Thursday, January 29, 2015

The "Arizona two-step" is becoming a line dance: Ducey joins the lege's Rs in "going dark"

Earlier this week, the Republicans in the Arizona House of Representatives voted to close their caucus meetings to the public.

Now, new governor Doug "Dark Money" Ducey has joined them in the effort to impair the ability of Arizonans to keep an eye on activities at the Capitol - he's removed the visitor logs from the governor's office.

From ProgressNow Arizona -
Gov. Doug Ducey, who surfed a wave of anonymous dark money into office in November, does not want the public to know who is coming up to the ninth floor to meet with him. Earlier this week, the visitor’s log that had been on the 8th floor of the Executive Tower through multiple governors quietly disappeared. In the Capitol Times Yellowsheet, where the story broke, a Ducey spokesman defended the lack of transparency. Ducey’s flack said ditching the visitors log would make the office “more efficient” because the logs weren’t always accurate.

Like his fellow travelers at the lege, Ducey doesn't want the public (or the working media) to know what is going on at the Capitol and he is doing whatever he can to impede scrutiny.

If the anti-transparency efforts get any more widespread, the "line dance" will become an "orgy".

Which brings us to a proposal from my "favorite" state senator, John Kavanagh (R-LD23).

His SB1098 would *quadruple* the size of public service corporations (energy utilities, water companies, etc.) allowed to seek consumer rate increases without a public hearing before the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Should we put together a referendum campaign to change the state constitution so that when our state's electeds foist their typical "public policy" off on the public, they have to wear condoms while doing so?

At least until they understand the difference between "doing the public good" and "doing the public".



Notes:

In this context, "favorite" is sarcastic.

SB1098 is being fast-tracked - it's scheduled to go before the state senate's Committee on Commerce and Workforce Development on Monday (1:45 p.m., SHR1).

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