There's now proof that when a legislator tells you that one of the schemes to take authority away from the federal government is all about their love of "local control", they're lying about that "love".
According to the latest update from State Senator Steve Farley, we should start hearing rumblings about a state budget soon. He noted that there may be some recalcitrant Republicans who "feel they got rolled last year on the budget and are determined not to make that mistake again."
My prediction:
Though some of the Rs mentioned above may try to gum up the works as they hold out for some earmarks in the budget, it's an even-numbered year (aka - an election year). They all want to get out of the Capitol and start campaigning for reelection. Plus, the leaders of each chamber are running for Congress this year (Senate president Andy Biggs: CD5; House speaker David Gowan: CD1). In other words, there will be a flurry of activity behind the scenes, the budget will be revealed "suddenly", railroaded through the lege in three days with a minimum of public input, and "sine die" will take place shortly thereafter (not much of a prediction there; that's the way the lege has operated for years).
Let this be the first public sine die date prediction: Thursday, April 14.
We've reached the part of the legislative session where the committee process is over - except for the chambers' respective Appropriations committees.
So far, this week's meeting of House Appropriations looks harmless ("so far" is a big caveat - at the Capitol, things can change quickly), but Senate Appropriations?
Not so much.
Among the measures up for consideration this week:
- A proposed striker to HB2163, overruling any local ordinances regarding pet stores and puppy mills
- HB2501, a scheme to move any and all health-related boards and commissions under the purview of the state Department of Health Services and giving the director of DHS veto power over any regulations proposed by those entities
- A proposed striker to HCR2014, a proposed amendment to the state's constitution to have the voters renounce their vote in 2006 establishing a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage and further, bar municipalities from establishing local minimum wage levels
- HB2690, a proposal to remove the licensing and oversight of pawnbrokers from county sheriffs and local agencies and give that responsibility to the Arizona Department of Public Safety
The rest -
Notes:
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 interested in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.
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.
Committee schedule (mostly just copied and pasted from the lege's website. The agenda links work, as of this writing, but may not later in the week if an agenda is modified in some way):
| Agenda Date | Committee | Time | Room | HTML Document |
| 03/24/16 | Government and Higher Education | 9:00 A.M. | HHR 1 | Click Here |
| 03/23/16 | Appropriations | 2:00 P.M. | HHR 1 | Click Here |
| Agenda Date | Committee | Time | Room | HTML Document |
| 03/24/16 | Education | 9:00 A.M. | SHR 1 | Click Here |
| 03/23/16 | Finance | 9:00 A.M. | SHR 3 | Click Here |
| 03/22/16 | Appropriations | 2:00 P.M. | SHR 109 | Click Here |
Floor Calendars:
The House has COW (Committee of the Whole) calendars (here and here) scheduled for Monday.
The Senate has a COW calendar posted for Monday.
There will be floor calendars later in the week, but those are generally posted the day before, or even the day of, consideration.
The lege's Capitol Events calendar is here.
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