Month: January 2019

Political Calendar: Week of January 6, 2019

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Political Calendar for the Week of January 6, 2019:

Monday, January 7: Inauguration of Governor Doug Ducey and state officials.  The inauguration ceremony for Arizona’s six state elected officials  will be held Jan. 7 at the Capitol Mall. Seating begins at 9 a.m., and the ceremony starts at 10 a.m. The event is open to the public, but free tickets must be secured online in advance starting Saturday, January 29 at 8 a.m.

Monday, January 7, Noon: Democrats of Greater Tucson luncheon, Dragon’s View Restaurant (400 N. Bonita, South of St. Mary’s Road between the Freeway and Grande Avenue, turn South at Furr’s Cafeteria). New price: buffet lunch is $10.00 cash, $12 credit; just a drink is $3.50. NOTE: DGT will return on January 14, 2019 with Buzz Davis on Veterans for Peace on VA Privatization.

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NOW (MOST OF) IT CAN BE TOLD: Kyl Lists ASU Part-Time Compensation, (Some) Advocacy Clients; Increased Net Worth 7X

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It came the week after he left the U.S. Senate, but Jon Kyl has now filed the financial disclosure statement that all candidates and officeholders generally file before serving the public. In it, he discloses that: (1) he had been involved with many companies that do significant business with the federal government, (2) his salary as a part time ASU professor averaged $64,000, (3) he provided previously undisclosed legal/advocacy services for APS, SRP and others, and (4) non-Senate life increased the Kyls’ net worth by more than seven fold.

There had been much speculation in the media that Kyl was trying to avoid filing a financial disclosure statement at all, although Arizona’s Politics recently pointed out he was still obligated to file the report by the extended deadline even though he would not be in office. Sure enough, the report was filed late yesterday evening.

The eye-popping numbers come on the first page of the report (below) when the Senator lists his income sources for the past two years*. His averaged annual compensation for his lobbying position with Covington & Burling is $930,000. In addition, he received approximately $128,912 during the period

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Should seniors skate?

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The Legislative session doesn’t start for another week and a half and I’m already tired of the bad ideas being proposed. I previously wrote about HB2002 Rep. Mark Finchem’s (R-Oro Valley) proposal, which would “allow the state to fire teachers who discuss politics, religion, or racial issues in classroom settings.” Yesterday, Newsweek picked up on Phoenix New Times reporting that nine of the points in his bill were “lifted directly from the Stop K–12 Indoctrination campaign, which the David Horowitz Freedom Center sponsors. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes David Horowitz as ‘a driving force of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-black movements.’” Not to be outdone, Rep. Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa) submitted HB2015 which covers the same territory.

Now, we have “a self-proclaimed ‘tax activist’ who wants to excuse anyone 65 or older from paying property tax. Her name is Lynne Weaver and she is working with a former state GOP chairman to permanently ban property taxes on AZ home owners 65 and older.

What a ridiculous idea! As a Capitol Media Services article points out, if the initiative passes, homeowners under 65 would be left to make up the property tax burden the elderly were relieved of. This tax money after all, funds public education, emergency services and other community programs. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t rely on property taxes to fund these programs because it inevitably results in winners and losers. But the funding for these essential services has to come from somewhere and for now, that’s property taxes.

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Happy New Year from an improved Blog for Arizona (updated)

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Dear readers,

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve been having problems with our comments approving automatically (or not) for a few months. I’ve been approving the legitimate ones when I’m online.  Some spam ones have gotten through the filters, and I’ve been deleting those.  Because we haven’t been able to fix the problem, our webmaster consultant has recommended we migrate to a new Blog for Arizona blogsite, where I have been posting  quite a few upcoming Calendar items.  Also, for some reason a recent Word Press update stopped allowing me to publish them on this current, older website.  Bear with us as we transition shortly.

Here’s a Swearing In event at Pima County Dem HQ for Jan. 3rd, which is on the new blogsite Calendar, but not on this one.  Note below that flyer time has been updated.

 

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