The coming week...

Back to a consolidated post of the weekly schedules of political bodies relevent to AZ and to the Scottsdale/Tempe area...

...Due to the holiday this week (Independence Day on Saturday, legal holiday on Friday), most political bodies aren't in session or have a light schedule. However, "most" doesn't mean "all."


...The chambers of the U.S. Congress are in recess until Monday, July 6 and Tuesday, July 7.


...The AZ legislature is going nuts this week. While most of the attention will be focused on the budget, there will also be a mad rush to railroad through final passage of as many bills as possible, including some really ugly ones.

Monday and Tuesday should be *long* days at the lege, especially if it looks like the Rep caucus is going to get its act together long enough to pass some sort of budget. Floor sessions that drag on into the wee hours are likely.

There hasn't been much posted in the way of floor schedules as yet, and to be honest, anything that is posted this week will be out of date five minutes after it goes up. However, that is the usual situation in the AZ lege whenever it approaches sine die.

It's just a little worse during sessions as crazy and dysfunctional as this one.

Floor calendars will be posted here.


...The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has a "special" meeting planned for Monday morning at 10. The agenda is fairly short, mostly financial and employment matters, with the now-standard executive session at the tail end of the meeting.


...The Scottsdale City Council is going to have a busy week with meetings on Wednesday and Thursday as it tries to clear up some business before its summer break (next meeting: August 24).

Wednesday's regular agenda actually looks to be pretty light, except for some Council "housekeeping" measures added to the agenda by Councilman Wayne Ecton.

The fireworks should be at an executive session scheduled for Wednesday at 3 p.m. The highlight of that agenda?

Discuss and consider employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, demotion, dismissal, salaries, disciplining or resignation of the City Attorney; and discuss or consult with the Cityattorney(s) for legal advice regarding same. A.R.S. § 38-431.03 (A) (1) and (3).

Yes, based on the wording of that item, they'll be asking the City Attorney for advice on firing...the City Attorney.

Oh to be a fly on the wall... :)

Thursday's meeting has a longer consent agenda, loaded with liquor license applications, but it also has some regular agenda items that are likely to generate controversy. They'll be discussing noise issues, budget adjustments to the FY2009/2010 budget, a possible survey of Scottsdale residents regarding light rail.

Predictions on those matters - it's Scottsdale, so the only noise allowed is the ka-ching of cash registers; the Council is comprised entirely of Republicans, so any budget cuts that leave any semblance of public services intact are cuts that aren't deep enough; and there's no need for a survey to tell the Council what it already knows best - Scottsdale doesn't need light rail or any modern version of mass transit. The horse and buggy was good enough when the city was first settled, and its modern cousin, the overpriced and overloaded luxury SUV, is good enough today.


...The Arizona Corporation Commission, Citizens Clean Elections Commission, Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Project, Governing Board of the Maricopa County Community College District, Board of Directors of the Maricopa Integrated Health System, and Tempe City Council are not scheduled to meet this week.


Stay tuned for updates and breaking news on matters at the lege...

Republicans working to derail Republican budget deal

At Saturday's meeting of the House Appropriations Committee, scheduled to hear the budget "compromise" between the Republican Governor and the Republican leadership in the legislature, the budget bills passed, but the bills related to the tax policy changes (impose a flat income tax, referendum on a sales tax hike) were skipped by committee chairman John Kavanagh (R-LD8).

Apparently, they are having absolutely no problems lining up Republican members in support of the proposed deep cuts to education, human services, and infrastructure. However, support for a tax hike, or even simply referring a tax hike to the voters, has proven much harder to come by.

It seems that enough of the Republican rank-and-file (and leadership??) in the lege are balking that there aren't enough votes to pass the entire compromise package through either chamber, making it likely that they may have to seek Democratic support for this travesty.

And speaking as a Democratic PC and State Committee member, they'd better not get any without some *serious* improvements to the package.

House Appropriations will meet on Monday at 11 a.m. in HHR1 to consider the three tax-related bills.

Over in the Senate, the Senate Appropriations Committee will meet on Monday at 9:30 a.m. in SHR1 to consider the Senate's versions of the bills that House Approps considered on Saturday.

Interestingly, the Senate Education Committee will meet in SHR109, upon adjournment of Senate Approps, to consider the three tax-related measures.

The difference between the committees?

Senate Appropriations is chaired by uber-winger Russell Pearce, and he is aided and abetted by fellow Kool-Aid drinkers Pam Gorman, Al Melvin, Jack Harper, and Ron Gould.

Senate Education is chaired by John Huppenthal, and he is accompanied by Linda Gray and Jonathan Paton. While none of those three qualifies as "moderate" by any real world standard, by the somewhat skewed standard set by the Republican caucus of the AZ lege, they are somewhat more pliable than their colleagues on Approps.

Both committees have one Rep member in common - Sylvia Allen of LD5.

This is only a guess, but since she is just as hardcore as any of her Approps colleagues (she wouldn't have been put there otherwise), Senate leadership is probably hoping that they can coax or scare one of the three Democrats on the committee (Paula Aboud, Linda Lopez, Leah Landrum Taylor) to support the bills long enough to get them past the committee stage.

As for floor consideration, only the House has any sort of a floor schedule posted so far (four COW calendars, here, here, here, and here). None of them lists any of the budget bills. So far.

More reading on the budget shenanigans/goings-on:

Gila Courier with news of a possible compromise on the compromise (no details yet)

Dave Wells at Make Democracy Work on why a flat tax is a bad idea

Tedski at R-Cubed with a pithy evaluation of the budget "compromise"

Blog For Arizona coverage of Saturday's March4Schools rally at the Capitol

State budget time - House Approps meeting on Saturday

Well, I had intended to write a post about Michael Jackson's passing, one that was profound, perceptive, and highly critical of the MSM's wall-to-wall coverage of it (bottom line: his death *is* news, but it's hardly the *only* news this week). However, Jan Brewer, Kirk Adams, and Bob Burns have conspired to use Michael Jackson's death as cover for imposing the worst budget in AZ history.

The "cut and slash" Republicans have compromised with the "slash and burn" Republicans (they really didn't have all that far to go - they already had "slash" as common ground) but I'm not sure that "compromise " is the right word here.

Is it really a compromise when it's really just the worst of both worlds?

I don't have time tonight to go through each bill of the "compromise" proposal, but some of the highlights include (from an AZCentral.com article) -

• Referral to the November 2009 ballot of a temporary, 1-cent-per-dollar increase in the state sales tax.

• Implementation of a flat state-income tax at a rate of 2.8 percent, beginning in 2012. Currently, the state's income tax rates range from 2.59 percent for the lowest income bracket to 4.54 percent for individuals earning more than $150,000. An individual's first $10,000 would be tax-exempt, allowing the lowest-income Arizonans to pay nothing.

• Permanent repeal of the state equalization property tax. It has been suspended for three years, but generates about $250 million for state coffers when in effect.

{snip}

• A prohibition on benefits for the domestic partners of state employees. The legislative proposal also had the ban, but the new proposal includes a grandfather clause to allow domestic partners already under the state health plan to remain covered.

• A two-year freeze on the ability of cities to increase impact fees on new development. The freeze replaces a three-year moratorium initially sought by lawmakers.

• A revocation by the state of about $22 million in cities' share of vehicle-registration fees. That's about half the $45 million that cities would have lost under the legislative budget proposal.

So, to sum up, in exchange for cuts to education and human services that are marginally less severe than those originally proposed by the legislature, the lege wants to enact tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations (flat tax, equalization tax repeal), a gift to deep-pocketed (and generous with the campaign contributions) developers and builders (ban on impact fees), and a chance to impose a tax increase that disproportionately affects poor and working-class families (referendum on a sales tax hike).

Niiiiiice.

House Appropriations is scheduled to meet Saturday at 9 a.m. in HHR1 to consider the budget. The agenda includes 12 bills, all with budget-related strike everything amendments.

Note: "Trailer" refers to the fact that the bills are not complete budget bills; they only modify the previously passed Senate budget bills that the legislature's leaders have thus far refused to send to the governor. Enactment of these bills is conditioned upon enactment of the original lege budget.

The proposed strikers are here -

HB2643, general appropriations; 2009-2010; trailer

HB2644, budget reconciliation; general revenues; trailer

HB2645, budget reconciliation; general government; trailer

HB2646, state properties; trailer

HB2647, budget reconciliation; criminal justice; trailer

HB2648, budget reconciliation; k-12 education; trailer

HB2649, budget reconciliation; higher education; trailer

HB2650, budget reconciliation; health; welfare; trailer

HB2651, budget reconciliation; environment; trailer

HB2652, statewide special election; sales tax

HB2653, flat tax; individual income

HCR2037, temporary transaction privilege tax


I'm going to try to attend the March4Schools Rally tomorrow morning, but given the short notice, I may not be able to rearrange my work schedule.

I still strongly urge everyone who cares about Arizona and its future to attend, and to let the legislature hear about your concerns about the damage their budget will do to the state and its future.

Note2: Thus far, no House floor or Senate schedules have been posted. Check here for updates.

March4Schools protest against proposed budget plan

From the March4Schools.org website -

URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Late last night the governor and Republican leadership struck a budget deal that will devastate Arizona and its public schools if passed by the legislature. Apparently support for the budget is a razor thin margin. It is not to late to defeat this budget and you can help.

Tomorrow, Saturday June 27, hundreds of parents, teachers, and community leaders will protest a backroom budget deal crafted by Republican leaders in the Arizona legislature and Governor Brewer. Reports from the capitol indicate the budget bills that include massive cuts to public education and other vital health and human services will be heard in House Appropriations tomorrow morning.

PLEASE ATTEND THIS CITIZEN PROTEST

Arizona State Capitol Mall

1700 W. Jefferson

June 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM

Taxpayers Protesting Cuts to Public Education and Vital Services

Organized by AEA, Parent Groups, ABC, Republican Educators

Click here for directions to the Capitol

Rsvp to doug.kilgore@arizonaea.org.

Fill up you car with family, friends, and colleagues.

Meet at Capitol Mall between House & Senate at 8:45 a.m

Water and sign making materials will be provided.

In case this isn't clear enough, a budget deal has been reach, and it is ugly. More details later.

More games legislators play

From AZCentral.com -

It's six days before the end of the fiscal year.

It's 109 degrees outside.

And inside the statehouse, tempers are flaring.

On Wednesday, Democrats walked out of a committee hearing, leaving it without a quorum to conduct business on its last meeting day of the year.

That led House Speaker Kirk Adams to appoint a Republican to fill out the committee and give it the needed votes to pass a bevy of bills, including a controversial measure that would do away with the requirement for concealed-weapon permits.

The agenda for the meeting of the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee was a full one, just the perfect time and place to indoctrinate a new member of the committee.

Really.

I'm certain the fact that seven of the 16 bills on the agenda had Russell Pearce's name attached to them, and that one of those was the NRA-sponsored SB1270, legalizing the possession of a concealed weapon without a permit, played a huge part in Adams' (a fellow Mesa-based winger) rush to railroad through the bills.


It seems that every day I believe that we've finally seems the bottom of the depths of depravity and deception of the Republicans in the legislature.

And it seems that the following day, the Republicans do something to prove that they always have even deeper reserves of depravity to mine.

Russell Pearce - learning lessons from the protests in Iran

Unfortunately, the lessons were the wrong ones.

From AZCentral.com -

Members of the faith community speaking against an anti-illegal immigration bill Tuesday left after Sen. Russell Pearce called on security to remove them, prompting the committee's four Democrats to walk out of the session.

House Bill 2280, sponsored by Pearce, R-Mesa, would require local and state officials to enforce federal immigration laws, thus making any sanctuary laws illegal.

When Pearce said the committee would not hear any public input, members of the Valley Interfaith Project stood up to voice their opposition, quoting a verse in the Bible that begins, "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him."

Where people the world over see the protests and demonstrations in Iran, see an angry people speaking out against a stolen election, and are proud to see folks standing up and being heard against totalitarianism, Russell Pearce only sees security forces being used to suppress public input.

Kudos to Democratic Senators Paula Aboud, Amanda Aguirre, Albert Hale, and Rebecca Rios for refusing to lend their presence and credibility to Pearce's highhanded mistreatment and contempt for the public.

Judges aren't the only ones sitting this one out

Besides today's ruling from the AZ Supreme Court saying that the lege should send the governor the budget bills that they've passed, but refusing to actually order the lege to do so, a number of other officials in the state are avoiding the dogfight on west Washington like the governor and legislature have leprosy.

The Governor has released a list of supporters of her budget. While that list is a long one, filled with names from all over the state, those names all have one thing in common.

None of them, even the elected officials, can be said to have much of a future in elected politics.

There are a number of chamber of commerce/business types, as well as mayors and city/town council members, but few of those names are recognizable outside of their bailiwicks.

That's not meant to be an insult to any of those luminaries, but when the biggest names on the list are folks like Mayors Elaine Scruggs (Glendale), Bob Walkup (Tucson), Mark Nexsen (Lake Havasu) and Doug Von Gausig (Clarkdale), it makes people wonder where the "big" names are.

Neither Walkup nor Scruggs, fairly well-respected in their areas, has shown interest in higher office. As for Nexsen, Von Guasig and most of the others on the Governor's list, well, Lake Havasu, Clarkdale and the hinterlands of the state aren't necessarily the best locales from which to launch a bid for statewide or federal office.

So where are the (relatively) young up and comers?

Why are they so silent?

Since I'm not exactly a close personal friend with any such local officials (most of them are Republicans, not the sort of folks I tend to hang out with :) ), I can only speculate.

That speculation?

Politics. (Yeah, that's hardly a surprising insight in a political blog :) )

Actually, practical politics.

For instance, some folks have speculated about the absence of any support from the Mayor or City Council of Mesa.

The simple fact is that the most influential politicians in Mesa aren't the Mayor or on the City Council. They're in the lege, and in the persons of Russell Pearce, Kirk Adams, and Chuck Gray, are leading the quest to shut down the state government. The municipal officials in Mesa may be uncomfortable with the actions and goals of the legislature and their potential impact on the city, but it's difficult for any elected official to buck a machine.

Other folks have questioned the absence of Hugh Hallman and the Tempe City Council from the Governor's list.

That one is even simpler - a majority of the members of the Tempe City Council are Democrats and have no desire to pick sides in what has become a Republican civil war. In addition, Republican Mayor Hugh Hallman wants Jan Brewer's job; he's not going to public support anything she does between now and next year's elections.

One week left to a shutdown...do we have a plan B?

...Let's see - the only budget that the lege has even considered is their own draconian one, they've refused to send even that to the governor for her signature/veto, and the AZ Supreme Court has taken one look at the mess that the other two branches of state government have created and fled screaming into the deep desert, hoping to hide until the dust* storm passes.

*In this context, "dust" is a euphemism for "bovine-based solid biological waste matter," a phrase that is itself a euphemism. :)

So, in the event that the Republican caucus of the lege and their governor (their edict is that no Democrats are allowed to participate in this exercise) choose to keep their rectums firmly lodged in their rectums, what can we do to break the logjam down on west Washington?

Turns out there is an option available to us in the AZ Constitution and Arizona Revised Statutes.

From Article 8, Part 1, Section 1 of the AZ Constitution -

Every public officer in the state of Arizona, holding an elective office, either by election or appointment, is subject to recall from such office by the qualified electors of the electoral district from which candidates are elected to such office. Such electoral district may include the whole state. Such number of said electors as shall equal twenty-five per centum of the number of votes cast at the last preceding general election for all of the candidates for the office held by such officer, may by petition, which shall be known as a recall petition, demand his recall.

From Article 8, Part 1, Section 2 -

Every recall petition must contain a general statement, in not more than two hundred words, of the grounds of such demand, and must be filed in the office in which petitions for nominations to the office held by the incumbent are required to be filed. The signatures to such recall petition need not all be on one sheet of paper, but each signer must add to his signature the date of his signing said petition, and his place of residence, giving his street and number, if any, should he reside in a town or city. One of the signers of each sheet of such petition, or the person circulating such sheet, must make and subscribe an oath on said sheet, that the signatures thereon are genuine.

From ARS Title 19, Section 209 -

A. If the officer against whom a petition is filed does not resign within five days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other legal holidays, after the filing as determined pursuant to section 19-208.03, the order calling a special recall election shall be issued within fifteen days and shall be ordered to be held on the next following consolidated election date pursuant to section 16-204 that is ninety days or more after the order calling the election.
B. A recall election shall be called:
1. If for a state office, including a member of the legislature, by the governor.
2. If for a county officer, or judge or other officer of the superior court in a county, by the board of supervisors of that county.
3. If for a city or town officer, by the legislative body of the city or town.
4. If for a member of a school district governing board, by the county school superintendent of the county in which the school district is located.
C. If a recall petition is against an officer who is directed by this section to call the election it shall be called:
1. If for a state office, by the secretary of state.
2. If for a county office, by the clerk of the superior court.
3. If for a city or town office, by the city or town clerk

.There are other relevant sections, especially in ARS Title 19, but you get the hint.

The bottom line is that these folks were elected to office to run the state, not to run it into the ground.

Harper making up for lost time

Jack Harper (R-Surprise!) may have started slow this year, but now he is delivering his usual pearls of nuttiness on a regular basis.

From AZCentral.com -

The Senate today narrowly rejected a bill that would have banned text messaging while driving.

The bill would have carried a $50 fine for sending or reading text messages while driving, and a $200 fine if the driver had been involved in an accident while texting. It failed by a 14-15 vote.

{snip}

Others saw it as a personal rights issue, according to Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, who voted against the bill.

“We believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility, and we're not going to dictate every aspect of people's lives," Harper said. “People need to take responsibility for their own lives.”

Ummm...Senator Harper? The bill was *not* about regulating behavior that has the potential to harm only the participant. The bill was about regulating behavior that has been shown to endanger non-participants.

"Individual liberty" doesn't protect activities that can injure and even kill others. If it did, then the victims of drunk drivers would be the ones going to jail (perhaps for daring to splatter their blood on the cars of their killers?).

If somebody wants to bungee jump off of a 100-foot tower with a 101-foot bungee cord, that's their problem; if somebody wants to do the same over some innocent bystanders, that's society's, and the legislature's, problem to deal with.

Of course, if you can see the big picture, today's defeat of the texting ban can be combined with the "guns in cars" bill (a measure that Harper also supports) to make a perfect "people need to take responsibility for their own lives" measure.

Logically, given the rationales expressed for both bills, the laws of AZ should be changed to allow drivers to shoot other drivers who are texting while driving.

I mean, it only makes sense - drivers who are texting are endangering those around them, and if those other, armed, drivers are expected to take personal responsibility for activities that they themselves aren't engaged in, they should be able to do what they need to do in order to protect themselves.

Call it "Road Rage as public policy."

I can't make this stuff up...

When I heard about this, I just couldn't believe it.

Not that I couldn't believe that someone said it, or that the person who said it was a Republican official.

What I couldn't believe is that she isn't an Arizona Republican, perhaps even chair of one of the Appropriations Committees or even a candidate for Governor here.

From StLToday -

State Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon, is staking out a strong position on child hunger: She's for it.

"Hunger can be a positive motivator," she notes in the latest edition of her newsletter.

More precisely, Ms. Davis is against summer feeding programs for poor kids. They are an excuse "to create an expansion of a government program," she says.

{snip}

"Tip: If you work for McDonald's, they will feed you for free during your break."

And the piece de resistance in all of this?

Ms. Davis chairs the House Special Standing Committee on Children and Families.

I can't make this stuff up.

Nobody can.

Thanks for the heads-up on this to Keith Olbermann. Rep. Davis was named his "Worst Person In The World" today, and you've got to be pretty bad to knock Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly out of contention for that honor.

Note: a brief examination of the bills sponsored/cosponsored by Rep. Davis show that she would fit in well with the Arizona Chapter Of The Flat Earth Society (aka - the AZ lege's Republican caucus - HB46, restricting a woman's right to choose under the guise of "informed consent"; HB47, subsidizing home schoolers; HB814, abolishing state income and estate taxes in favor of a broad sales tax; HB1158, outlawing the female breast other than for the feeding of babies (OK, it outlaws *exposing* the female breast. I think this one was aimed at strippers); HJR37, an anti-EFCA proposal; HB417, establishing a tax credit for donations to scholarship granting organizations (surprisingly, this one isn't called "Yarbrough's Law"), and HB170, Missouri's version of the "guns in cars" bill that is winding its way through the AZ lege.

In fact, if I didn't know that I was looking at the website of the *Missouri* legislature, her list of bills sponsored could easily be mistaken for that of any of a couple of dozen AZ legislators.

I'd bet that she is a member of ALEC, but since they're rather secretive about which legislators are active members of the organization...

Later...

The coming week - everybody but the lege edition

As usual, all info gathered from the relevant websites and subject to change without notice...

...In the U.S. House, this week's agenda has the usual memorials, housekeeping, and non-controversial bills (such as H.R. 1016, the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009 (cosponsored by AZ'ers Mitchell, Kirkpatrick, Grijalva, and Pastor). It also has H.R. 2892, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010, H.R. 2647, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 and H.R. [no number assigned as yet], the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010. There will be bickering over debate rules, earmarks, and occasionally, policy.

And money. Oh yeah.

The Defense Authorization Act will have a Rules Committee hearing on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. EDT; the Homeland Security Appropriations Act will also have a Rules hearing on Tuesday at 5. The Interior and Environment Approps Act doesn't have a Rules hearing scheduled as yet, but the deadline for submitting amendment proposals is Wednesday at 3 p.m., so the hearing will probably be on Thursday with floor consideration on Friday. Though it could be a day earlier for each.


...The Arizona Corporation Commission has a number of hearings scheduled this week, as well as two days of a full Commission meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. That agenda is here. This one is a utilities meeting, so it is loaded with water, power, and communications-related items, including some water rate hikes.


...The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has a Special Meeting scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. This meeting truly will be "special" - the agenda is short but significant. They will be considering final approval of the county's property tax rate (reduced from $1.0327 to $0.9903, but resulting in a revenue increase of $9,687,492), the FY2010 budget for Maricopa County ($2,136,275,386), County Improvement Districts (varies by district), the Flood Control District ($96,730,311), the Library District ($31,524,526), and the Stadium District ($10,555,364).

Immediately after that meeting will be another Special Meeting related to a number of IGAs (InterGovermental Agreements) relating to the Sheriff's office.

After that one, there will be a third Special Meeting to "amend the FY 2009-10 Schedule of Premium Pay Rates applicable to all employees paid through the Maricopa County payroll system."

And while it is as yet unscheduled, an Executive Session meeting on Wednesday or Thursday isn't out of the question.

They've had one pretty much every week for months now.


...The Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Project doesn't have quite as eventful a week - on Thursday, there will be a Maintenance Orientation meeting, a Work/Study session related to power, and a meeting of CAP's Strategic Planning Task Force. No votes will be taken at any of the meetings.


...The Governing Board of the Maricopa County Community College District will meet on Tuesday. There will be an executive session at 5:30 p.m. for "Discussion for legal advice with attorney of the Governing Board--A.R.S. Section 38-431.03(A)(3) -- Payment of assessment," followed by a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.


...The Board of Directors of the Maricopa Integrated Health System has meetings scheduled for both Monday and Wednesday.

Monday's Special Meeting has the usual items for "special" meetings at this time of the year - a legislative update, approval of the District's tax levy, and, oh yeah, approval of the District's FY2010 budget.

Wednesday's Formal Meeting (aka - MIHS's regular meeting) is much more mundane. The highlight of that agenda looks to be Item 2 - Reports to the Board and Item 6 - Financial Report. You've got to be a geek/numbers junkie to get into those, though. :)


...The Citizens Clean Elections Commission is scheduled to meet on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. No agenda posted yet.


...The Tempe City Council isn't scheduled to meet this week.


...The Scottsdale City Council will hold a special meeting on Tuesday to interview and appointment community members to some of the City's boards and commissions, authorize adjustments to the FY2008/9 budget, and to consider citizen petitions to remove the City Attorney, reconsider the City's Retirement Incentive Program, and to go after former City Manager Jan Dolan over some projects she was assigned after her termination that were part of the separation agreement.

That meeting actually looks like it could be the most colorful of the week (non-legislature category). The City Attorney, Deborah Robberson, has been on the Council's shit list since the regime change in January, so the long knives could be out at this meeting. Since Jan Dolan is already gone, she'll just be an after dinner mint. Robberson will be the main course.

Later...

AZ U.S. House members' budgets

Info courtesy Politico.

The linked article is dated June 19, so for the sake of easy math, I'm assuming the numbers are current as of June 15. The presumption is that the amount spent represents the amount spent through 5.5 months of a 12-month year, 0r 45.83% of the year.

That might not be perfectly accurate (I don't know for sure what Politico's cut-off date was), but since everyone is subject to the same assumption, it works for comparison's sake.

Representative
2009 Allotment ($)
Total Spent ($)
% of budget spent

Jeff Flake (R-AZ6.)
1,559,332.00
301,492.87
19.33%

Trent Franks (R-AZ2)
1,604,247.00
278,691.39
17.37%

Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ8)
1,527,622.00
270,642.79
17.72%

Raul Grijalva (D-AZ7)
1,508,218.00
276,943.30
18.36%

Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ1)
1,515,010.00
135,196.04
8.92%

Harry Mitchell (D-AZ5)
1,515,410.00
264,989.60
17.49%

Ed Pastor (D-AZ4)
1,483,786.00
268,599.51
18.1%

John Shadegg (R-AZ3)
1,512,691.00
298,370.28
19.72%

Other than a few outliers (like Kirkpatrick's <9%), the AZ delegation and Congress as a whole is pretty consistent. At nearly the halfway point of the year, most House members have spent 17 - 21% of their budgets, leading me to believe that either -

1. Some of their bigger expenses are yet to come; or

2. Their office budgets are incredibly inflated, perhaps so that members can generate good press in December with press releases touting their frugality as evidenced by how much money they are returning at the end of the year.

The coming week - legislative edition

Edit on 6/22 to add info about a JLBC meeting...

As usual, all info gathered from the website of the Arizona legislature and subject to change without notice. And given the mad rush going on down on West Washington, changes should be expected.

Due to the large number of bills scheduled to be heard in committee and on the floor of both chambers this week, linking will be kept to a minimum. Also, I won't be able to go into much depth this week.

If there is something that piques your interest, I suggest visiting the lege's website and perusing the committee agendas (House here, Senate here) and the floor calendars here. If you see a bill that sounds interesting (or to be less tactful, one that sounds putrid), go to "Bill Info" and look up the specific bill you are interested in researching. If a committee agenda lists a bill, but shows that a "strike everything" amendment to the bill will be considered, the text of the amendment may be found here if the sponsor of the amendment has already submitted the language. No guarantees, though.

On to the guts of the post...

Over in the House, the only floor schedule that has been posted is a short COW agenda for Monday. Three bad bills, includeing HB2171, which has been amended into a scheme to funnel the retirement funds of state employees into the science foundation that the lege thought was a waste of money.

On Monday, House Ways and Means is meeting at 2 p.m. (or upon adjournment of the House floor session) in HHR1 for consideration of a short agenda (two items thus far).

Also at 2 on Monday:

House Natural Resources will meet in HHR4. Some pro-mining company/anti-environment bills here.

House Education will meet in HHR3. Some anti-public education and pro-charter schools bills on this agenda.

House Banking will meet in HHR5. One item on the agenda so far.

Tuesday, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) will meet at 8 a.m. in HHR4. The agenda is mostly about fund transfers.

On Tuesday, House Government will meet at 2 p.m. in HHR4. Nuggets here include a striker to SB1375 from Russell Pearce, Pam Gorman, Chuck Gray and more concerning "parents' rights; discipline; education; health" and SCR1004 from Jack Harper concerning "American Sovereignty Restoration Act."

On Wednesday, House Commerce will meet at 9 a.m. in HHR5. The agenda includes a striker from Rep. John Kavanagh defining the authority of various elected county officials. Also known as the "Hey! Maricopa County Board of Supervisors! Leave Arpaio and Thomas alone! They can do *whatever* they want" bill.

That's all that's posted for the House side of the lege so far, but it is reasonable to expect updates and changes. Check back frequently during the week.


Over on the Senate side, no floor schedules have been posted yet. Which is a good thing, considering that some of the committee agendas literally have dozens of measures up for consideration.

On Monday at 1:30, Senate Natural Resources will meet in SHR109. Most of the agenda looks OK, but Sen. Steve Pierce (R-Rancher) has a couple of srikers related to state trust land reform. Probably not a good thing.

Also at 1:30 on Monday, Senate Judiciary will meet in SHR1. This agenda is loaded will a wide variety of ugly. It includes HB2331 (prohibits sanctuary city policies), HB2474 (employers can't ban guns in locked vehicles on their premises), and HB2533 (targeting day laborers for seeking employment by the side of the road).

On Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., Senate Commerce will meet in SHR1. The lowlight here is consideration of HCM2004, the anti-Employee Free Choice Act memorial.

Also at 1:30 on Tuesday, Senate Appropriations will meet in SHR109. The agenda includes a striker to HB2280 relating to "illegal aliens; trespassing; enforcement," HB2369 (allowing the lege to take non-custodial federal monies from their recipients and reappropriate them), and a striker to SB1038 to change the way that the state shares revenues with Native American tribes (another Pearce special).

On Wednesday at 1:30 p.m., Senate Veterans will meet in SHR2. Short agenda so far.

On Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Senate Public Safety will meet in SHR3. This one includes HCM2009, a memorial to Congress opposing firearms regulations.

On Wednesday at 9:00 a.m., Senate Health will meet in SHR1. Looks OK so far.

At 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Senate Finance will meet in SHR3. I don't understand most of this stuff, but HB2346 is clear - it will grant a property tax exemption to charter schools.

Also at 1:30 on Wednesday, Senate Education will meet in SHR1. Some good bills (HB2495, Rep. Pat Flemings bill to grant in-state tuition status to veterans) but most bad (like SB1172, Russell Pearce's bid to compel schools to collect and report information on students' immigrations status).

On Thursday at 9:00 a.m., Senate Retirement will meet in SHR3. This agenda includes SCR1037 (property tax rollback) and HCM2009 (again, the memorial to Congress opposing federal firearms regulations).

On Thursday at 8:30 a.m., Senate Government will meet in SHR1. So far, the agenda looks pretty mild, but Jack Harper chairs this committee. Ugliness is always a threat with him.


Time to head to bed...Getting up *early* tomorrow.

*Now* we know why this session of the lege is taking sooooo long...

From AZCentral.com -

As the state legislative session continues on in a budget stalemate, Sen. John Huppenthal's trial on misdemeanor charges of theft and tampering with a campaign sign has been pushed back a month.

While his attorney, Booker Evans, has asked that the senator not go to trial until after the legislative session in accordance with the state Constitution, he said the prosecution also wanted to reschedule to accommodate police officers involved in the case.

The trial was originally slotted to begin June 25. It's now on the docket for July 29 in San Marcos Justice Court.

Of course, if the egos on West Washington can't stop bickering over who can do more harm to the state, the July trial may not take place due to a government shutdown. Justice courts may be a county function, but much of the county's revenue comes through the state, and if the state treasury is closed, lesser levels of government will soon feel the pinch in the event of a state government shutdown.

Overheard at the lege...

Sometimes you can learn a lot just by sitting quietly and looking like you aren't listening...

With all of the usual caveats about rumors...

The strange thing today was that while I was imitating a fly on the wall at the lege, most of the talk concerned the Governor.

1. Jan Brewer is strongly leaning against running for a full term as Governor; the unrelenting confrontations with the lege have her thoroughly disgusted with the whole thing.

2. If she was male, the lege leadership wouldn't be so passionately hostile to her.

3. Everybody expects the lege leadership to transmit their budget to the Governor at the last possible moment, forcing her to sign their budget or shut down the state government. (Yeah, that isn't exactly breaking news. :) )

4. She's not backing down.

4. People seemed to think that any shutdown would be a short one - Senate President Bob Burns has a vacation (to Europe?) scheduled for early July, and the annual meeting of the conservative organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council is taking place in the middle of the month. The expectation seems to be that any situation would be cleared up before Burns leaves the country.

5. Apparently that striker taking money from Camp Navajo's operations fund isn't the first time that Harper has gone after them. According to gossip, he wants the camp to accept mercury for storage. There is a lot of money in it.

Mercury is an incredibly toxic substance.

What wasn't made clear (I wasn't exactly in a position to ask for clarification) is who would benefit financially from exposing northern AZ and its resident to mercury - the AZ government and/or National Guard, or Harper himself.

Later...