Legislative Alert, February 9, 2010

Welcome to the weekly legislative update brought to you from the Arizona AFL-CIO.  Your participation strengthens the union movement at the state legislature and beyond!  Your participation is needed – all affiliated are invited to join the weekly lobbyist meeting to collaborate efforts and plan strategies & tactics. The weekly meeting is every Friday @ 12:00 at 5808 N. 7th Street. The next legislative meeting will be February 12th at noon.

Special Session Round 6 Continues
Last week the Governor called for a Special Session which began on Monday, February 1.  The legislature has been asked to do 4 things:  balancing the 2010 budget, including delaying education payments and selling more state buildings; setting up a special election for a three year, 1 cent sales tax increase; pro-rating income tax deduction for out-of-state filers; and borrowing against the state's future revenues from the Arizona Lottery. 

So far they passed S1001 which will set a special election up for May 18th.  SCR1001 will send the temporary sales tax to the ballot and allow the voters to decide to increase taxes or cut more out of the state budget and dramatically decrease services for those in need. 

The referral will specifically ask voters to vote on a temporary one cent sales tax over three years.  This increase is projected to produce nearly $1 billion in new revenue for next year.  Even if it does pass, the sales tax would provide some relief, but it is far from producing the revenue necessary to balance an already depleted budget. The tax referral has been one the first major accomplishments of true bipartisanship work we have witnessed with the conservative controlled legislature.  It was supported by the moderate Republicans and many Democrats. 

The special session will continue this week and it is expected to conclude on Tuesday.  Only time will tell?..

SCR 1033 - Prop 105 back on the Ballot?
Senate Appropriations committee passed a bill that would sends Prop 105 back to the ballot. Prop 105 mandates the legislature to keep their hands off of monies that were allocated for protecting certain services such as health care, education, and social services. Prop 105 was passed by the voters for times like these.

However, there are a few legislators who would like to undo the will of the voter and have complained about the voter-protected funds for years and view this as the time to reverse the will of the voters. 

Musical Chairs Update
Senator Burns appointed Sen. Harper to chair the Finance Committee.  Sen. Harper will remain on the Veterans and Military Committee but he will step down from Chair and Freshman Senator Al Melvin will now Chair. 

David Braswell to Replace Pamela Gorman
David Braswell was appointed to replace Pamela Gorman by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in District 6.  Pamela Gorman left her seat to run for Congress to replace retiring Congressman John Shadegg.  Braswell is the current chairman of District 6 Republicans and was recommended to the Board of Supervisors by his fellow precinct committeemen. 

Warings Replacement is next
District 7 Precinct Committeemen (PC's) have selected three people to replace Sen. Waring who also resigned to run for Congressman John Shadegg's seat.  The PC's voted for Rep. Barnes, Rep. Barto and Ed Bunch.  The three names will be forwarded to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. 

Clean Election "Matching" Funds a Go for Now!
Many candidates have already filed to run a traditional fundraising campaign for fear that matching funds would be eliminated and altering their chance of running a competitive race.  There has been a lot of confusion and the issue is still not clear. 

The case is now being kicked up to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Goldwater Institute filed an emergency request to the high court asking them to issue the stay that was issued last week by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ruled on Jan. 20 that matching funds violate constitutional free-speech rights and froze private contributions.

Arizona provides publicly funded candidates with extra money beyond their basic funding allotments when they are outspent by privately funded rivals or targeted by independent expenditures. That part of the system would end under Silver's ruling.

Hero & Villain of the Week
The Hero of the week is House Minority Leader David Lujan who pushed for the Democrats to work with the Republicans on the tax referral.  Rep. Lujan stated, "We hope Republicans finally step up and do the hard work to solve this budget crisis by negotiating together," House Democratic Leader David Lujan continued. "Arizonans know a budget crisis this big can't be solved from one side of the aisle. Republicans' failure to lead just pushes Arizona farther down the wrong track."

The Villain of the week is Sen. Ron Gould from Lake Havasu who said he sees no choice but to go after the shared revenue. He said it's only a matter of time before the Legislature runs out of options.  Gould stated, "I hate to have to push part of our problem down on cities and towns, but I don't really see another alternative," Gould said. "It'll happen. It'll have to happen." 

In order to change the formula of shared revenue they will need a super majority of 2/3 votes to pass the buck to the Cities and Counties who are also laying off workers and cutting critical services. 

Watch State Legislature in Action
Just a reminder, Cox Cable recently began broadcasting AZ CapitolTV from the Arizona Legislature on Channel 123.  This channel is a CSPAN style channel featuring events of the Arizona Legislature and other state programming of interest such as Statehood Day.  Also, the Arizona Legislature now has an online video archive.  View and hear live and archived hearings and meetings using the State of Arizona's live and video archive at http://azleg.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3

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