Month: October 2013

Bruce Ash tears into me about tuition tax credits

by

by David Safier

Last Saturday, I was on Robin Hiller's State of Education radio show on KVOI. For the last 10 minutes, Robin and I talked about tuition tax credits, beginning with GEICO's "generous $8 million donation" in corporate tuition tax credits, which in fact cost GEICO nothing — not one penny — while we taxpayers picked up the entire tab. More on this in an earlier post.

The show after Robin's in Emil Franzi's Inside Track. Franzi had Bruce Ash on as co-host, and Ash spent the beginning of the show disputing what I said: "David Safier was either intentionally misleading listeners, or he didn't know what the heck he's talking about."

Mostly, Ash talked about the wonderful work Bank of Tucson did by "investing" about a million-and-a-half dollars in the kids at Tucson's San Miguel High School, a private Catholic school. The only comment directed at what I said was, "These were not rich kids, they were not Jewish kids as Mr. Safier seemed to intimate." Now, I'll give Ash the benefit of the doubt and assume he garbled that sentence a bit — it happens when you're talking off the cuff — since I never mentioned Jewish kids (though I would like Mr. Ash to explain whether he was intimating in that statement that this Jew is anti-Semitic). However, Ash is right to say not all kids who receive tuition tax credits are rich. As a matter of fact, corporate tax credits can only go to kids from low income families. But personal tax credits can go to anyone, and that means kids from wealthy families can have their entire private school tuitions at the most expensive schools paid for by these backdoor vouchers — which you and I pay for, since the "donors" get 100% of their money back at tax time.

An inauspicious start to the Secretary of State race

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On the very same day that the current Secretary of State certified the referendum ("citizens veto") of HB 2305 — the Voter Suppression Act — to the ballot in 2014, the co-author of that bill, Sen. Michele Reagan announced her candicacy for Secretary of State. Awesome! Sen.
Reagan enters race for secretary of state post:

State Sen. Michele Reagan formally entered the race for Arizona
secretary of state on Tuesday, touting her experience in business and
election matters. [Such as drafting voter suppression bills.]

* * *

She noted her experience this year as chairman of the Elections Committee.

That background, she said, makes her well-suited to be secretary of
state, a job that includes overseeing elections and managing business
filings.

We note your experience as chairman of the Elections Committee as well — you are the face of voter suppression in Arizona. You also refuse to consider any bills that would bring transparency and disclosures to campaign finance laws to end the practice of "dark money" contributions from anonymous sources. You are a terrible candidate for Secretary of State.

Sen. Reagan will face a GOP primary against self-funded millionaire Wil Cardon, who lost a bid for U.S. Senate last year, and Rep. Justin Pierce, who is running Clean Elections because Wil Cardon accused him of a conflict of interest with his father Gary Pierce serving on the Arizona Corporation Commission. So much nepotism and sense of entitlement among rich kids.

Referendum (‘citizens veto’) of HB 2305, the Voter Suppression Act, certified for the ballot

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Announcement from the Protect Your Right to Vote Committee:

Secretary of State Certifies Protect Your Right to Vote Effort to Overturn HB2305

Committee has nearly 111,000 signatures, 80% validity rate, to put measure on 2014 ballot

PHOENIX – Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett today certified that
the Protect Your Right to Vote Committee’s referendum of House Bill 2305
will be on the 2014 ballot.  
 
Bennett confirmed that the Committee gathered just under 111,000 valid
signatures — far eclipsing the necessary 86,405 to qualify — and that
the Committee’s validity rate was an astounding 80 percent. A broad and
diverse coalition of more than 25 non-profit civic engagement
organizations worked to gather the signatures in just three months after
the Legislature narrowly passed the controversial effort to get tough
on voters in June.
 
 “Today was a big win for Arizona voters and voting rights, but it’s
only part of the battle,” said Julie Erfle, chairwoman of the Protect
Your Right to Vote Committee. “The public response to our effort has
been overwhelming across party lines, and we are absolutely confident
that Arizona voters will toss these unnecessary and self-serving voting
roadblocks in the dumpster where they belong. It’s not right for
politicians to try and game the system by putting up barriers to voters
who might not support them, and by making criminals out of campaign
volunteers. This blatant power grab has now been derailed, and I predict
that House Bill 2305 will be an albatross and a curse for any
politician who supported it.”
 
Erfle added that the majority of the signatures that the Committee gathered came from registered independents and Republicans.

Abortion-inducing drug case may be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Oklahoma Supreme Court set the stage Tuesday for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule this term on an abortion dispute over whether states may restrict doctors from prescribing the two drugs that are commonly used by women who seek an abortion in the first weeks of their pregnancy. Stage set for Supreme Court to rule on abortion<-inducing drugs:

The Oklahoma case could be the first test of whether the court’s
conservative majority will uphold the new state laws that seek to
strictly regulate legal abortions.

The legislatures in Oklahoma, Texas and several other states have adopted laws that require doctors to follow the Food and Drug Administration’s protocols for the use of “any abortion-inducing drug.” The laws forbid doctors to prescribe medications for “off-label use.”

Sponsors of the laws said
they wanted to protect the health of women. But medical experts and
supporters of abortion rights said the law would effectively ban
medication abortions because the FDA protocol is outdated and conflicts
with current medical practice.

Only one drug — mifepristone or RU-486 — was approved by the FDA in
2000 for inducing early abortions. In the last decade, however,
physicians have regularly prescribed a second drug — misoprostol — to
complete such abortions through nine weeks of a pregnancy. They also
have prescribed RU-486 in much lower dosages.

GOP support for Democratic immigration reform bill in the House

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The "Republican Savior" Marco Rubio now has so little influence that noboby much cares what he has to say anymore (outside of the conservative media entertainment complex information feedback loop). His recent attempt to kill immigration reform bills in the House is not bearing fruit — not yet, anyway.

Two House Republicans are now on record supporting the immigration
reform bill introduced by House Democrats, a version of the Senate bill
that gets rid of one border security amendment disliked by House Dems
and replaces it with another security measure that has House bipartisan support. Immigration reform is sort of undead:

Which is to say that immigration reform is just a bit more undead than it was yesterday.

GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida today signed on to the Democratic bill, after GOP Rep. Jeff Denham did the same
over the weekend. This measure is unlikely to get a vote in the House.
But Dems  have not given up on the possibility that House Republicans
will allow a vote on something immigration related this year.