Goldwater Institute: just cutting out the middle man

Edit on 2/7 to correct a factual error: An anonymous emailer, begged39704, alerted me to the fact that Clint Bolick is *not* listed as the candidate, his wife Shawnna is. Clint is the treasurer for her committee. I apologize to both Bolicks for the mistake.

Thank you, begged39704.

Apparently, using most of the Republican caucus of the legislature as surrogates is too slow - now they're going for spousal control (can't call it a "hostile" takeover since GI's operatives are so warmly welcomed at the Capitol now).

On February 5, 2010, one Shawnna Bolick registered a campaign committee (filer ID 201000453) to enter the Republican primary for State Representative in LD11. She joins Jon Altmann, Bev Kraft, Dusti Morris, and Kate McGee in that race. The incumbents are Dr. Eric Meyer (D) and Adam Driggs (R). Meyer has a reelection committee opened; Driggs is "exploring" a run for the Senate seat from LD11 and has been rumored to be eyeing the CD3 race.

Bolick is the spouse of Clint Bolick, a senior member of GI. He heads up their "constitutional litigation" arm, which basically means suing various levels of governments until they give him what he wants (school tuition tax credits) or stop what he doesn't want (Clean Elections - too numerous to link to just one. Google "Bolick" and "Clean Elections"). He also leads the charge against any government regulations of business that he considers unfairly burdensome.

Which is pretty much *all* regulation.

In short, he is already a member of the GOP caucus of the lege in everything but title. His wife winning an election will just be a formality, and losing one won't change the reality of the situation.

Though I have to wonder how their relationship will be affected if she wins - there are limits on how much lobbyists can spend on legislators.

Oh wait - GI isn't a "lobbying" group, it's a "non-partisan" small government advocacy group. And the fact that the issues that they advocate on behalf of almost invariably benefit their clients donors?

A fortuitous coincidence, nothing more.


If Bolick's run is successful, look for more GI operatives to try to take over government positions (i.e. - Mrs. Matthew Ladner as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, etc.).

Frying pan, get ready to meet fire.

Harry Mitchell on blocking the Congressional pay raise

From an email from Congressman Harry Mitchell (with minor changes to links to clean them up, but no changes to content) -

Each year since being elected to Congress, I’ve introduced legislation to block the annual raise for Members of Congress. With all the economic challenges our country is facing, and so many families struggling to make ends meet, I believe it would be simply unconscionable for members of Congress to raise their own pay.

Unfortunately, unless Congress takes action, all members of Congress will be receiving a pay raise next year. In 1989, Congress approved a process that provides lawmakers with an automatic pay raise every January unless they vote specifically to reject the raise.

That’s why I, along with my colleague Rep. Ron Paul, have again introduced legislation to prevent Members of Congress from receiving the next scheduled pay raise.

Last year, our efforts helped to successfully block the Fiscal Year 2010 pay raise and we saved taxpayers $2.5 million by blocking the Fiscal Year 2010 pay raise for members of Congress. In 2008 and 2009, when I received a pay raise over my objection, I donated those pay raises to Arizona charities, dividing the donations among 10 local non-profit organizations.

This year’s bill, H.R. 4255, the Stop the Automatic Pay Raise for Members of Congress in Fiscal Year 2011 Act, currently has support from more than 120 members of Congress. Our bill has also earned national endorsements from Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Taxpayers Union.

President Obama has frozen pay for senior White House employees, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts broke with tradition and did not request a pay raise for federal judges for Fiscal Year 2011. I believe that Congress should follow in their lead, and enacting my bill is an important first step.

Right now we need our focus to be on getting people back to work, shoring up the economy, and keeping our families and communities safe -- not on giving ourselves a raise.

As always, I look forward to being able to provide you with regular updates and continue our dialogue on fiscal responsibility in the future.

Sincerely,

Harry

Later...

Special session update3 - crossing palms....with shoulder blades

...that's a way of saying that there is some serious arm-twisting going on at the lege..

cross-posted at Blog for Arizona...

On Thursday, the Arizona House of Representatives approved the referral to the ballot of a temporary increase to the state's sales tax.

The vote was 34 - 25, with one vacancy (Sam Crump resigned on Monday). 12 Democrats and 22 Republicans voted for the referral, and 13 and 12 voted against it.

In an interesting twist, the House did *not* consider the rest of the budget-related bills. According to ever-vigilant (and snarky) correspondent Jen, the talk around the Capitol is that Speaker Kirk Adams is holding the special session bills in order to pressure Senate President Bob Burns into taking up the House's tax cuts for corporations bill (the Rs call it a "jobs" bill, but it would be better called a "jobs for soon-to-be-ex-legislators looking for a place to land after they get kicked out of office in November" bill.

So to sum up: The House passed a referendum that may or may not be approved by the voters (and if I were a betting man, I'd bet " not") and refused to do anything else to address the state's budget deficit unless their corporate patrons get a big gift from the lege.

Ummm...yeah.

It's obvious that the most of the Rs in the House don't give a damn about the state or about doing the jobs that they were hired to do - representing the best interests of the people in their districts and the state.

Special session update2 - whistling past the graveyard

Cross-posted at Blog for Arizona...

Since my work week has started, I'm trying to keep track of the goings-on at the lege via phone calls and an internet connection.

It now looks like that the House leadership is going to try to push through the latest budget bills without being certain that they have the votes necessary to pass them. One Democratic source that I spoke to thought it would be close, with approximately half the Dems in the House agreeing to vote for the package. If that is accurate, they'll still need 18 or 19 Rs to support the package.

However, the state's Shadow Governor (thanks Jen!), Grover Norquist, will be in town tomorrow. His presence may serve to fortify the faux courage of the Kool-Aid drinkers in the House, killing the package.

A possible indicator of movement is the fact that a Special Session agenda has been posted for House Appropriations with the package of Senate bills up for consideration (~11 a.m., HHR1). There is some question if the bills will pass the committee - John Kavanagh (R-LD8), the chair of the committee, has already stated that he will be voting no on the package (see the article linked in the previous paragraph).

As committee chairman, he has the authority to agendize/not agendize any bills, and could simply ignore them if they are assigned to his committee. The fact that the provisional agenda has been posted ("provisional" because the bills haven't yet been assigned to the Appropriations Committee) indicates that he is willing to allow the bills to be heard.

Whether that is to allow them to go forward over his objections or to very publicly kill them and thus embarrass R leadership in the House remains to be seen.

Stay tuned...

Summary of Tuesday's special session activities

and a preview of Wednesday's possible activity in the House...

...The Senate, with most but not all Democrats on board, passed a series of bills meant to address the current fiscal year's state budget deficit. This includes the referral of a temporary increase to the state's sales tax to the ballot in a special election in May.

...The bills have been introduced in the House and were immediately referred directly to the Rules Committee, bypassing the Appropriations Committee, where Chairman John Kavanagh (R-Russell Pearce with a New York Accent) lies in wait, ready to kill it.

...Of course, the package may be dead already - I've heard from Speaker Kirk Adams (second hand), a Democratic member (first hand) and the aforementioned Kavanagh (first hand) that they don't have the votes in the House to pass the sales tax referral, and the rest of the package won't come close to making a serious dent in the deficit.

Grover Norquist's organization has already weighed in - launching a broadside at the Senate Rs who voted for the referral.

As an aside, could someone tell me where in AZ Norquist is registered to vote? I mean, I can understand the three legislators from that district listening to him (not that I agree with what he has to say), but why aren't the rest of the Rs simply pointing him in the direction of his own legislators?

Anyway, it looks like the package, or at least the sale tax referral, is dead unless the Rs get some permanent tax cuts for big business which will remove any Democratic support for it. And if the package changes in any way, it has to go back to the Senate for approval of any changes.

And given that it passed with the minimun number of votes necessary, any changes would likely end its chances of passage in the Senate.

...No agenda has been posted for House Rules, but the package will probably be considered tomorrow, if Adams thinks he can pull together the floor votes to make Rules consideration worth the effort. In a twist, Adams has submittee three technical corrections bills (HB2001, HB2002, and HCR2001) over in the House that have also been assigned to Rules. Not sure what is going on there yet, but I expect that they will be used as "vehicle" bills for his efforts to salvage something out of the Sixth Special Session of the 49th Arizona Legislature.

Later...

Senate Approps - regular session

Sloppy post ahead, in "live blogging" style, but not with the constant updating. Done as one piece...

Now they're on regular session stuff.

Most of the agenda was mundane, so I didn't post on that.

But now we are up to the good stuff.

SCR1015, with a Pearce striker to refer TABOR-like restrictions on state revenues to the ballot.

Pearce is talking about the bill as a way to prevent future budget crises. He's trying to present the bill as harmless. Aboud doesn't seem to be buying it.

Pearce says this would allow for growth but not "extreme spending."

Aguirre doesn't seem to be buying into Pearce's spiel either.

Pearces says the bill is not "TABOR," but specifies that TABOR is about spending caps and this bill is about revenue caps.

OK, this is degenerating into an ideological debate on tax cuts vs. rebates, and has nothing to do with the crisis facing the state. Yawn.

Pearce is complaining about how little of the budget that the lege controls. Apparently wants to use this as a backdoor around Prop 105 so he can cut voter-mandated programs (not sure of this, will need to read the specific language later...)

Gould says this isn't TABOR, and states that Colorado voters should have just suspended it instead of repealing it.

It's TABOR, folks.

An AARP lobbyist is now speaking. They are nervous about it.

Bill passes on a party-line vote.

SCR1033. a proposal to refer a repeal Prop 105 to the voters up next.

Aboud asks how much in appropriations is protected by Prop 105. Billions.

Pearce decries Prop 105 because is was rooted in a movement to decriminalize marijuana (only he called it "legalizing heroin"). Says a tax increase would not be on the table today if it wasn't for Prop 105.

Calls it "taking the handcuffs off of" the elected legislature.

Harper supports it, but doesn't think it will pass because of all the groups that have benefitted from it will fight it.

A lobbyist from Americans for Tax Reform, Barry Aarons, is speaking in favor of this measure. Says that Prop 105 removed the lege's ability to act as a check on the public.

He's right, but that was the point in the first place - the lege had abused its power and was slapped down for its trouble.

Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club is signed in against but not speaking.

Sylvia Allen is voting yes, but blathering on about it, while John Kavanagh, Pearce's analog in the House, walks in with a huge smile on his face.

Pearce is now blaming George Soros for the troubles of the state. No joke.

Vote went as expected - party-line pass, Rios out of the room and not voting. Not sure why.

Meeting adjourned after about an hour and 20 minutes.

Special Session - Senate Floor Session

2:16 - Burton Cahill calls this a "very, very difficult" vote and is only for a band-aid. Votes yes, reluctantly. Bill passes 16 - 12. Senate adjourns.

2:15 - Aboud opposes because even if voters approve it, it won't balance the budget and that cuts are still coming.

2:13 - Gould opposes because he only wants to cut services. Cites pledge to Norquist, but says it is a pledge to the voters in his district. Votes no.

2:12 - Harper voting no because it isn't coupled with automatic tax cuts.

2:11 - Vote still open. Burton Cahill has been switching her vote back and forth. Gould still hasn't voted, and neither has Burns. As it stands, the measure needs one more "yes" vote.

2:08 - McCune Davis thinks that this isn't a workable solution and votes no.

2:07 - Sylvia Allen is "really ticked off at everybody" for placing them in such a tough place. Votes yes.

2:03 - SCR1001, sales tax hike referral. This one may fail, and kill the whole thing. Cheuvront argues that this is a tough one, but it still is only giving the voters the final say.

2:02 - Aboud calls it just closing a loophole. Votes aye. Bill passes 21 - 7.

2:00 - SB1005, standard deduction adjustment, needs a 2/3 vote. Gould opposes. Again.

1:59 - SB1004, Lottery reauthorization. This one could be very interesting. Or not. Passes 19 - 9.

1:58 - SB1003, Lottery revenue bonding and sale/leaseback of state assets. This one could be interesting, but it will pass. It does, 18 - 9 - 2 vacancies.

1:57 - SB1002, Education payments rollovers. Bill passes.

1:56 - Vote still open. Now closed, Passes with 2/3 majority.

1:54 - SB1001, special election call. Needs 2/3 to pass with an emergency clause.

1:53 - Gould being a jerk, calls division on a procedural motion. Motion passes.

1:52 - Chuck Gray looking for script. Finds it.

1:51 - Third Read session resumes.

1:50 - SCR1001 passes COW. COW session ends.

1:49 - Rios understands concerns that the amendment could place a burden on specific industries but also understands that the proposal would place a burden or Arizona's working families. Calls on corps to be good neighbors. Amendment fails.

1:45 - Sylvia Allen opposes amendment because it would hurt mining industry. Gould opposes too. As does Melvin.

1:42 - Chuck Gray opposes because housing and construction industries use gravel.

1:41 - Burns opposes amendment because there hasn't been enough time to talk about it. In plain English - "Hey! This railroad is running on time Rios! Quit trying to gum up the works!"

1:37 - Rios floor amendment offered to add in mining severance tax and sand and gravel TPT due to fairness issues - those industries were given a special break years ago, but now should be included in a tax hike that affects the rest of Arizona.

1:37 - SCR1001, sales tax referral to ballot.

1:35 - SB1005, standard deduction adjustment for out of state filers. Passes COW.

1:34 - Gould opposes because it is borrowing. No Harper amendment offered. Passes COW.

1:33 - SB1004, lottery reauthorization and bond repayment.

1:32 - Gould opposes bill on Constitutional grounds, claiming incurs state debt. Passes COW.

1:31 - SB1003, lottery revenue bonding and sale/leaseback. Passes.

1:31 - SB1002, education rollover, passes COW.

1:30 - COW passes SB1001, special election. No amendments or debate.

1:29 - First hiccup - a motion to limit debate to 2 minutes per senator per motion failed.

1:26 - Barbara Leff chairing Committee of the Whole.

1:26 - 2nd read and moving into Committee of the Whole (COW)

1:25 - 28 in attendance, 2 vacancies.

1:23 - Taking attendance

Senate Republican Caucus meeting on the Special Session budget bills

Caucus into order at 11:01.

SCR1001 - Sales tax hike referral to voters.

No comments

SB1005 - Deduction adjustment for out of state filers.

Gray wonders if this is ex post facto because it is retroactive to the beginning of the tax year. It isn't.

Gould says it is an ex post facto tax. Something tells me he will be voting against this one.

SB1001 - Special election.

Some questions, but no serious comments.

SB1002 - Education rollovers

No serious comments, though Sen. Leff wondered if there will be $ available to make the deferred payments.

SB1003 - Lottery revenue bonds and sale/leaseback of state assets.

Harper wonders if the general public will have the opportunity to buy the bonds. A: yes.

Gould thinks this violates the AZ Constitution provisions against state debt. Leff says it doesn't. Gould says it dees.

SB1004 - Lottery stuff.

Harper will run a floor amendment to oppose a Native casino in Glendale. It would allow cities to open casinos if a tribe opens a casino off of its reservation. Wants an "economic war" with the tribes.

Verschoor wonders if they let the lottery expire if that would force tribal casinos to shut down due to the language of the gaming compact. A: Not sure.

Sylvia Allen wonders if an off-reservation casino would allow the state to break the compact and more strongly regulate tribal gaming. A: No. Federal law trumps state law in this area.

Leff wonders if the amendment is germane to the proclamation calling for the special session and asks for a ruling from the Rules attorney.

Gould doesn't think Harper's amendment would work.

Pearce decries the possible spread of gambling and the potential effects.

All bills out of caucus.

Caucus adjourned at 11:29.

Overheard at the lege...

While waiting for the R caucus meeting...


1. Apparently, it may not matter what happens in the Senate this time - House Speaker Kirk Adams has told MSM types that he doesn't think they have enough votes in the House to pass the package.

2. Sen. Jack Harper (R-Surprise!) has said that he will vote against all of the measures except the education money rollovers when they reach the floor. That may change between now and that time, but that is what he said while BS-ing with a couple of folks in the gallery while waiting for the meeting to start.

Senate Rules

This meeting is mostly a rubberstamp - they've already approved SB1001, 1002, 1003, 1005, and SCR1001.

Now, they are mulling a possible Prop 105 conflict with SB1004. Passes. Meeting over in 3 minutes.

Live blogging Senate Natural Resources

10:12 - Landrum calls the issue one of fairness and votes aye. Passes unanimously. Adjourned.

10:10 - Consider amendment to make the change retroactive to tax year 2010. Some confusion if amendment is OK as written. After discussion, it is determined to be fine. Adopted.

10:09 - SB1005, tax deduction adjustment for out of state filers.

10:08 - SB1004 passes unanimously. This train is now running on time.

10:08 - Adopt technical amendment.

10:07 - SB1004, repayment of lottery bonds.

10:07 - Passes unanimously.

10:06 - Adopting a technical amendment by voice vote.

10:03 - SB1003 - Lottery revenue bonding and sale/leaseback of state assets.

10:02 - No debate, passes unanimously.

10:01 - SB1002 - Education funding payment rollovers.

10:00 - No debate. Vote starts. Passes unanimously.

9:59 - SB1001 - special election in May. Senate President Burns walks in and talks to a staffer. Not close enough to overhear. :(

9:56 - No debate. Roll call started. Aguirre votes no, citing impact on poor families. Sylvia Allen and Hale aye, Landrum-Taylor cites the impact of deep cuts to services, votes aye; Melvin says he is voting aye in committee but hints that he will vote against it on the floor; Pierce votes aye; Nelson, the chair, votes aye because it is a referral to the voters. Passes 6 - 1.

9:55 - SCR1001, sales tax referral.

9:53 - Gavelled into session.

Waiting for the start of the special session committee hearing

The room was being used and that meeting ran right until 9:30, so the Natural Resources meeting to consider the special session's budget bills hasn't started yet, though it looks like it will within the next few minutes...

For those of you watching at home. :)

The timing of the special session could be very important

...and not just for fiscal reasons.

A lot of tea leaf reading is going into the makeup of this post, so everything in it should be read with that in mind - this post is taking the bones of a few possibly related facts and putting them together.

And hoping it all doesn't come out looking like Frankenstein's monster. :)


It's looking more and more like the budget package had better pass this week, perhaps by Wednesday, or the Rs in the Senate may pull together enough votes to kill it next week, particularly the referral of a proposed temporary sales tax increase to the ballot.


The possibly related facts:

- The GOP PCs in LD6 were scheduled to meet on Monday evening to select three candidates for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to choose from when the supes select a replacement for the recently resigned State Sen. Pam Gorman.

- The supes have a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 9 a.m. No agenda posted as yet, but it will be easy to set up an item to consider the appointment of an LD6 state senator.

- The LD7 Republican PCs will be meeting on Thursday to select possible replacements for the recently resigned State Sen. Jim Waring.

- The supes have a regularly scheduled meeting on tap for Monday morning. No agenda posted as yet, but again, it would be easy to add a senator selection to that agenda. And if the supes don't do the LD6 selection on Wednesday, they could squeeze in both during next Monday's meeting.

In other words, the R caucus in the Senate could be back at full obstructionist strength by next Monday afternoon.

Should make for an interesting week at the lege...

North Indian Bend Wash - Community Involvement Group meeting

From an email from Vicki Rosen, the EPA's community involvement coordinator for the NIBW -

Hi all,

Just a reminder that we'll meet on Wednesday, February 17, 5:30 pm at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (enter at 7380 Second St.). Our meeting room will be on the main floor, Stage 2.

Attached is the agenda which will also be going out by mail to our site mailing list.

Looking forward to seeing all of you.

Best,

Vicki

The agenda mentioned in the email -

NORTH INDIAN BEND WASH SUPERFUND SITE
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT GROUP
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
SCOTTSDALE CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
7380 E. SECOND ST.
STAGE 2 – MAIN FLOOR

AGENDA

1. Welcome and Introductions
Vicki Rosen, Community Involvement Coordinator, U.S. EPA

2. Recent Valve Incidents at Various Locations and Status of Miller Road Treatment Facility (MRTF) Workplan
Rachel Loftin, Project Manager, U.S. EPA

3. Water Sustainability in Scottsdale
Marshall Brown, Executive Director, Water Resources, City of Scottsdale

4. Update on MRTF Rehabilitation Program
Jim Lutton, Consultant to Participating Companies

5. Upcoming Five-Year Review
Rachel Loftin and Vicki Rosen

6. Questions & Answers

Because of my work schedule, I may not be able to attend this particular meeting. However, it should be well-attended because many of the residents of the NIBW are *very* interested in what is going on here.

More updates as they become available.

JLBC agenda for Tuesday

Lost in the hubbub over the special session and the regular session's committee schedule is a meeting of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee at 8 a.m. on Tuesday in SHR109.

The agenda looks interesting, but don't rush to the lege on Tuesday expecting to witness governance in action - the agenda is split between an executive session and a public session.

The 11 items on the public agenda are all reports from various relating to revenue matters and will be considered as one motion (meaning the relevent agencies will submit written reports and the members of the JLBC will accept them for later reading/ignoring.

Nope, the really interesting stuff is the stuff they are hiding behind "executive session."

The "fun, but not-to-be-witnessed-by-the-taxpayers" part of the agenda -

EXECUTIVE SESSION

A. Arizona Department of Administration, Risk Management Services - Consideration of Proposed Settlements under Rule 14.

B. State Department of Corrections - Review of Request for Proposals for 5,000 Private Prison Beds per A.R.S. § 38-431.03A2.

C. State Department of Corrections - Review of Request for Proposals for Privatization of Correctional Health Services per A.R.S. § 38-431.03A2.

D. Annual Performance Review per Rule 7.

I can't even make a guess about items A and D, but items B and C sparked a couple of memories, and a little research was all it took to bring things into focus.

On November 9, 2009, the Prison Health Services Inc. Political Action Committee was formed (filer ID 201000299). This committee hasn't filed its January 31 financial report yet.

On June 9, 2009, the GEO Group Inc. Political Action Committee was formed (filer ID 201000125). This committee has filed a report, one showing no activity through the end of 2009.

Prison Health Services Inc., based in Tennessee, is a subsidiary of America Service Group, Inc. What they do is pretty much self-evident from the name.

The Geo Group of Florida is an operator of private prison facilities, including three in Arizona.

It's rather interesting that the state is looking to privatize operations in the bailiwicks of two out of state corporations that just happened to recently form PACs in Arizona.

Let me be clear - I am not yet accusing anyone of wrongdoing.

At the same time, I don't believe in coincidence, either.

Later...