Arizona legislature: The coming week

With the end of most significant committee work, most of the attention at the lege will now focus on the state's budget.


The usual notes and caveats:

All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do.  If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interesting in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

Floor calendars that have been posted have been included in this post.  However, those calendars are usually posted the day before they are considered.  Hence, only Monday's floor calendars are part of this post.

COW sessions, or "Committee of the Whole", is where actual floor debate takes place, where floor amendments to bills are added, and amendments added to bills in committee are approved.

Third Read sessions are where a bill receives a final vote.  No amendments are added here, and no official debate takes place, though there is a lot of "explaining" of votes during Third Read.

Measures that are going before a chamber's Rules committee are not up for debate on the merits of the measures.  The only subjects being considered is if the bill on the agenda is constitutional and in "proper form".  If a bill is on this agenda, chamber leadership has already decided that it is going to pass.  On occasion, a really bad bill is withdrawn from consideration, but I cannot remember that one was actually defeated in this committee.  Rules committee agendas serve best as an informal preview of what's coming up in floor action.

Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.

Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.

All House committee agendas can be found here.

All Senate committee agendas can be found here.

Legislative floor calendars can be found here.

The lege's calendar of events for the week is here.

AZ Department of Administration meeting public notices are here.  



AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona offers his perspective on the budget kerfluffle here.

For a somewhat different take, here is video from Channel 12's Sunday Square Off with reporters Alia Beard Rau and Howie Fischer.

Having said all of that, and whether the state budget will be railroaded though this week (AZBlueMeanie) or it will take longer (Rau and Fischer), Monday will be almost entirely about the budget dog and pony show.


At 9:30 a.m., a special meeting of House Appropriations is scheduled for HHR1.

Originally scheduled to hear the nine bills of the Senate's budget proposal (SB1485 - SB1493), now it is scheduled to hear the nine bills of the House's budget proposal (HB2703 - HB2711).

Note: for some reason unknown to me, there is a second House Appropriations committee meeting scheduled to take place immediately after the first one.  That agenda includes two of the measures in the Senate's budget package, but given that House Speaker Andy Tobin and Senate President Andy Biggs aren't exactly known as close friends, I don't expect much to happen there.  However, the two measures are also scheduled for House floor action, so it may be a situation where the House and Senate have already agreed on those measures but will be arguing about the others.

After Appropriations rubber stamps "considers" the bills, the House Rules committee will break out its own rubber stamp, setting the package up for floor consideration (the Rules agenda is a long one at 40+ items).

Which is also scheduled for Monday - COW1, COW2, COW3, Third Read.

To sum up:  Monday is shaping up to be one of the longest legislative days of the year.


Other activities:

House Appropriations will hold a "regular" meeting on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  Among the bills on the agenda:  SB1237, expanding school vouchers "empowerment scholarship accounts" and  SB1365, Sen. Rick Murphy's attack on CPS (and its employees) for daring to do its job in investigating complaints about him.

Senate Appropriations is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in SHR109.  The agenda is long, and as is standard practice for this time of year, the vast majority of the measures have nothing to do with Appropriations.  Lowlights -

- HB2264, HB2272, and HB2276: Tax breaks for big businesses

- a striker to HB2343, creating a forest thinning program on state trust lands (this may or may not be a "good" measure, but since it is from Sen. Don Shooter, who isn't known as a paragon of good governance, I'm leaning toward "not").

- a striker to HB2414, also from Shooter, pertaining to "burdensome" public records requests.

- a striker to HB2462, also from Shooter, creating a program to build a "virtual" fence along the border with Mexico

- HB2509, authorizing the state to enter into a "compact" with other states to criminalize health care exchanges

- SB1494 (not introduced yet, so no text available on the lege's website), subject "district charter schools; governance; finance".

Appointments to Arizona state commissions and boards - low profile but hardly harmless

Now that most legislative committee work is over for this session of the Arizona legislature, it's time for "old home week".

Also known as "executive branch confirmation hearings".

Actually, it's going to last a few weeks, but you get the point.

Many of the people who have been appointed to one or another commission are former electeds or are well-connected to current electeds.

Just this coming week, various Senate committees will consider the nominations of:

Claude Mattox, Citizens Transportation Oversight Committee, a former member of the Phoenix City Council (Senate Transportation, Monday, 1 p.m., SHR3)

Russ Jones, Arizona Power Authority, a former state representative (Senate Government and Environment, Monday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

Gayle Burns, Arizona Early Childhood Development and Health Board, wife of Bob Burns, former president of the Arizona State Senate (Senate Health and Human Services, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR1).

The thing is, this stuff is "normal", at least in a "it's not what you know, it's who you know" sort of way.

Once in a while though, there comes once such appointment that makes people go "Hmmmm....".

Such as...

Warde Nichols, Governor's Regulatory Review Council (GRRC), a former state representative (Government and Environment).

There's a bit of "synergy" with this appointment - the GRRC is empowered to block any new agency rules that it deems unfit, and Nichols is a principal of a lobbying firm that focuses on helping businesses avoid or otherwise deal with government rules.

Arizona Legislature: The coming week (bonus edition)

This has turned into a *very* busy week at the lege.  Because this is the last week that most committees can hear bills, a requirement for a bill to move along in the process toward becoming law, the lege is doing something unusual this week.

Working on a Friday.

There are now committee hearings scheduled for Friday morning over on the Senate side of the Capitol.  As of this writing, nothing is posted for the House on Friday...but it's still early. :)

Update:  Per a call, there are no plans for Friday committee hearings in the House as the Speaker is out of town right now.  Things could still change, but it doesn't look like the House is going to hold any committee hearings on Friday.

The idealist in me would like to believe that the Senate is cramming in a couple of more committee meetings because they are so focused on doing the best job that they can for Arizona.

Then the realist in me read the agendas. :(

Meetings:

- Senate Judiciary, Friday, 9 a.m., SHR1.  One bill on the agenda so far: HB2305, entering a "compact" with other like-minded states to propose and enact a very detailed amendment to the US Constitution regarding a balanced federal budget.

- Senate Government and Environment, Friday, 9 a.m., SHR3.  Much of this agenda was already covered in earlier posts, when the meeting was scheduled for Thursday, but there are many additional bills now -

- a "breathing while brown" striker to HB2411, making entering or remaining on somebody else's real property while in violation of another law third degree criminal trespass

- a striker to HB2448, creating a tax credit for property owners who claim that the value of a piece of property is diminished by a local or county land use law.  The tax credit would be in the amount of the allegedly diminished value, and could be taken for 10 tax years, or until the total credit taken equals the total diminished value claimed.

Oh, and the amount of the credit claimed would then be withheld from funds that would otherwise be distributed to the municipality or county that enacted the offending land use law.

- a striker to HB2459, barring any agency from implementing any new rules that are more restrictive to business than current rules

Instead of the "Senate Government and Environment" committee, in the spirit of "truth in advertising" it should be renamed the "Senate Petty and Punitive" committee.

 Jus' sayin'...

Breaking: AZ Senate to consider its own budget proposal Tuesday

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

The bills are numbered SB1485 thru SB1493.

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

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

[snip]

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

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

Arizona Legislature: The coming week (Part 2)

The continuation of this week's schedule post...

As this is the last week when most committees can still consider bills, this will be an "everything but the kitchen sink" week.

The committee agendas are long, and will probably get longer as the meeting times grow nearer.

No House Rules Committee agenda has been posted as yet; the agenda for Senate Rules is here.  It's a long agenda, and I expect that when it's posted, the House Rules' agenda will be similarly long.

The usual notes and caveats:

All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do.  If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interesting in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

Floor calendars that have been posted have been included in this post.  However, those calendars are usually posted the day before they are considered.  Hence, only Monday's floor calendars are part of this post.

COW sessions, or "Committee of the Whole", is where actual floor debate takes place, where floor amendments to bills are added, and amendments added to bills in committee are approved.

Third Read sessions are where a bill receives a final vote.  No amendments are added here, and no official debate takes place, though there is a lot of "explaining" of votes during Third Read.

Measures that are going before a chamber's Rules committee are not up for debate on the merits of the measures.  The only subjects being considered is if the bill on the agenda is constitutional and in "proper form".  If a bill is on this agenda, chamber leadership has already decided that it is going to pass.  On occasion, a really bad bill is withdrawn from consideration, but I cannot remember that one was actually defeated in this committee.  Rules committee agendas serve best as an informal preview of what's coming up in floor action.

Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.

Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.

All House committee agendas can be found here.

All Senate committee agendas can be found here.

Legislative floor calendars can be found here.

The lege's calendar of events for the week is here.

AZ Department of Administration meeting public notices are here.  


Some of the bills that are moving later this week:

- HB2541, a short bill, but one that may run into some serious legal issues if it becomes law.  The text of the measure - "DURING A STATE OF EMERGENCY OR A LOCAL EMERGENCY, THE STATE OR A COUNTY, CITY OR TOWN MAY ACCESS FEDERAL LAND LOCATED IN THIS STATE TO ADDRESS THE EMERGENCY, INCLUDING ACCESSING FEDERAL LAND WITH THE EQUIPMENT NECESSARY TO REPAIR OR ADDRESS THE EMERGENCY SITUATION."(Senate Public Safety, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR109)

- HB2367, imposing a work requirement for AHCCCS recipients (Senate Health and Human Services, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR1)

- HB2508, imposing a requirement that healthcare navigators and guides and others associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Arizona obtain licensing as insurance agents. (Senate Health and Human Services)

- HB2603, requiring courts to notify the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) when a recipient of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) monies. (Senate Health and Human Services)

- HB2276, a tax cut for the insurance industry (Senate Finance, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

- HB2281, a tax break targeted at religious organizations.  Currently, property owned by religious organizations is exempt from taxation.  Under this proposal, property that isn't owned by such organizations but is instead simply leased by them would also be exempt from taxation. (Senate Finance)

- HB2560, allowing insurance providers to self-audit their own compliance with laws and regulations, self-report the audit results to regulatory agencies, and then to keep the results secret. (Senate Finance)

- HCR2022; currently, the first $50K of personal property is exempt from taxation.  HCR2022 is a proposal to amend the state's constitution to raise the exemption to $2.4 million. (Senate Finance)

- HB2699, state legislative nullification of the federal Endangered Species Act (Senate Government and Environment, Thursday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

- HB2700, taking all federal land in Arizona away from the federal government (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2321, "procurement code omnibus".  Maybe I'm being too cynical, but "omnibus" is lege-speak for "a lot of detailed and very technical changes that can mask a lot of bad provisions".
(Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2014, an anti-voter initiative measure, requiring that the publicity pamphlets, campaign literature and ballot language for voter initiatives state that the proposed measure, if approved, can never be changed except by another vote of the electorate, or under limited circumstances, by a 3/4 vote of the legislature. (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2640, requiring that internal investigations conducted a municipality, county, or state government agency be conducted by an investigator selected by the state's auditor general, an agency wholly controlled by the state legislature. (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2316, an anti-Common Core bill (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2328, expanding Steve Yarbrough's revenue stream "school tuition organization scholarships" (Senate Government and Environment)

- HB2485, a bill requiring the state department of education to buy a specific vendor's education software (the bill doesn't state the specific company by name, but it lists a set of requirements so specific that only one company can meet them) (Senate Education, Thursday, 9 a.m., SHR1)

- SB1315, taking the authority to appropriate unencumbered federal monies given to the state (i.e. - block grants, etc.) away from the governor and give them to legislature.  If passed by the lege (and it will be), it would have to be signed by the governor to become law (don't hold your breath waiting for that one) (House Appropriations, Wednesday, 2 p.m., HHR1)

- a striker to SB1168 (text unavailable at this time).  Subject: teenage drivers; communications devices prohibited".  Possibly (depending on the actual text of the striker) the best measure of the week. (House Transportation, Thursday, 9 a.m., HHR3)

- House Reform and Human Services will hear a presentation (Thursday, 9 a.m., HHR1).  Subject: "
Update and Status of Child Advocate Response Examination (CARE) Team, Charles Flanagan, Director".

Arizona Legislature: The coming week (Part 1)

As this is the last week when most committees can still consider bills, this will be an "everything but the kitchen sink" week.

The committee agendas are long, and will probably get longer as the meeting times grow nearer.

No House Rules Committee agenda has been posted as yet; the agenda for Senate Rules is here.  It's a long agenda, and I expect that when it's posted, the House Rules' agenda will be similarly long.

The usual notes and caveats:

All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do.  If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interesting in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

Floor calendars that have been posted have been included in this post.  However, those calendars are usually posted the day before they are considered.  Hence, only Monday's floor calendars are part of this post.

COW sessions, or "Committee of the Whole", is where actual floor debate takes place, where floor amendments to bills are added, and amendments added to bills in committee are approved.

Third Read sessions are where a bill receives a final vote.  No amendments are added here, and no official debate takes place, though there is a lot of "explaining" of votes during Third Read.

Measures that are going before a chamber's Rules committee are not up for debate on the merits of the measures.  The only subjects being considered is if the bill on the agenda is constitutional and in "proper form".  If a bill is on this agenda, chamber leadership has already decided that it is going to pass.  On occasion, a really bad bill is withdrawn from consideration, but I cannot remember that one was actually defeated in this committee.  Rules committee agendas serve best as an informal preview of what's coming up in floor action.

Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.

Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.

All House committee agendas can be found here.

All Senate committee agendas can be found here.

Legislative floor calendars can be found here.

The lege's calendar of events for the week is here.

AZ Department of Administration meeting public notices are here.  


Some of the bills that are moving this week: 

- SB1182, an attack on public school districts contained in this proposal to undermine school district override and bond elections by mandating that certain information be included in publicity materials for such elections (House Ways and Means, Monday, 2 p.m., HHR1)

- a striker to SB1331, a retroactive proposal concerning the model city tax code and and changes to tax rates (this one is new to me and I don't completely understand its impact, but the retroactive nature of the measure alone raises some serious red flags) (House Ways and Means)

- SB1351, more legislative micromanaging of the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District in Tucson (House Ways and Means)

- SCR1007, a love letter to the US Forest Service asking they subsidize the logging industry by moving forward with "major forest thinning projects" (House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources, Monday, 2 p.m., HHR4)

- SCR1022, another love letter, this one to the US Environment Protection Agency, asking that it not create air pollution emission rules for the Navajo Generating Station, instead leaving such petty matters to the state legislature (please note the sarcasm) (House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources)

- SB1237, expanding school vouchers "empowerment scholarship accounts".  A "return of the living dead" bill, it failed in committee on March 3rd.  If it doesn't pass this week, expect it to come back as a striker to another bill within a few weeks. (House Education, Monday, 2 p.m., HHR3)

- SB1393, a proposal to remove the requirement that the administration (meaning the superintendents and management and supervisory personnel) of the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB) be "competent educators of the deaf and blind".  The is a proposed amendment that would restore that requirement for the superintendent of an ASDB school. (House Education)

- a striker to SB1133 (no text available as of this writing).  Subject: "energy code moratorium".  Can't be certain without seeing the actual text of the proposal, but there have been a number of proposals this year by Republican legislators to bar municipalities from moving their building codes into the 21st century.  This may be one such proposal.  (House Government, Tuesday, 2 p.m., HHR4)



- SB1293, mandating the kind of information that must be in publicity pamphlets for tax-related elections held by special taxing districts, school districts, counties, and municipalities. (House Government)



- HB2338, making it aggravated assault, a Class 4 felony, to take someone's gun away from them. (Senate Judiciary, Monday, 2 p.m., SHR1)

- HB2103, expanding the list of those who can obtain concealed weapons permits (Senate Judiciary)

- HB2339, guns at public events. (Senate Judiciary)

- HB2517, imposing all sorts of penalties on governments, agencies, and government officials who enact and/or enforce any firearms-related rule, ordinance, or law that is stricter than state law. (Senate Judiciary)

- HB2535, all but mandating that when a "chief law enforcement officer" is requested, under federal law, to approve a firearms transfer, he/she do so (Senate Judiciary)

- a striker to HB2418, an anti-union proposal that would bar compensation for union-related activities by public employees (this one has been floating around all session; it won't be completely dead until Sine Die) (Senate Government and Environment, Monday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

- HB2690, mandating that any photo radar device that is used to issue traffic tickets must be calibrated daily (trying to effectively ban photo traffic enforcement by making the operational requirements so onerous that it is easier to just stop using it) (Senate Transportation, Tuesday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

Due to time considerations, the rest of the week will posted tomorrow...it's going to be a fun week.

If your definition of "fun" includes "considering some ugly legislation".

Breaking news1: Jan Brewer isn't going to seek a third term as governor; Breaking news2: Water is wet.

From the Arizona Republic, written by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez -

Gov. Jan Brewer announced Wednesday she will not seek another term in office, an effort that would have required a long-shot court challenge to the state’s term limits.

“There does come a time to pass the torch of leadership,” Arizona’s Republican governor said. “After completing this year in office, I will do just that.”

This has made national news, with even a friend of mine from New England commenting in a phone call that this seems like a big deal.

So I read the relevant clause in the Arizona Constitution to her.

From Article 5, Section 1 of that document -

No member of the executive department shall hold that office for more than two consecutive terms. This limitation on the number of terms of consecutive service shall apply to terms of office beginning on or after January 1, 1993. No member of the executive department after serving the maximum number of terms, which shall include any part of a term served, may serve in the same office until out of office for no less than one full term.

My friend's response -


"Oh."


I can honestly state that the announcement was no surprise - since she started making noises about running for another term, I've said it was about retaining some leverage with the legislature, not actually running again.

She was looking to stave off "lame duck" status as long as possible.

Her "official" announcement was today, but her practical announcement was her veto of the discrimination protection bill, SB1062.

The rationale she gave for the veto was all about the input of the "business community" and the harm that the bill would have caused to Arizona.

However, in 2010, she signed the nativist bill, SB1070, over similar objections from the same people.

The difference between then and now?

In 2010, she was a candidate in a crowded R field, and SB1070 cleared the field for her.

In 2014, she's term-limited and has no self-interest to enhance by signing a bad bill.


AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona offers his perspective on today's announcement here.

CD7 Dominoes - AZ House Dems elect new leadership

State Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-LD27) is expected to resign from the legislature later this week in preparation for his run for the CD7 Congressional seat currently occupied by the soon-to-retire Ed Pastor.

In preparation for that move, Gallego resigned his post within the Democratic caucus, Assistant Minority Leader.

Today, the House elected new leadership, with Rep. Bruce Wheeler (D-LD10) moving up from the post of Minority Whip to Assistant Minority Leader.

Rep. Eric Meyer (D-LD28) became Minority Whip.

Rep. Chad Campbell (D-LD24) remains Minority Leader.


The full press release is here.

NIBW event: New treatment facility open house

A note from the new Community Involvement Coordinator for the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund Area (that's basically all of south Scottsdale):

Indian Bend Wash Community Involvement Group –

 

We are pleased to invite you to an Open House and tour of the new NIBW Granular Activated Carbon Treatment Facility (NGTF), a new groundwater treatment facility for the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund site.  As many of you may recall, the NGFT is the long term remedy for well PCX-1.  It is located directly adjacent to the NIBW Miller Road Treatment Facility.   Event details are below and we hope you can join us on March 13th. 

           

Carlin D. Hafiz
Community Involvement Coordinator
Southern California Field Office
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9
P: (213)-244-1814  F: (213)-244-1850
hafiz.carlin@epa.gov

NIBW details and history here.

Arizona Legislature: the coming week

This week's theme: Return of the Living Dead, aka: " 'dead' doesn't mean 'dead' until 'Sine Die' ".

Note:  "Sine Die" is a Latin-sounding way for the lege to say "Th-th-th-that's all folks!"

The "insider baseball" observation of the week: the Senate's Rules committee will consider a slew of bills that originated in the other chamber, meaning floor activity will soon be focused on bills that are up for final passage, not just chamber passage.  House Rules doesn't have an agenda posted as of this writing.



The usual notes and caveats:

All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do.  If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interesting in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

Floor calendars that have been posted have been included in this post.  However, those calendars are usually posted the day before they are considered.  Hence, only Monday's floor calendars are part of this post.

COW sessions, or "Committee of the Whole", is where actual floor debate takes place, where floor amendments to bills are added, and amendments added to bills in committee are approved.

Third Read sessions are where a bill receives a final vote.  No amendments are added here, and no official debate takes place, though there is a lot of "explaining" of votes during Third Read.

Measures that are going before a chamber's Rules committee are not up for debate on the merits of the measures.  The only subjects being considered is if the bill on the agenda is constitutional and in "proper form".  If a bill is on this agenda, chamber leadership has already decided that it is going to pass.  On occasion, a really bad bill is withdrawn from consideration, but I cannot remember that one was actually defeated in this committee.  Rules committee agendas serve best as an informal preview of what's coming up in floor action.

Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.

Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.

All House committee agendas can be found here.

All Senate committee agendas can be found here.

Legislative floor calendars can be found here.

The lege's calendar of events for the week is here.

AZ Department of Administration meeting public notices are here.  


Some of the bills that are moving this week: 

- HCR2018, a proposal to amend the Arizona Constitution so that any ballot initiative or referendum that affects state revenues or expenditures is valid for only eight years after which it must be reauthorized (Senate Appropriations, Tuesday, 2 p.m., SHR109)

-  HB2284, an anti-choice bill with many toxic clauses.  The highest-profile provision would allow for unannounced inspections of abortion clinics (Senate Health and Human Services, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR1)

- HB2122, a special interest bill benefiting elected officials.  Would allow former electeds who were previously part of the Elected Officials' Retirement Plan (a defined benefit, or "pension", plan) to reenter the Plan if they win office again.  New electeds cannot be part of that plan; they must enter a "defined contribution, or "dog food", plan (Senate Finance, Wednesday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

- HB2115, a Republican attack on the unemployed.  This one proposes to expand the definition of "severance pay", negatively impacting someone's eligibility for unemployment insurance payments, to include any money paid to someone as a result of the cessation of their employment, including money paid for agreeing not to sue an employer (Senate Commerce, Energy, and Military, Wednesday, 9 a.m., SHR1)

- HB2150, an "Awwww, shucks" anti-public education bill.  This one would make the families of military members eligible for school vouchers "empowerment scholarships" (Senate Education, Thursday, 10:30 a.m., SHR1)

- SB1211, allowing the AZ Department of Agriculture and "livestock operators" to kill Mexican wolves, under certain circumstances, and imposing reporting requirements on the reintroduction of Mexican wolves into the wild in AZ (House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources, Monday, 2 p.m., HHR4)

- SB1212, appropriating $250K to the AZ Attorney General's office to pay for litigation against the reintroduction of Mexican wolves into Arizona (House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources)

- SCR1006, a resolution using many words to state that the legislature doesn't like Mexican wolves.  What a surprise (House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources)

- SB1182, imposing requirements related to information pamphlets for public school district bond and override elections (House Education, Monday, 2 p.m., HHR3)

- SB1237, one of this week's living dead bills.  A measure designed to expand school vouchers "empowerment scholarship accounts".  It failed in the same committee last week, but it's been brought back for a return engagement.  If it fails again, expect it to be reincarnated as a striker (House Education)

 - HB2092, the other living dead bill.  It authorizes the continuation of the Arizona Department of Environment Quality, another "living dead" bill.  It failed on a 3 - 4 after the Republicans on the committee amended the reauthorization period down from the proposed 10 years to 5 years.  The three Democrats on the committee voted against the shorter time frame; the fourth "no" vote was cast by Sen. Chester Crandell (R-LD6).  While he isn't normally "on the side of the angels", he was right on this one.  Since the same "10 years down to 5" amendment has been proposed for consideration this week, he's probably had his arm seriously twisted over this one (if the amendment proposed a term longer than 5 years, one could presume that they were going after D votes.  No such amendment is posted...) (Senate Government and Environment, Monday, 2 p.m., SHR3)

- SB1096, gold as legal tender (House Federalism and Fiscal Responsibility, Tuesday, 2 p.m., HHR1)

- SB1478, creating a "water protection program" that is dedicated to protect AZ's water supply by targeting "high water usage" trees like mesquite and tamarisk for extermination (House Agriculture and Water, Tuesday, 2 p.m., HHR5)

- HB2316, barring the state from adopting any federal education standards (House Third Read, Monday)

- HB2103, expanding eligibility for concealed weapons permits (House COW, Monday)

- HB2291, another bill expanding school vouchers "empowerment scholarship accounts" (House COW, Monday)

- HB2587, an "ag-gag" bill (House COW, Monday)

- HB2333, utilizing monies from the Medical Marijuana Fund to pay for anti-marijuana propaganda "education" (House COW, Monday)

- HB2700.an anti-federal government measure, this one related to federal acquisition of land in Arizona (House COW, Monday)

- HB2699, barring the state from participating in any activities related to the federal Endangered Species Act (House COW, Monday)

- SB1389, another bill proposing to use money from the Medical Marijuana Fund to pay for anti-marijuana propaganda "education" (Senate Third Read, Monday)

- SB1063, mandating that for it to be illegal for someone to possess a weapon at a public event or facility, said event or facility would have to provide a secure storage facility for such weapons (Senate COW, Monday)

- SCR1003, a proposal to amend the Arizona Constitution so that any ballot initiative or referendum that affects state revenues or expenditures is valid for only eight years after which it must be reauthorized (Senate COW, Monday)

- SCR1016, a "red meat for the base" resolution, declaring that the legislature supports dedicating a week during the next session of the legislature as "limiting government week".  During that week, they would consider (and presumably approve) measures that would "reduce regulations and limit the size and cost of the state government" (Senate COW, Monday)

From the "Damn, that's gotta hurt" department: AZ-gov (R) - Thomas outpolling Ducey

From Public Policy Polling (emphasis added) -

Moving on to the Governor's race for this year, it looks pretty wide open for both the Republican primary and the general election. The leader for the GOP nomination is 'undecided' at 34%. 5 candidates have measurable amounts of support at this point- Ken Bennett at 20%, Christine Jones at 16%, Scott Smith at 12%, Andrew Thomas at 9%, and Doug Ducey at 6%. Al Melvin, John Molina, and Frank Riggs all register at 1% in the poll.

It's still early and all of the candidates are looking to increase their name ID, but Thomas' main claim to fame is that he was disbarred.

I know that state treasurer is almost the epitome of the "low-profile" office in Arizona (not the lowest profile though - quick, name the state mine inspector, without looking it up), but Doug Ducey getting out-polled by somebody who's more "notorious" than "famous"?

Ouch.


Full poll results here.

Legislative Democrats rallying against the Center for Arizona Policy's extremist agenda

Rally with Legislative Democrats

Tuesday, March 4th

to denounce Center for Arizona Policy bills

Legislative Democrats are holding a press conference to address the ongoing efforts of the Center for Arizona Policy to push extremist bills that promote an ideological agenda. Since SB1062 was vetoed, CAP has turned its focus to HB2284, a bill the organization developed that does nothing good for Arizona, is unnecessary and could cost the state millions in litigation.

Who:
House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix (District 24)
Rep. Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley (District 28)
Sen. Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix (District 24)

Where:
Arizona House of Representatives, Lawn
1700 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
Directions

When:
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
1 p.m.

Short Attention Span Musing

Just a mish-mash of stuff that doesn't really fit into its own post.  For now anyway...

...Republican former legislator Mark Thompson is looking for a return to elected office; he's filed to run for the justice of the peace seat in the University Lakes district (east Tempe).

...Rumors are running rampant that Democratic Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema is mulling the option of leaving her current CD9 (a competitive district) for a run at the CD7 seat (a safe D district) that will be vacated by the about-to-retire Ed Pastor.  I don't think that it's a good idea, and don't think that ultimately she'll do it, but whatever she does, she needs to make the decision quickly - being a carpetbagger is only slightly worse than looking like a carpetbagger-wannabe.

...Rumors are also swirling that Shana Ellis, member of the Tempe City Council and nominally a Democrat, has hired HighGround Public Affairs as a consultant to her reelection campaign.  This is significant for two reasons:

1.  HighGround is arguably the most influential consulting/lobbying firm in Arizona (for good reason), but it is also unabashedly Republican.  Having said that, consulting firms are modern politics' version of hired guns, and candidates care primarily about winning.  And the city council race is non-partisan.  The rumor is as yet unconfirmed, but the relationship, assuming it exists, should be an amicable one. So long Ellis wins and her checks don't bounce.  Which brings us to...

2.  HighGround ain't cheap.  Either she expects to spend a serious amount of time fundraising, or she already has someone in mind, ready to pick up the tab for HighGround's services.


...Republican former legislator and former candidate for Congress Rusty Bowers has filed for a return to the legislature.  He's seeking one of the Republican nominations for a House seat in LD25.

...Republican state representative John Kavanagh may have learned a lesson the hard way, one that many politicos before him have learned, also the hard way.

Don't tell jokes, especially those that make fun of anybody but the joke teller.

Video of him surfaced, video of his performance at a "roast" of his friend and ally, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

His jokes were putatively about Arpaio, but they all seemed to put down Latinos and other groups that have been targeted by Arpaio (and Kavanagh, and Russell Pearce, and many other current and former members of the anti-breathing while brown caucus of the AZGOP).

The Southern Poverty Law Center has more here.

Arizona Legislature: The coming week

One battle is in the rear-view mirror (SB1062), but the R war on civil society (OK, the parts that the Rs don't like, which are mostly the most "civil" parts), continues unabated...

Going with a format change for this post, mostly to see if it makes the post a more interesting and easier read.  Instead of focusing on committee agendas, noting any bad or potentially bad bills on them, the post will focus on bad or potentially bad bills that are scheduled to move this week.

Generally speaking (meaning that there are occasional exceptions), bills that aren't supported by the committee chair or don't have enough R votes to pass will not appear on a committee agenda.  As such, any bill that appears on an agenda is presumed to be moving.

With measures that are scheduled for floor action, they also generally are have enough R votes to pass, otherwise the measures would not appear on a floor calendar.  However, there are also occasional exceptions to that, exceptions that appear marginally more often than with bills in committee.

The usual caveats still apply -

All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do.  If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interesting in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

Floor calendars that have been posted have been included in this post.  However, those calendars are usually posted the day before they are considered.  Hence, only Monday's floor calendars are part of this post.

COW sessions, or "Committee of the Whole", is where actual floor debate takes place, where floor amendments to bills are added, and amendments added to bills in committee are approved.

Third Read sessions are where a bill receives a final vote.  No amendments are added here, and no official debate takes place, though there is a lot of "explaining" of votes during Third Read.

Measures that are going before a chamber's Rules committee are not up for debate on the merits of the measures.  The only subjects being considered is if the bill on the agenda is constitutional and in "proper form".  If a bill is on this agenda, chamber leadership has already decided that it is going to pass.  On occasion, a really bad bill is withdrawn from consideration, but I cannot remember that one was actually defeated in this committee.  Rules committee agendas serve best as an informal preview of what's coming up in floor action.

Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.

Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.


All House committee agendas can be found here.

All Senate committee agendas can be found here.

Legislative floor calendars can be found here.

The lege's calendar of events for the week is here.

AZ Department of Administration meeting public notices are here. 


Some of the interesting bills to watch this week:

- SB1093, requiring federal agencies to register with a county's sheriff before operating in that county and to give all money that they collect (fines, fees, or penalties) to that sheriff (Senate Rules, Monday, 1 p.m.)

- SB1267, amended into an "ag-gag" bill (Senate Rules)

- SB1290, barring federal law enforcement personnel from making arrests in a county without the written permission of the county's sheriff, with certain limited exceptions (Senate Rules)

- SB1351, another Republican attack on the Rio Nuevo facilities district in Tucson (Senate Rules)

- SB1354 and SB1355, more Republican attacks on public employee unions, inhibiting the ability of unions to collect dues via payroll deduction (Senate Rules)

-  SB1366, amended to being a measure reducing the sorts of devices that are "firearms", subject to the few laws that we have regulating such (Senate Rules)

- SB1396, strengthening the centralized control of the state's school districts by the lege and the state department of education (Senate Rules)

- SB1479, stating that entering or remaining on any real property while in violation of any state or federal law is criminal trespass in the third degree.  A breathing-while-brown bill. (Senate Rules)

- SCR1003, a proposal to change the state's constitution to require the voters to reapprove any voter-approved measure that raises state revenue or mandates specific expenditures (Senate Rules)

- HB2012, Rep. John Kavanagh's proposal to reduce the ability of "pro se" litigants to conduct their cases in "non-criminal" court actions if they are found to have filed "harassing" motions or other things; his proposal would not affect litigants with the resources available to hire lawyers to do the harassing (Senate Judiciary, Monday, 2 p.m.)

- HB2103, Expanding eligibility for concealed weapons permits (House Rules, Monday, 1 p.m.)

- HB2219, tripling a corporate tax credit (House Rules)

- HB2276, reducing the tax paid on revenue from insurance premiums (House Rules)

- HB2485, mandating that state education department award a contract worth $36 million to a vendor that can provide education technology software that meets some very specific criteria.  *Very* specific (House Rules)

- HB2508, requiring that health care "navigators" and others associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act to become licensed in Arizona (House Rules)

- HB2513, requiring AHCCCS to contract with an outside vendor to implement an audit of payments for patient services made by third-party insurers for services provided to AHCCCS enrollees (aka - enrollees that have additional insurance coverage under non-AHCCCS plans; due to the nature of the AHCCCS patient universe, I expect that number to be small.  The private vendor contract?  Not so much...) (House Rules)

- HB2535, Under federal law, the local Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) must give written approval when certain firearms are transferred; this measure would impose a time limit on a CLEO who is asked for such approval (House Rules)

- HB2560, permitting insurance companies to evaluate (audit) their own compliance with applicable laws, rules, standards, etc., report on that audit to the appropriate regulatory agencies, and keep those reports secret (House Rules)

- HB2614, imposing some public notice requirements regarding the state budget that seem to be less about encouraging transparency than about incremental TABOR implementation through propaganda (House Rules)

- HB2640, requiring the state or any county or municipality that calls for an investigation of itself or one of its subdivisions to contract out that investigation to a third party selected by the legislature's Auditor General (House Rules)

- HB2699, basically withdrawing Arizona from compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act (House Rules)

- HCR2022, a proposal to amend the state's constitution to raise the tax exemption on personal property from $50K to $2.4 million (House Rules)

- HCR2037, a proposal to amend the state's constitution to bar use of funds in the state's Budget Stabilization Fund (aka - "rainy day fund") in any fiscal year where the state's budget is larger than the budget from the previous fiscal year (House Rules)

- SB1237, making all sort of changes to enhance school vouchers "Empowerment Scholarship Accounts" (House Education, Monday, 2 p.m.)

- HCR2018, proposing to change the state's constitution to require that any voter-approved measures that authorize expenditures are valid for only eight years and must be re-approved by the voters after eight years (House COW, Monday)

- HCR2035, proposing to add a balanced budget amendment to the state's constitution, which sounds OK (the state is already required to have a balanced budget) until you read the other clauses in the proposal (House COW)

- HB2203, messing with the membership of the boards of directors of the state's public employee retirement systems (House COW)

- HB2367, imposing work and other requirements on AHCCCS enrollees (House COW)

- SB1158,  reducing the ability of counties and cities to regulate the sale and use of certain consumer fireworks (Senate Third Read, Monday)

- SB1100, requiring that school districts lease or sell unused/underutilized buildings to charter schools or private schools (Senate COW, Monday)

- SB1102, messing with the state's School Facilities Board (Senate COW, Monday)

- SB1227, barring counties and municipalities from implementing "green" building codes (Senate COW, Monday)


In short, while none of the bills moving this week are individually as rancid as SB1062, as a group?

Far worse.

Congressman Ed Pastor retiring from Congress

...Thank you for your service and let the scrum begin...

From the Washington Post -

Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) announced Thursday that he will be retiring after his current term, setting off what could be a widespread battle to replace him.

The 11-term lawmaker made the announcement via Facebook: "After 23 years in Congress serving the people of Arizona, I have decided that I will not seek re-election this year. It has been a great honor and experience, but it is time for me to close this chapter of my life and start a new one," he said. "I want to thank everyone who has assisted me and supported me throughout my career. Thank you very much for all of your support."

First, let me be one of the many who thank Congressman Pastor for his decades of service to the people of his district, to Phoenix, and Arizona.  His quietly effective style of getting things done will be missed, and will leave some big shoes to fill, for whoever ends up with the job.

Second, the popcorn part of the post.

The district (CD7) is overwhelmingly Democratic.  There are nearly 104K registered Ds in the district, compared to ~38K Rs.  There are approximately 95K Independents or other party registered voters in the district that encompasses south Phoenix, Guadalupe, and southwestern Maricopa County.

That means that a seat that is considered a safe one for Ds is opening up, a rare occurrence here in Arizona.

In 2012, a competitive seat garnered a three-way D primary (eventually won by Kyrsten Sinema) that was rougher than any D primary in recent memory here.

In 2014, the CD7 primary should make that one look like an energetic game of pattycake.

Already announced:

State Rep. Ruben Gallego


State Sen. Steve Gallardo




Mary Rose Wilcox, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors



Others are considering a run, or are being suggested, or are out already (sources are direct or are credible journalists):

Jarret Maupin, considering


Endorsed by Tom Horne (in that district, Horne's endorsement is probably the kiss of death for any candidate).



Greg Stanton, mayor of Phoenix, out



David Schapira, former state legislator and 2012 candidate for Congress, out
State Sen. Robert Meza, out
Israel Torres, former state Registrar of Contractors and 2006 candidate for AZ Secretary of State




State Rep. Chad Campbell, House Democratic leader, considering


Michael Nowakowski, Phoenix City Council member, considering a run at Congress, or the MCBOS vacancy


EJ Montini, columnist for the Arizona Republic, out (never in or considering, but some people wanted him out of Arizona in DC) :)


State Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor, out

Of course, she got the (sort of) endorsement of R political consultant Constantin Querard, which would be nearly as lethal to a candidacy as Horne's (above).



Ken Cheuvront, former state legislator, out

Phil Gordon, former mayor of Phoenix, considering


Republican Sal DiCiccio, Phoenix City Council member, out, announced in his ever-classy way


State Rep. Catherine Miranda, considering



Others who may run, or at least look at running:

State Sen. Anna Tovar, Senate Democratic leader
Laura Pastor, Phoenix City Council member and the daughter of the Congressman


...OK, there are probably more folks to list, but you get the idea - pretty near every D in the state who has ever had aspirations to a seat in Congress is at least thinking about this one.


From the standpoint of the people who will be involved in the various campaigns, it's going to be a long and hot summer.

From the standpoint of the people who write about this stuff, it's going to be seriously fun.