Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Heads up people! This is the bid by Jan Brewer to be the Scott Walker of the West that I have been warning you about for months. Jan Brewer seeks to go well beyond the assault on collective bargaining rights that led to the pending recall election of Scott Walker in Wisconsin. She wants to do away with more than 100 years of civil service merit selection system protection to return to the spoils system of political patronage and the days of Tamanny Hall.

And once again, it the evil bastards at the Goldwater Institute, a partner of ALEC, that has drafted the model legislation. You can bet that their media arm at the anti-union Arizona Republic will be all for this.

Brahm Resnik from Channel 12 news reports Brahm Resnik blog – Sweeping bills attack public employee unions:

Arizona’s Republican Legislature could virtually wipe out public employee unions in a sweeping new package of legislation far broader than the collective-bargaining bills that shut down Wisconsin’s Capitol last spring. 

The bills would:

–Make it illegal for government bodies to collectively bargain with employee groups. Public safety unions would be included in the ban.

—End the practice of automatic payroll deductions for union dues. 

—Ban compensation of public employees for union work.

Wisconsin’s collective bargaining law enacted last year made unions effectively irrelevant by limiting issues that could be bargained by a government and an employee group. Arizona’s bills would do away with collective bargaining entirely and also go beyond Wisconsin law by including public safety unions.

Coupled with Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to do away with civil-service protections  for state employees, the new legislation could make Arizona ground zero for union protests during this election year.

The Goldwater Institute  worked with state lawmakers to draw up the bills. The libertarian think tank has churned out research and reports over the past few years highlighting what it views as excesses in public-sector employment.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was the guest of honor at Goldwater’s annual dinner last November. Walker had some advice for Arizona legislators when I interviewed him on “Sunday Square Off.”

The package of bills is scheduled for a hearing at 9 a.m. Wednesday before the Senate Government Reform Committee.

Watch for more on this story on 12 News at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

I don’t know what the Occupy movement has been doing of late, but this is your call to action. The Madison Revolution in Wisconsin needs to be brought to bear on the Capitol in Phoenix. This assault on the working people of the American middle-class cannot be allowed to stand. It’s time to take a stand against the radical extremists of the right. They want Arizona to be ground zero? Bring it! Everyone to the Capitol on Wednesday.

Action Alert from the Arizona AFL-CIO below the fold.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: David Crowe, the Republican-turned-Democrat who was running for the U.S. Senate, has now decided to primary Congressman Raúl Grijalva for the new CD 3 congressional seat. I have had a chance to speak with Mr. Crowe a few times. He is personable and well-spoken, but he has more ambition than common sense. … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Doctor Matt Heinz, Democratic Representative for LD 29, is the first Democrat to announce for the Giffords seat. Petitions must be filed 28 days from today. Arizona Rep. Heinz to run for Giffords' seat: State representative Matt Heinz of Tucson has become the first Democrat to officially announce his candidacy for the Congressional seat … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Former Rep. Nancy Young Wright (D-LD 26) is running for Pima County Board of Supervisors (District 1) this year. Below is an Announcement (.pdf) for a campaign event from her campaign.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Oh, geezuz… I have previously explained how 20 years of GOP tax cuts have created a structural revenue deficit hole in Arizona that cannot be filled by "magical" belief in faith based supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics. This entirely disproved and discredited economic theory does not work and has never worked. The First Rule of Holes: "The first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging." – Molly Ivins.

Yet last year our Tea-Publican legislature passed in a Special Session what was laughingly labeled a "jobs bill" — it was, in fact a corporate welfare tax-giveaway plan. The GOP's double dose of poison to kill Arizona:

Senate Bill 1001 is filled with tax breaks and incentives for businesses large and small. The legislative budget office estimated its cost at $538 million by 2018 [worsening Arizona's structural revenue deficit], when all the tax cuts are phased in.

* * *

Brewer's advisors acknowledged that there is no guarantee the changes would yield enough new investment and jobs to offset the anticipated revenue loss.

These corporate welfare tax cuts are delayed until May 2013 when the temporary sales tax will expire. These prospective tax cuts have not created one job, making the "jobs bill" label a sick joke. When the corporate welfare tax cuts do take effect, it will dig the structural revenue deficit hole even deeper.

But wait, it gets worse. Yesterday our Tea-Publican legislature debated three bills designed to give the so-called "job creators" of the investor class a huge tax break — reducing or even eliminating the capital gains tax — again based upon the "magical" belief in faith based supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics.

And once again it was the "geniuses" (the man's T-shirt in the photo reads "I have nothing to declare except my genius") of the Goldwater Institute promoting this entirely disproved and discredited economic theory that does not work and has never worked.