State Sen. Russell Pearce opposed to financial oversight of elected officials

...or at least, financial oversight of elected officials who he is close personal friends with (or related to)...

From AZCentral.com (the money quote is italicized) -

There's bound to be a sense of deja vu when legislators reconvene next week and some familiar bills pop up again at the statehouse, thanks to the budget crisis that dominated last year's session.

Mesa Sen. Russell Pearce's proposal to "codify the constitution" when it comes to the powers of elected county officials could be near the top of the list of familiar bills that failed to go anywhere.

{snip}

The goal of the bill is simple, according to Pearce:

Once a county board of supervisors allocates a budget to an elected official's agency, that's where the board's financial oversight will end.

"The board of supervisors' responsibility is the budget, not to micromanage an elected official," Pearce said.

Pearce's bill is SB1017. It would require the county supervisors to allocate the budgets for the other county elected officials by lump sum only. The other county elected officials would then have complete discretion in how those budgets are expended. It would also sever the county officials' from responsibility to adhere to any employment, contract, or acquisition standards other than their own.

Perhaps Pearce's bill should be named the "Joe Arpaio/Andrew Thomas Immunity From Responsibility To Society" Act, or perhaps the "Joe Arpaio/Andrew Thomas 'Just Hand Over Your Money And Shut Up' " Act...

And in a "he ain't heavy, he's my brother" moment, as written, Pearce's bill would add a county's justices of the peace to the list of county officers covered by this bill.

Sen. Pearce's brother Lester is a justice of the peace. Hmmm...

Anyway, Pearce proposed the same bill last year, minus the lump sum budget allocations and the JP stuff, as SB1467. Last June, the bill died for lack of a hearing in committee.

Based on this, one could surmise that Pearce's personal motto is "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again."

Just remember...

...there's only 356 shopping days until Christmas - 357 if you consider Circle K and the like to be viable shopping venues... :))

Top stories in Arizona politics in 2009

...To Tedski and the writers at Blog for Arizona - because of proximity (I *live* in Maricopa County), this one is going to be Maricopa-centric. Folks looking for insights into political developments in southern AZ should visit those sites; they do a far better job of covering that part of the state than I do.

On to the stories, in no particular order of importance. Other than the last one listed, which is the biggest, imho, one of the year.


...Radio gabber and former Congressman JD Hayworth sidling toward a challenge of fellow Republican, Senator John McCain. Some believe that Hayworth, a darling of the teabagger crowd, is using the possible challenge to raise funds to pay down the legal bills incurred during his scandal-marred terms in Congress. Others believe he is serious about challenging McCain.

I think it is both - he wants to pay off the legal fees associated with his relationship with imprisoned Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff *and* he wants back in elected office. "Radio talk show host" doesn't have quite the same cachet on the ol' resume as does "United States Senator."

Nor does it have the same perks - the current incarnations of Abramoff, whoever they might be, don't have much use for, or reason to bribe "contribute to," people who aren't in office.


...Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas waging what amounts to a war (for the most part, a bullet-less one thus far, but a war nonetheless) against most of the County's other elected officials and the County judiciary. And the lawyers in the County. And anybody in the County who fails to kiss the rear ends of Arpaio and Thomas. And anybody with brown skin. And...

With the state AG's office effectively defunded by Arpaio's cohorts in the legislature, it has fallen to the federal government to rein in the Nativist Twins' excesses. The investigation is ongoing.


...On its surface, not a political story per se, but the continuing decline of newspapers, both in circulation and quality of reporting. The Tucson Citizen closed in 2009, and the East Valley Tribune is on life support. Neither one had a presence at the State Capitol any longer, but will be missed for their abilities to cover local political developments and to push larger outlets to cover the Capitol. Now, most print MSM outlets utilize the services and writings of Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services. Fischer is good, really good in fact, but he is only one man with one man's perspective. There are a couple of other outlets covering the Capitol, but their reach is limited.

The Arizona Capitol Times is written for Capitol insiders. While it is available in some locations outside of downtown Phoenix, its core market is concentrated in and around the Capitol and other government complexes located between Central Ave. and 19th Ave. in Phoenix.

The Arizona Guardian is on "online-only" outlet started and staffed by journalists who were laid-off by the EV Trib. While they do some great work there, the facts that they are limited in their exposure to the web and then only behind a subscription firewall limits their influence.

Other than those outlets, the Arizona Republic will assign a couple of young reporters to the Capitol beat, keeping them there until they become too experienced/expensive, then they will be laid-off in favor of folks who are cheaper.

In short, Arizona's eyes on the lege have gotten fewer as the atmosphere at the Capitol has worsened.

That's not a coincidence. As long as they think no one is paying attention to what they are really doing to AZ, the denizens of the Capitol will continue to do their worst.


...The growing rift in the state GOP between the anti-government/taxes/Mexicans (and other minorities)/science teabaggers (ascendant), the Chamber of Commerce types (declining) and the actual public servants (heading for the hills, or becoming Democrats). 2010 could, and probably will be, a tough year for Democrats nationally, but much like AZ bucked the pro-D trend in 2008, it is set up to buck any anti-D trend in 2010.

If only because the Rs have so totally made a mess of things at all levels in Arizona.


...The never-ending quest of certain legislators to protect, for reasons of personal ideology and financial gain, tax credits that siphon money from the state's general fund to "school tuition organizations." The STOs then direct those funds to private schools and preferred charter schools. While some of the STOs are legitimate and trying to do good work, too many play fast and loose with federal laws. In this era of massive cuts to public services, including public education, the funnelling of public revenue away from public uses only exacerbates the problems.

These tax credits are so important to Republicans, they held a special session of the legislature to ensure that they could continue without oversight or significant restriction.

MSM investigations of STOs and their use of the tax credits spawned not one, but *two* committees to investigate and evaluate the entire program. One was a bipartisan task force, one was a rubber stamp formed to approve whatever was presented to them by the Republican leadership in the lege.

Guess which one will see its recommendations take the form of proposed legislation in 2010?


...The one part of AZ's public education system that was in decent shape came under attack from the board members elected to protect and guide it. The Maricopa County Community College District, the nation's largest, saw its accreditation endangered because of the games played by the ideologues elected to its governing board. Things like micromanaging, misuse of resources by board members, intimidation of District employees and students, personality conflicts and more have led to a district known more for the antics of the board than for the quality of the education that it provides.


...Of course, the 600-pound gorilla of Arizona politics in 2009 was the state's budget meltdown.

The budget deficit dominated activity at the Capitol this year. We saw...

- A special session to implement cuts and accounting gimmicks to fix the deficit in the FY2009 budget.

- Bob Burns, the Republican President of the Arizona State Senate, vowing that no legislation would be considered until they had a balanced budget. This led to months of legislators sitting around, doing nothing other than during special sessions. Or when the NRA convention came to town (apparently getting guns in the hands of drunks was more important than even balancing the budget).

Followed by a mad rush in June when Burns lifted his self-imposed moratorium on legislation. Committees literally considered hundreds of bills in a matter of a few weeks.

- In March, the Governor strolling over to the lege to give a speech on her "plan" to address the state's revenue issues. One of her ideas was a referendum on a temporary sales tax increase. Sen. Ron Gould (R-No) walked out of his own governor's speech.

That was the most cooperation with his own caucus that Gould showed all year - he thinks that government should be shut down completely, and that his fellow Rs are slackers.

- The lege passing a budget in early June but the leadership refusing to forward it to the Governor in a game of high-stakes fiscal "chicken." They hoped that by waiting until the last possible moment to send her the budget, she would be forced to sign it.

- A crazy overnight session that extended from June 30 (the end of the fiscal year) into July 1 (the beginning of the new FY). They shut off the clocks on the Senate floor to maintain the pretense that they hadn't violated the state constitution by failing to craft a budget by the start of the fiscal year. Then they locked the doors of the lege so that in the event that Jan Brewer vetoed all or part of the budget that they did pass, she couldn't return it to them before they adjourned sine die.

- An August special session on the budget.

- A November special session on the budget.

- A December special session on the budget.

- None of which worked, because AZ still faces a still-unbalanced budget at the start of the calendar year, with less than half of the fiscal year left to fix it.


Expect more to the same in 2010, because until the voters of Arizona hold their elected officials accountable for their unwillingness/inability to do their jobs properly, those officials will continue to do them poorly.

Later...

Arizona-itis, aka "Republicans governing badly", spreading across the country

Turns out that the tendency of Republicans in power to fiscally mismanage things isn't limited to the federal government or even to Arizona, among the states.

From a NY Times editorial, published yesterday:

Failed State

New Yorkers should be appalled at their failed state government, particularly their corrupt and clueless Legislature. Scandal and irresponsibility have been Albany’s creed for decades. This year, the gang added another outrage to the list: complete fiscal incompetence.

The only solace is this: The entire Legislature is up for re-election in 2010. And unless there is a sudden turnaround — and, so far, we see few signs of it — New Yorkers have no choice but to vote out all the lawmakers and start over.

If there is any doubt left, here are just a few reminders of this year’s worst of the worst:

WHAT, US WORRY? New York has been on the brink of economic collapse, but the Legislature blithely ignored the problem for months. When the deficit reached a truly alarming $3.2 billion, the lawmakers grudgingly agreed to last-minute fixes while carefully protecting their political buddies and donors. That meant rich school districts on Long Island kept their money (until Gov. David Paterson imposed a temporary, across-the-board reduction), but 500,000 schoolchildren in New York City — many of whom can’t afford it — will now have to pay to ride the subway to class.

Even after draining state savings accounts and using federal stimulus dollars that were supposed to be spent next year, they still fell $500 million short. Next year is now a few hours away. The state is already in the red, and it could be facing a $9 billion deficit by March. Yet there is no sign that legislative leaders have spent much time thinking about how to address this disaster.

That's just the beginning of the piece, and it was written by a New York paper about a New York problem, but it could easily have been written by an Arizona paper about an Arizona problem...if the MSM in Arizona actually dared to seriously criticize the powers-that-be.

Try this on for size, with changes set off by [brackets] -

Failed State

[Arizonans] should be appalled at their failed state government, particularly their corrupt and clueless Legislature. Scandal and irresponsibility have been [Phoenix's] creed for decades. This year, the gang added another outrage to the list: complete fiscal incompetence.

The only solace is this: The entire Legislature is up for re-election in 2010. And
unless there is a sudden turnaround — and, so far, we see few signs of it — [Arizonans] have no choice but to vote out all the lawmakers and start over.

If there is any doubt left, here are just a few reminders of this year’s worst of the worst:

WHAT, US WORRY? [Arizona] has been on the brink of economic collapse, but the Legislature [and Governor] blithely ignored the problem for months. When the deficit reached a truly alarming $3.2 billion, the lawmakers grudgingly agreed to last-minute fixes while carefully protecting their political buddies and donors. That meant [school tuition organizations, including those operated by a legislator writing the laws regarding STOs] kept their money [deleted], but [thousands of ]schoolchildren [in Arizona's public schools will lose their teachers.]

Even after draining state savings accounts and using federal stimulus dollars that were supposed to be spent next year, they still fell $500 million short. Next year is now a few hours away. The state is already in the red, and it could be facing a [$3] billion deficit by March. Yet there is no sign that legislative leaders have spent much time thinking about how to address this disaster.

Scary how easily that editorial could have been written about AZ.

And to those of you who respond by saying "But New York is a Democratic state, so its problems were caused by Democrats!", remember this -

For all but approximately 6 months out of the last four decades, the Rs have controlled the NY state senate and have used it as a private money machine, as delineated later in the editorial.

In regard to the editorial's applicability to Arizona's situation, I do disagree with one point - we don't need to turn out *all* of the incumbent legislators. Most of the Democrats in the AZ lege are pretty good.

That's not just a partisan observation, either. One of the few good points, perhaps the only good point, of being the minority party in the lege for so long is that the Dems attracted to the lege are ones who take public service seriously.

Unlike most of the Rs, who either view it as an ideological playpen or a tool to enhance their private businesses (STOs, anyone?).

Interesting search terms

Just checking my site stats, and came across this entry:

207.156.23.30
Country United States
Region Florida
City Tallahassee
ISP Florida Department Of State

Given that this is a political blog, hits from offices of state governments aren't unheard of, though normally most of those come from AZ government offices.

What was really eye-catching were the search terms that they used when they hit this blog -

"SECRETELY RECORDING A CHURCH MEETING LAW"

Ignoring the poor spelling for the moment (it's "secretly" folks), why would the Florida Secretary of State's office want to record a church meeting, secretly or otherwise?

It turns out that the current Florida Secretary of State, Kurt S. Browning, has been known for playing a little fast and loose with the law, particularly in regard to election law, but this seems to be over the top, even for him.

On the other hand, Mr. Browning is known as a religious man, so perhaps the issue isn't what he wants to record secretly in a church, but what was secretly recorded in his church. If he said something in a church meeting that he doesn't want out there as public information, he could be looking for a way to block the release of the info.

Either way (and I'm not sure which it is), the situation doesn't cast a complimentary light on this particular GOPer.

Something tells me that in the new year, I'll be checking news from Florida between screaming matches in the AZ lege...

OK - anybody want to trade an Archie for a Calvin and Hobbes?

I am not a stamp guy, but I may just get me some of these...

The Postal Service has announced its 2010 Stamp Program, and among the usual "dreck" (Mother Teresa, monarch butterfly, Kate Smith, etc.) is one outright gem - Sunday Funnies.

And the Gem of the gems? Calvin and Hobbes. It ran for a little more than 10 years while the others in the set (Archie, Dennis the Menace, Beetle Bailey, and Garfield) ran (or still run) for 30 years or more. Still, it was the most brilliantly written non-political strip ever, entertaining and inspiring kids and adults alike, even a decade-and-a-half after Bill Watterson stopped penning new entries in the series.

After the set goes on sale in July, anything I have to mail is going to have a comic strip stamp on it.

For months. :)

BTW - In case you couldn't tell, the word "dreck", used earlier in this post, is nothing more than sarcasm used to express my sheer joy over the C&H stamp. Mother Teresa, Kate Smith, Tom Mix, and the rest of the honorees on next year's stamp issues are not "dreck-y" in any way, shape or form. In fact, most of them are extremely worthy of respect and honor for their life's accomplishments.

They just aren't Calvin and Hobbes.

Later...

GOP Senator sacrifices America's safety (and GOP credibility) on the altar of his anti-worker ideology

Lost in the cacophony of the Republican echo chamber's clamor for Janet Napolitano's resignation (over something she didn't have any control of) is their total silence regarding one of their own (over something he has absolute control of - his own actions).

From the Washington Post -

Republican senator DeMint holds up nomination for TSA chief

An alleged attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration -- if there were one.

Instead, the post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has held up President Obama's nominee in an effort to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union.

DeMint, in a statement, said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's alleged attempted attack in Detroit "is a perfect example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the TSA."

So...it's OK to criticize the Secretary of Homeland Security for failures that took place outside of her control in a system that was set up by Republicans, all because she is a Democrat and a woman, but a "good ol' boy" Republican gets a free pass on something that he specifically chose to do that creates a disruption in the aforementioned system and endangers Americans?

It's obvious that even though they are in the minority, the principle of IOKIYAR remains one of the GOP's guiding lights.

I wonder if any conservative pundits have checked with the people of South Carolina to find out if they sent DeMint to D.C. to make sure America isn't safe from foreign terrorists but is safe from unionized American workers?

If the GOP wants to show that they have America's safety at heart, they'll call for Jim DeMint's resignation as loudly as they call for Secretary Napolitano's.

They won't though - DeMint is hardly the only good ol' boy in the GOP.

Candidate update - Scottsdale City Council

A quick visit to the City of Scottsdale's campaign finance webpage reveals that a new candidate has formed a committee for next year's election to fill three seats on the Scottsdale City Council.

Jose Luis Penalosa, Jr. filed his paperwork with the Scottsdale City Clerk last Wednesday.

According to his filing, he is an attorney and a Republican (and markets himself as such).

As I am totally unfamiliar with him, I did a quick internet search. Apparently his law practice specializes in immigration law (with that name and career path, I'm guessing that he's not part of the teabagger branch of the GOP...though that is *just* a guess) and is an amateur running enthusiast. In addition, according to the list of alumni of Scottsdale Leadership, he's a graduate of their program.

Note: Scottsdale Leadership is a networking group for the city's leaders and would-be leaders (Chamber of Commerce contingent).

More info as it becomes available.

Edit to add:

Mr. Penalosa joins the three incumbents, Wayne Ecton, Bob Littlefield, and Tony Nelssen, as well as former Councilman Ned O'Hearn and former candidate Bill Crawford in the race.

There are other potential candidates rumored to be mulling entry into the race, but they haven't announced yet.

Scottsdale voters should remember that they can sign only three nominating petitions, so they might want to consider putting off signing any until the candidate field stabilizes.

...End edit...

Question of the day...

...The first in an irregular series of "quick hit" posts of stuff that has been bugging me, not all of which will be political. For instance, like tonight's premier post...


Why aren't we on the moon?


NASA's space program started in the late 1950s. At the time, they used IBM 7090 series mainframe computers in Mission Control.

State of the art at the time, they would be considered little better than abacuses built with kite twine and rubber bands by today's standards.

Each one cost nearly $3 million in that era's dollars.

Yet with those expensive relics, they sent men in hollow metal tubes over 230,000 miles to the moon and brought them back.

More than once.

Moving forward to 2009...

Last week, we went to the Grand Canyon from Phoenix - at approximately 230 miles, 1/1000th as far.

On that trip, we brought:

2 cell phones
2 laptop computers
1 IPod
1 GPS
2 digital cameras
1 10-year old TI-83 graphing calculator (I *always* have that with me. Yes, I'm a geek. :) )
2 digital watches with all sorts of features (stopwatch, compass, etc.)

$5K total, tops.

And that's not even counting the various computers in my truck...mostly because I can't even begin to identify them all.

In short, we had more computing power on our waistbands and in our backpacks to go to the Grand Canyon (which is close and isn't going anywhere anytime soon) than NASA used to send people to the moon (which is a lot farther away and definitely qualifies as a "moving target").

And we are relative electronic lightweights - no Blackberrys or PDAs or whatnot. No multiple cell phones. No portable game consoles. No portable DVD/digital entertainment units.

So could someone please explain to me why we ("we" as in Americans as a group) are content with putting satellites into orbit and not much more? Putting people into space hasn't gotten any tougher, at least in terms of the physics, but our tools to get the job done have improved exponentially.

We should have had multiple manned Mars missions by now; instead, our best pilots, engineers, and scientists are devoted to operating a freight line to the International "Space" Station.

That's not a criticism of them; they are doing incredibly well with what they have been assigned to do. The fact is, however, that the ISS is closer to the Earth (approx. 200 miles up) than Phoenix is to the Grand Canyon.

I know politics is a part of the problem - if there isn't a way for campaign contributors to make money, lots of money, off of an initiative, it's going to be difficult to get Congress and the President behind it (and that is *any* Congress and President, not just the current ones or their immediate predecessors).

Still, it might be time to forget about bank bailouts and various schemes to funnel tax money to the wealthy and focus on moving the country forward, socially, culturally, and scientifically.

To Arizona's Republican bloggers: be careful what you wish for...

...'Cuz you just might get it...

Conservative bloggers and pundits all over the country have been jumping on the anti-Napolitano bandwagon over this weekend's abortive terror attack on an international flight into Detroit. They're looking at her initial statement that "the system worked" followed by a retraction of that statement as evidence that she should be blamed for the attack. Some are even hinting that she should lose her job over this.

I'm not so sure that will happen - no one was hurt and the security failures occured overseas in other countries that were, are, and will continue to be out of her jurisdiction - but let's just assume for the moment that the Obama Administration decides that they need a scapegoat for this and fires her accepts her resignation.

If she becomes unemployed, she again becomes the favorite over John McCain in next year's election for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

With all due respect to Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman, he's got a better chance to win the seat if JD Hayworth is successful in his quest to knock off McCain in a primary.

McCain would be a tough, almost unbeatable, opponent in the general election; Hayworth less so.

Far less so.

Anyway, back to the main point...Napolitano was the Democrats' best bet at dethroning McCain before she went to D.C. with Obama. She's shown that she can win statewide elections (3 of them! 2 without winning Maricopa County!) and was smart enough to keep the loons in the lege in check while she occupied the 9th Floor.

While there was no guarantee that she *would* have won a race against McCain, it was a race that most political junkies in AZ wanted to see in the same way that fans of the two biggest-name heavyweight boxers from rival promotions want to see their fighters face off.

That all went away when Napolitano took the promotion to Secretary of Homeland Security.

If she ends up losing that job over something out of her control, she would then have the time on her hands for a run at the Senate seat held by McCain.

And while the Republican blogosphere in AZ hates John McCain with a fiery passion, something tells me they'd hate the idea of "Senator Napolitano" even more.

BTW - I'm not exactly Napolitano's biggest fan. Hindsight being 20/20, she *never* should have left AZ. While the state would still face the same fiscal crisis, I firmly believe that "Governor Napolitano" would have done a far better job of wrangling the legislature into fiscal sanity than "Governor Brewer" has.

Molly Ivins - coming to a stage near you

OK, "near" is a euphemism for "Philadelphia." :)

Thanks to Jobsanger in TX for the heads-up on this...


From the website of the Philadelphia Theatre Company -

JUST ANNOUNCED!

We are thrilled to announce that stage and screen actress Kathleen Turner will star in this world premiere play written by noted journalists and twin sisters Margaret and Allison Engel and directed by Broadway and Off-Broadway veteran David Esbjornson.

To have the chance to produce a new play that celebrates the life of one of journalism's most colorful and iconic figures is a rare and wonderful opportunity. It is equally wonderful that an actress such as Kathleen Turner, with her high-profile stage, film, and television career, had an opening in her schedule. So we seized the moment, even though it now means we must postpone our production of Mauritius to another season.

Turner will star as the "unsinkable" Molly Ivins, the famously bawdy newspaper columnist, political commentator, and bestselling author. A true Texas original, Ivins was a sharp-tongued liberal who skewered the political establishment and the "good ol' boys" with a heaping helping of her unforgettable wit and wisdom. This one-woman play celebrates Ivins' endurance and tenacity even when it seemed like a complacent America wasn't listening.

"A first-rate actress!" –The New York Times' Ben Brantley on Kathleen Turner

"A maverick; impossible to herd; Texas to the core!" –Dan Rather on Molly Ivins

The play is scheduled to run from March 19 until April 18, 2010.

Season subscriptions for the Philadelphia Theatre Company available now and single play tickets will go on sale for this February 11, 2010.


As long-time readers know (all both of you :) ), I am a huge fan of Molly Ivins. I consider her to be both the sharpest and funniest political observer of the last generation, and America lost a treasure when she passed away almost three years ago. If I ever get to be 1/100 as sharp and funny a writer as she was, I'll be the best political writer in Arizona.

We all can and should hope that this play is good enough and popular enough to go to Broadway and then to go on the road, but don't expect it to ever make it to Phoenix. We are just too far down the list of "must visit" places for traveling cultural events.

We can all hope for a DVD release, though.

Later...

Tort "Reform": Rearing its ugly head in Arizona

This is what happens when holiday boredom sets in so I have time to surf sites I don't get to as often as I should...

A little light reading over at the website of PublicCitizen.org twigged a memory of something on the AZ lege's website, so I checked it out.

As noted before this, members of the lege have already started filing bills for the session starting in January. Two of them, SCR1003 and SCR1006, are proposed amendments to the Arizona Constitution.

SCR1003 would repeal Article II, Section 31, a section that bars enacting laws that limit "the amount of damages to be recovered for causing the death or injury of any person."

SCR1006 would repeal that section as well as Article XVIII, Section 6, a section that states "[t]he right of action to recover damages for injuries shall never be abrogated, and the amount recovered shall not be subject to any statutory limitation."

If passed by both chambers of the lege and by the voters at the ballot, either measure would open the door to caps on medical liability awards, among other things. (Though SCR1006 would do a more comprehensive job of it)

It's telling that the sponsors of these measures are among the "worst of the worst" members of the lege when it comes to protecting the best interests of their constituents. The list of sponsors includes Sen. Jack Harper (not a surprise that his name is attached to both measures), Rep. Judy Burges, Sen. Russell Pearce, and Sen. Chuck Gray. They are all known for sacrificing the needs of their constituents on the altars of political dogma and expediency.

If those measures gain a hearing this year, and they just might as it is an election year and incumbent legislators will be trolling for PAC money for their campaigns, their supporters will be certain to tout them as a way to increase accessibility to health care and to reduce costs for Arizonans. They will likely cite the example of Texas, which has enacted its own medical liability caps, and say that such things are needed to decrease malpractice insurance premiums for medical providers and increase accessibility to medical care for patients.

The problem with that? That rationale is almost totally false.

From Public Citizen's report on the effects of tort "reform" in Texas (a press release with a brief summary here) -

Since the liability laws took effect:

• The cost of health care in Texas (measured by per patient Medicare reimbursements) has increased at nearly double the national average;
• spending increases for diagnostic testing (measured by per patient Medicare reimbursements) have far exceeded the national average;
• the state’s uninsured rate has increased, remaining the highest in the country;
• the cost of health insurance in the state has more than doubled;
• growth in the number of doctors per capita has slowed; and
• the number of doctors per capita in underserved rural areas has declined.

The only improvement in Texas since 2003 has been a decline in doctors’ liability insurance premiums. But payments by liability insurers on behalf of doctors have dropped far more than doctors’ premiums. This suggests that insurers are pocketing more of the savings than they arepassing to doctors.

In short, instead of improving Texas' health care system for all, as promised, award caps have improved things mostly just for insurance companies.

I recommend that all Arizona legislators and their constituents read the Public Citizen report before forming an opinion on SCRs 1003 and 1006. When the rhetoric starts flying around as the Rs in the lege and their ALEC puppeteers try to get this stuff on the ballot, the citizens of Arizona will need some defenders armed with facts.

Stripping constitutional protections from all Arizonans doesn't improve anything for the residents of Arizona, just for profiteers from Big Insurance.

Later...

The coming week...

As usual, all info gathered from the websites of the relevent political bodies/agencies, except where noted, and subject to change without notice...

As with last week, the current schedule is a light one due to the holiday on Friday.

...In Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are in recess until the new year, at which point they will start wrangling over health care reform.

...The Arizona legislature is doing its most beneficial work of the year for the people of AZ this week - no committee hearings, no legislative sessions, no nothing this week. They won't be actively making things worse for Arizonans this week (though some legislators may be making plans for just that during the coming session).

...The Arizona Corporation Commission has no public meetings scheduled this week, though there is a light hearing schedule. Everything seems to be focused on rates for Litchfield Park Service Co. and Global Water-Palo Verde Utilities Co.

...The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has a special meeting scheduled for Monday at noon. The agenda includes an executive session component as well as an open meeting component. The highlight of the open meeting portion is the adoption of financial disclosure standards for county elected officials. You know, the kind of stuff that Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas have used to cause so many problems for Supervisor Don Stapley et. al.

MCBOS' 2010 meeting schedule is here. There are already a couple of adjustments - the 1/5/2010 meeting will be held on 1/7 and the 1/13 meeting will be held on 1/12.

...The Tempe City Council isn't meeting this week, though their Council Calendar is here. It's all Insight Bowl-related events.

...The Scottsdale City Council also isn't meeting this week. Their Community Meeting Notice is kind of light - nothing is planned for the week.

...The biggest meeting of the week looks to be AHCCCS' Public Hearing on Governor Brewer's recently-ordered cap on KidsCare enrollment, a hearing that will take place on Tuesday. Full details at this earlier post.

Not meeting at all this week: Citizens Clean Elections Commission, Boards of Directors of the Maricopa Integrated Health System and the Central Arizona Project, the Governing Board of the Maricopa County Community College System, and the Arizona Board of Regents.

Later...

The Arizona Legislature: 2010 preview

The next session of the Arizona Legislature is shaping up to be a lot like the last session, only more so.

...One of the harbingers of the discord took form last December, even before the session started. In a major surprise, the House Republican caucus deposed Jim Weiers as Speaker, installing Mesa Republican Kirk Adams in his place. According to the R blog Sonoran Alliance, there's a possibility that Weiers is going to try to return the favor, but don't hold your breath. It will probably be a year, and by then, the Democrats will be in charge. (Hey, I freely admit I put the "partisan" in "partisan hack." :) )

...Adams pledged to have a "transparent" process. Yet by the end of his first few weeks in his new position, the pattern had already been set - GOP leadership (Adams, Senate President Burns, Governor Brewer) would nestle themselves behind closed doors and negotiate budget packages that catered to the whims of their own caucus' membership while ignoring the input and ideas of Democratic legislators and even average constituents. Then they would present those packages for a public vote, passing them with only Republican votes and no real public hearings (Approps committee hearings with minimal notice don't qualify a "real." No matter how loudly the Rs claim that they do.)

By the time the Fifth Special Session of the lege rolled around in December of this year, they weren't even bothering with the pretense.

And still not getting the job done.

Anyway, to sum up the 2009 legislative session: Things started off badly, and went straight downhill from there.

First, some summaries of the 2009 session of the lege that are more neutral and dispassionate than mine -

Arizona School Boards Association



Arizona Capitol Times



Arizona Catholic Conference (OK, these folks are less "dispassionate" and more "really, really, really conservative)

Arizona Municipal Water Users Association

(State of) Arizona Land Management Department

A tax law firm's summary for CPAs

Arizona Game and Fish Department

Arizona Department of Health Services



Arizona Department of Revenue



Arizona Department of Insurance



Arizona Department of Transportation



Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club





Now that the "neutral" part of the post is over, on to the more partisan part - the 2010 predictions...


2009 Legislator of the Year, Arizona Capitol Times version: Rep. Ray Barnes (R-LD7)

2009 Legislator of the Year, County Supervisors Association of Arizona version: Sen. Sylvia Allen (R-LD5)

2010 Legislators of the Year, Random Musings version, or "Legislators who should stay away from cameras if they want a chance at being repeat winners of more mainstream awards" - Ray "Bisexual Principals" Barnes and Sylvia "5000 Years" Allen.

Not to be confused with the Legislative Loon Award, which is based on bill filings, this one is based on crazy utterances. While other contenders are certain to step up (Russell Pearce, John Kavanagh, Jack Harper, et al,) those two seem to have a lock on the award.


Most likely area of contention: What else? The budget. They haven't finished the current year's budget, which will take up the first few weeks of the new session, and hopefully no more than that. After that, they will start work on the FY2011 budget, which looks to have a deficit that's even larger than this year's. And most of the one-time fixes will have been used up already.


Bad bill most likely to make a comeback, non-revenue category: Guns in schools. A version directed at universities and community colleges has already been filed for next year's session, so a K-12 version can't be far behind.

Bad bill most likely to make a comeback, revenue category: Repeal of the equalization tax. The Rs have made it clear that they want to destroy public education in Arizona; getting rid of a dedicated revenue source for public education is a step in that direction.

Good bill most likely to pass: None. There may be a few "harmless" bills ("technical corrections" and the like), but nothing good is expected to come out of next year's legislative session...making it a lot like this year's session.


Institutional memory, elected/insider category: Rep. Jack Brown (D-LD5). First entered the lege in 1963, before many of his colleagues were potty-trained (and in more than a few cases, before they were born) and has served continuously since 1987. Has more knowledge and wisdom than most of the rest of the lege combined. Norman Moore, Chief Clerk of the House, was in contention for this one, but after three decades of service, he has retired to go into the private sector as a lobbyist.

Institutional memory, "outsider" category: Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services. He *is* Capitol Media Services, working as its sole employee. Every media outlet in the state uses his stories. Has been covering the Capitol for more than a quarter century. "Outsider" is in quotes because with his longevity, he isn't really an outsider, but he doesn't work for the lege, so he falls into this category.


Legislator most likely to piss off his own caucus: Who else could it be, but Sen. Ron Gould? With his stomping out of his own party's Governor's speech and spending the spring, summer, and fall working to scuttle any balanced budget deals, he's had this one sewn up for months. The runner up, and the House's "winner": Rep. Sam Crump. A second-termer, he was briefly stripped of a committee chairmanship early in the 2009 session for trying to out-harsh his own Speaker, Kirk Adams. He had been "exploring" a run for AG, challenging State Superintendent of Public of Instruction Tom Horne and (rumored) Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. He has announced that he is seeking reelection to the House, however. Democrat Jack Brown could gain some traction in this category because he is easily the most conservative Democrat in the legislature, but there is so much respect and affection for him that no one really objects when his votes don't always gibe with his caucus-mates'.

Legislator most likely to piss on the other caucus: One could make a case for most (though not all) of the Rs in this category, but the hands-down winner in this category is our old friend, Sen. Jack Harper. A complete list of his credentials for this award would take up the rest of the post, but the highlight of his year was when he equated legislative Democrats with a pre-Iraq War Saddam Hussein and the ruling Sunnis in Iraq.

Legislator most likely to claim at one point to only follow the "will of the voters" while at another point to claim that the "will of the voters" is meaningless: Russell Pearce. Basically, it all matters if he agrees with the "will of the voters." If the matters under discussion are nativist measures approved via referendum, he believes that the voters are brilliant; if the matters under discussion are voter-mandated social spending, he thinks they are misguided, or worse, and seeks to overturn the Voter Protection Act so that he can kill all social spending in AZ.

Christmas Day 2009 - Grand Canyon

All pics taken by a certain blogger... :)