yet. Taking public testimony on bills. AZ League of Cities and Towns opposing the Melvin political sign striker.

2:10 The meeting hasn't started, but senators and staff are starting to trickle in. Harper, Melvin, Hale, and Burton-Cahill are here.

1:38 The Senate floor session is still going, so the committee meeting hasn't started yet. One development is that Harper's strike that I discussed yesterday has been withdrawn from today's agenda. Instead, another striker has been offered by Al Melvin, this one to SB1445 relating to political signs in public rights-of-way. A quick perusal of the language shows that it is intended to override any local ordinances that ban political signs (candidate or ballot measure) in public rights-of-way.

If this passes, Scottsdale's gonna be p!ssed. :))

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