Ducey allegedly tries to deplete the state's budget to aid an ally

Why isn't this a bigger story here?

From KJZZ (it's a USA Today story, and I'd link to that one, but the USA Today story is behind a paywall) - 

USA Today Investigation Links Ducey With Efforts To Extract $100M In Tax Refunds

Gov. Doug Ducey has long been seen as having ambitions beyond the Governor’s Office, perhaps even for the United States presidency. And to get there, he would need powerful and wealthy allies.

In his latest piece, Craig Harris, a reporter with USA Today who formerly worked at the Arizona Republic, investigated why Ducey and a handful of his top staffers supported a multi-year effort by a powerful Texas businessman and Republican donor to extract millions of dollars in tax refunds from Arizona’s Department of Revenue, despite alleged conflicts of interest.

The Urban Institute has a pretty good backgrounder on Arizona's budget here.

Some of the illustrations a quite eye-opening.

The age of the smoke-filled rooms may be past, but all that means is that the lege isn't under the influence of nicotine right now

 ...of course, the lack of smoke doesn't increase visibility...and while they may not be under the influence of nicotine, they may be under the influence of something more harmful - a special kind of Kool-Aid...

This week has seen a serious uproar in Arizona politics as the governor and the leadership of the legislature unveiled a "deal" on a state budget that proposes massive cuts to Arizona's education system, both higher ed and K-12 (to be fair, they state that more money is being budgeted for AZ's K-12 classrooms, which sounds good, until you see that they are counting money taken away from school operations and given to classrooms as an "increase").

This has caused a round of protests at the Capitol from different pro-education groups, protests that seem to have some good effect - as of this writing, the governor and the R leadership of the lege don't have quite enough votes to pass the budget (lots of horse trading and arm twisting going on at the Capitol right now).

What also upset a lot of people, including some of those who would probably support the budget under most other circumstances, is the almost complete lack of transparency of the budget process.

Essentially, many of the Rs were told "Oh, we have a budget deal now.  Vote for it."

For some reason, many people, including many of the Rs in the legislature, find that attitude, and the lack of transparency that goes with it, to be utterly unacceptable.

They also find the lack of transparency to be a surprise, but they shouldn't - if there is one thing that this legislature, the 52nd Arizona Legislature will be known for, it is its unrelenting attacks on government transparency.

Some examples from the current legislature:

HB2016, requiring the Arizona Corporation Commission to post certain corporate filings in an online database for 90 days instead of requiring that notices of the filings be published in a newspaper (passed House committee consideration on a party-line vote and House COW [Committee of the Whole] on a voice vote; awaiting final approval in the House)

HB2071, allowing candidates to conceal their residential address, even if that is their campaign address (dead for now, but with strikers and BRBs, it isn't dead until Sine Die)

SB1047, keeping the names of winners of the various state lottery games secret for 90 days (passed the Senate, passed committee consideration in the House, awaiting floor action in the House)

SB1073, allowing former judges to have their personal information removed from public records (passed the Senate, passed committee consideration in the House, awaiting floor action in the House)

SB1098, quadrupling the revenue threshold for public service corporation below which they can seek a rate hike without a public hearing (passed the Senate; awaiting House consideration)

SB1300, making any recordings made by police body cameras non-public records (passed the Senate; awaiting House consideration)

SB1435, gutting the state's Open Meeting law (dead, but with the usual "nothing is dead until Sine Die" caveat)

SB1445, keeping secret for 90 days the names of peace officers who use deadly force (passed the Senate; passed committee in the House; awaiting floor action in the House)

This list isn't comprehensive, and it doesn't include cases where the lege isn't creating more opaqueness but is just blocking increase transparency (i.e. - campaign finance stuff) or is trying to require more openness on the part of anyone that they don't like (poor people, the federal government, etc.).

As I write this (at approximately 10:25 at night), the lege is in recess as the leadership tries to gather support for their budget so that they can pass it in the dark of night.

Maybe because the lege figures darkness is better concealment than smoke...because there is no other conceivable justification for this.

AZ Budget time: Whoo! Whoooo! The AZ lege has this railroad running with a full head of steam...

...and aimed straight at Arizona's education system...

The package of budget bills has been posted on the lege's website, they are undergoing committee consideration in the chambers' respective Appropriations committees (where they will most likely be approved with party-line votes), and they are scheduled for Rules Committee rubber stamping tomorrow (Senate/House).

Setting them up for floor action on Friday, three days after the budget was revealed to the public.  The rush seems to be an attempt to get the budget passed before the public can organize against it.

The only brake on this railroad, possibly, is the rumor that there is a group of Rs in the Senate who aren't on board the train.  From the Twitter feed of Brahm Resnik, political reporter for Phoenix channel 12 -

Having said that, expectations are that the "stealth" budget will be a "done" budget by Saturday.


The budget bills (only linking to the House version, in the interest of time):

General Appropriations - HB2671/SB1469
Capital Outlay - HB2672/SB1470
Revenue Budget Reconciliation Bill (BRB) - HB2673/SB1471
Budget Procedures - HB2674/SB1472
Government BRB - HB2675/SB1473
Environment BRB - HB2676/SB1474
Health BRB - HB2677/SB1475
K-12 Education BRB - HB2683/SB1476
Higher Education BRB - HB2679/SB1477
Criminal Justice BRB - HB2680/SB1478
Human Services BRB - HB2681/SB1479
Agency Consolidation BRB - HB2682/SB1480

Governor Doug Ducey: pro-education...until the rubber hits the road

Many folks are weighing in on Arizona Governor Doug Ducey's FY2016 budget proposal.  They are using a lot of words.

Tonight, I believe in the old saying about pictures being worth a thousand words.  :)

Ducey's steps to the budget proposal, illustrated (source documents here):

1. Proclaim the awesome things that you are doing for K-12 public education -

2. Contradict yourself.

Ducey claims that he wants to allocate nearly $160 million dollars more to K-12 education but tries to gloss over the fact that in his proposal, most of the funds come from...wait for it...K-12 education.

And at that, even the putative increase to education spending seems to be predicated on the state obeying a court that ruled that the state must allocate more for spending.  They (the governor and the lege) have been fighting the ruling.  If the judge backs down, expect the funding to disappear.

But not the cuts.



3. Screw over higher ed, expecting the Arizona Board of Regents to make up the lost funding with tuition increases.

The hypocrisy here is that he spent most of his gubernatorial campaign blaming his opponent, former Regent chair Fred Duval, for tuition increases necessitated by previous cuts to higher ed funding.

4.  Make sure your pals in the private prison industry are taken care of.

Even if it is at the expense of the state's education system.

Other information -

This next one is just wishful thinking (aka - fairy tale math).  It also looks like an easy way for the Ducey admin to give out a lucrative contract to some FOD* with little to no oversight -

* = "Friend of Dougie"

Doug Ducey, less "pro-education" and more "pro-incarceration"

Breaking: AZ Senate to consider its own budget proposal Tuesday

News broke earlier tonight that the president of the Arizona State Senate, Andy Biggs, has released his own budget proposal that will be considered (and presumably rubber stamped along party lines) by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday (2 p.m., SHR109).

The bills are numbered SB1485 thru SB1493.

The notice is too short to do a full analysis here (or pretty much anywhere else, which is kind of the reason for the short notice), but the legislative analysis of SB1490, the criminal justice budget reconciliation bill, contains information that may indicate the nature of Biggs' budget -

10.  Prohibits the total amount that may be spent in a fiscal year by the state for indigent capital defense in a state PCR proceeding from exceeding the amount appropriated in the General Appropriations Act for that purpose, together with additional amounts appropriated by any special legislative appropriation for indigent capital defense.

[snip]

14.  Allows the AG to use monies in the State Aid to Indigent Defense Fund for activities related to capital postconviction prosecution.

...Surprised Biggs doesn't have a clause requiring capital defendants to win the Publishers Clearinghouse grand prize before they are allowed to mount a defense against capital charges...

Medicaid and the budget in the AZ House: Let round two begin!

Well, it didn't take long for the lege to get back to "hurry up and wait" mode.

Remember the 10 budget bills that the Arizona Senate passed so dramatically...way back in the mists of time...last Thursday?  They were transmitted to the House, where...

...They are just sitting there.  Not heard in committee, not assigned to committee, not even officially introduced in the House.  And they're not scheduled to be introduced any time soon (though that could change at a moment's notice).

This pretty much puts paid to my prediction that the lege would finish their work this week,  At this point, unless they work out a deal, suspend the rules that require at least three legislative days to pass a bill (or in this case, 10 bills), and pull a couple of marathon days on Thursday and Friday, they'll have to return to the Capitol after the holiday next week.

Courtesy Rep. Juan Mendez' Facebook page

...All of which leaves time for things like this (and this is a good one). 

From the Phoenix New Times, written by Matthew Hendley -

An atheist state lawmaker tasked with delivering the opening prayer for this afternoon's session of the House of Representatives asked that people not bow their heads.

Democratic Representative Juan Mendez, of Tempe, instead spoke about his "secular humanist tradition" and even quoted author Carl Sagan.

"Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads," Mendez said. "I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state."

There are a few electeds that I know better than Representative Mendez, but none that I'm prouder to consider a friend today.

Arizona Legislature: The coming week

What started out as a quiet week last week became colorful in a hurry when the Arizona Senate passed a package of budget bills, including provisions for Medicaid expansion.

Now the whole package is scheduled to go over to the House for consideration.

As of this writing, there isn't anything in terms of committee agendas or floor calendars posted for the coming week for either chamber, so all that's left to do is speculate a little.

1.  The bills face a murky path in the House, but speculation is that they are likely to pass.  There just may be a little drama first.

2.  On Friday's Horizon on KAET (PBS channel 8 in Phoenix), the journalists who were part of their weekly "Journalists Roundtable" speculated that the bills won't be heard (and voted on) until after Memorial Day.  According to them, this coming week may see House Speaker Andy Tobin try to push, or at least go through the motions of pushing, his proposal to put the Medicaid restoration before the voters.

However, while there do seem to be enough votes in the House to pass Medicaid restoration, it doesn't seem likely that there is any real support for putting the question before the voters - mostly because they think it will be approved by the voters anyway, and by a wide margin, making the legislature look worse for passing the buck on an easy decision.

Note: As of now, KAET has not posted Friday's episode of Horizon on its website, but will likely do so on Monday.

3.  There may yet be a little more drama over this in the Senate.  Standard procedure is that once a bill is passed by one chamber, that bill is sent, or "transmitted" to the other chamber after 24 legislative hours.  Unless one of the senators on the prevailing side of the vote on the bill moves to reconsider, or bring back, the measure within that time.

No motion to reconsider has been made yet, so far as I know, but the possibility remains open for such a motion to be made on Tuesday.

There have been a few whispers of such a move, but it seems unlikely.  While one of them might want to walk back their vote (Michele Reagan looks like that she it trying to be on both sides of this issue), to actually overturn the measure, five of the six Rs who voted for Medicaid restoration would have to change their votes.

While I expect that there is a lot of arm-twisting going on in R-land this weekend, the Republicans who voted for this knew what was coming when they cast their votes, so they're prepared.  I don't expect any changes in the outcome.

Though a few members may show up Tuesday with an arm in a sling. :)

4.  No matter how this turns out, expect a change in the GOP leadership in the AZ Senate.  The Senate Majority Leader (John McComish) and Majority Whip (Adam Driggs) voted for Medicaid restoration and worked to get it passed over the objections of the Senate President (Andy Biggs).  Something's got to give.

Speculation is that by the end of the week, there will either be a new Senate President or a new Majority Leader and Whip.


Predictions for the week; take with a grain of salt - these are more the product of reading tea leaves and making some wild-ass guesses (WAGS) than the product of facts and talks with the players (for some reason, the members of the R leadership in both chambers don't have me on their speed dial lists.  Shocking, I know :) ):

1.  No motion to reconsider in the Senate.  The bills go to the House and are introduced and assigned to House Appropriations.

2.  The chair of that committee, Rep. John Kavanagh, may try to play games with the package, but at most, he'll strip out the Medicaid language in a committee amendment.  If that happens, the change will probably be rejected in the Committee of the Whole, or COW, session consideration of the bill (all committee amendments have to be approved by the COW; normally, that process is pro forma, but this week it could mean something).

3.  The entire package will be approved by the full House by, say, a 34 - 26 margin, on Thursday.

4.  After that, it will depend on what other work gets done during the week.  There are still a few things that have strong support for passage (i.e. - Governor Brewer's sales tax "reform" scheme proposal).  If those are completed, they may just do a marathon session on Thursday and adjourn sine die this week to get the hell out of Dodge...errr...Phoenix...before the Memorial Day holiday.  Otherwise, they'll be back next week, with an eye toward finishing up.  If they are unable to finish their work before the end of next week, they may just sine die anyway,  planning on a quick special session later to finish up the work.

Regardless of how it ultimately turns out (and how accurate my fearless predictions turn out to be :) ), keep your popcorn handy this week.  It's going to be more entertaining than any of formula-based sequel/prequels special effects fests playing at the local multiplex this week.

Here's Biggs' deal: Medicaid restoration in exchange for reducing voting rights

Correction added on 5/15 - during my initial perusal of SB1492, it appeared as if some Medicaid expansion provisions were included in it already.  While there are some changes to AHCCCS provisions contained in it, they are minor and *not* part of a Medicaid restoration package.

Well, the Senate has introduced its budget package, placing the Medicaid restoration plan in the budget itself but adding a kicker, SB1493.

It has the rather innocuous subject of "elections; omnibus".

It really should be called "extortion; all-in-one; every bad election-related scheme offered by the Republicans this year".

There's summarily removing voters from the permanent early voting list (PEVL), effectively barring most schools from serving as polling places, making successful recall elections all but impossible, barring organizations and campaigns from collecting and returning early ballots, elevating administrative barriers to initiative petition drives, and more.

Any one scheme would render a bill "unpassable" (and has, many times during this session); placing them all in one bill means that the Senate leadership (read: Andy Biggs) expects factors other than the merits of the proposals to influence legislators' votes on the bill.

The other bills in the package are:

SB1483, general appropriations
SB1484, capital outlay
SB1485, budget procedures
SB1486, revenue; budget reconciliation
SB1487, K-12 education, budget reconciliation
SB1488, higher education, budget reconciliation
SB1489, government, budget reconciliation
SB1490, criminal justice; budget reconciliation
SB1491, environment; budget reconciliation
SB1492, health, welfare; budget reconciliation (yes, probably the one that eventually will have the Medicaid restoration provisions.)


Senate Appropriations is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bills tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11 a.m. in SHR109.  If you plan to attend, plan to arrive early because seats will be at a premium.  Bring a strong bladder, too - it's going to be a long meeting.

More later...

Arizona Legislature: The coming week

Another quiet week, which means that all of the interesting stuff will be going on behind closed doors.  However, keep an eye on the committee schedule - if something breaks on the budget front, they'll try to ram it through with minimal public input.  Meeting notices will be posted at or near the last minute.

Speculation (stuff that doesn't even rise to the level of whispers of rumors) is that the budget is on the back burner right now while the governor's office and the Republican leadership work out the details of Medicaid expansion.  Personally, I suspect that some of the budget and health care expansion talks are intertwined (as in "we'll put this in the budget if you vote for expansion" and the like) and both may come down together.  It's just going to take a while to work out the details and gather the votes.

As of right now, I expect the legislative session to continue well into May.

Of course, this could all change Monday morning. :)

In the meantime, look for more 'the black helicopters are coming!' (and similar) events at the Capitol, as bored legislators look to keep their names in the news.


As usual, all committee agendas, floor calendars, and event schedules are subject to change without notice. Call ahead to confirm plans before traveling to the Capitol based on an agenda, calendar, or schedule cited here.

Notes:

If an agenda is summarized with "looks harmless so far" that only means that nothing on the agenda set off "bat-shit crazy" alarm bells; if the committee in question covers an area of interest to you, check out the full agenda yourself. And if I missed something significant, please leave a comment letting me know.

A hearing room designation of "SHR" means it is a hearing room in the Senate building; "HHR" means that the hearing room is in the House building.

Lastly, this summary is not, nor is it intended to be, comprehensive. Many bills have been covered, but not all of them. Again, if a committee covers an area of interest to you, please check out the full agenda yourself.


Floor activity:

Monday's Senate Committee of the Whole (COW) calendar is here; Monday's House COW calendar is here.


Committee activity:

House side of the Capitol -

Rules, Monday, 1 p.m., HHR4.  Not a long agenda; may take all of five minutes to rubberstamp.

...and that's it for the House side of the Capitol.  Which isn't much, but it is still more than the Senate side of the Capitol, which has bupkes scheduled.  So far, anyway.


Capitol (and area) activity:

The lege's calendar of Capitol events is here.  Potentially the most newsworthy item on that calendar is a press conference scheduled for Thursday by the governor's office (10:30 a.m., House lawn).

Taking place on Wednesday, but not listed on the schedule, is the Republican caucus' modern-day version of a Tupperware party - the body armor party.

The Arizona Department of Administration's list of state-level commission and board meetings is here.

Budget time: "Let's get ready to rummmbbbbblllllle!"

Turns out that it was even colder here in AZ this week than even our thermometers could measure.

Musta been, 'cuz hell froze over this week.

My evidence supporting this conclusion?  Sane people, in the persons of the Democratic leadership at the legislature, actually found some good things to say about the budget proposal released by Governor Brewer on Friday.

In her budget proposal, Brewer advocates restoring a bit of the huge amount of funding cut over the last few years from the education, CPS (Child Protective Services), and health care.

From the Democratic leader in the state senate, Senator Leah Landrum Taylor -

“The governor is doing the right thing by proposing we expand Medicaid. It’s a smart business decision that’s good for our state’s economy and good for the people of Arizona .

From the Democratic leader in the state house of representatives, Representative Chad Campbell -

“The governor’s budget is a good starting point. We appear to have a foundation for a plan that could bring legislators from both parties together to finally enact a common-sense budget for Arizona . I applaud the governor for her proposal to secure Arizona ’s fair share of federal dollars through Medicaid expansion.

On the other hand, the Republican leadership has been almost silent on the proposal. 

From the Arizona Republic, written by Mary Jo Pitzl and Alia Rau -

Senate President Andy Biggs and House Speaker Andy Tobin, both Republicans, released a joint statement responding to the budget proposal. It offers no opinion of her specific proposals but hints strongly that some of her budget hikes may find some opposition at the Republican-led Legislature.

 

“The balanced budgets of the last two years have provided a wise and responsible framework designed to enhance our state’s economic growth," the statement said. "Our hope is that the final enacted budget will replicate the success we have implemented thus far. There is clear evidence that the conservative approach to state funding is the proper way to bring our state back to full economic recovery.”

Obviously, it is still early, so any predictions should be taken with a big grain of salt, but this year is shaping up to be a lot like 2009 on West Washington.

The governor's budget that year was devastating to the above areas, but it wasn't the "worst case scenario".  The Republicans in the lege held out for that worst case, leading to a budget that passed the lege after the new fiscal year had started (every fiscal year starts on July 1, and in 2009, the lege passed the FY2010 budget in the wee hours after midnight on July 1st.  They pretended that they passed the budget on time by shutting off the clocks in the chambers.  Seriously)

The locus of this conflict in 2009 was the state senate.  It takes 16 votes to pass a measure there and the Republicans held an 18 - 12 majority that year.  The GOP shouldn't have had a problem passing anything, but there were three flies in the ointment that year -

Senator Carolyn Allen (R-Scottsdale) - the last true "moderate" Republican in the lege, she refused to vote for the draconian budget pushed by the leadership of the lege because it was too harsh.  Last seen: enjoying her retirement as much as possible.

Senator Pam Gorman (R-Phoenix) and Senator Ron Gould (R-Lake Havasu City) - not exactly moderates; they refused to vote for the budget because they didn't think it was draconian enough.  Last seen: lobbying for Big Tobacco and burning a hole in the ozone layer over LHC, respectively.

The atmosphere, at least that between the governor and the members of her caucus in the lege, was less openly hostile over the next three sessions of the lege - 2010 was an election year, and each side needed the other, so they made nice, and in 2011 and 2012, the Rs held a supermajority of the seats in each chamber, meaning that not only didn't Democratic members have a say in the process, Republican members who wanted to "free-lance" had no leverage. 

Turn the calendar to 2013, and the Republicans still control both chambers of the lege, but with significantly smaller majorities.  In the Senate this year, it will only take two Republicans digging in their heels to cause gridlock.

Add in the fact that Brewer is a lame duck whose influence at the Capitol is on the decline, and my guess is that a lot more than two members of the R caucus will be playing the "more conservative than thou" card over the next few months, with the lives of Arizona's most vulnerable and the futures of Arizona's children on the table as the stakes.


Historical budget-related information from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) here and here.