State Budget Centers on Vaccine Denialism, Voter Suppression, and Police Control of Civilian Review Boards

In their zeal to get a Republican-only budget through the state legislature (did any of these members of the former Party of Lincoln reach out to any Democrat on the budget,) Governor, Doug Ducey and Arizona Republican state legislative leaders have made several Faustian bargains with their members in order to secure their votes for one of the most fringe budgets in Grand Canyon state history.

While much attention is focused on the revisions (which still do not address the needs of the people) to the flat tax proposal, the budget triggers for enacting them and raising the percentage of revenues shared with local governments from 15 to 18 percent, there are several amendments that have been revealed (more still need to be published) that promotes several fringe reactionary priorities.

Perhaps the most ludicrous are clauses in Regina Cobb Amendments 2896 and 2897 (please see below) which put roadblocks in place to ensure all members of the public get vaccinated. This includes provisions that make it difficult for K-12 schools and local governments to obtain proof of vaccination (Amendment 2896) as well as universities and community colleges (2897.)

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Another amendment (2891) shows Republican hypocrisy on who can vote. This amendment would mandate hunting and fishing license outlets to provide assistance and documents for voters to fill out voter registration forms.

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While there is nothing wrong with doing that, Republicans had better not make any fuss when college students want to use their school identification in the next elections.

This is also hypocritical considering House Republicans passed measures on June 20 designed to possibly intimidate voters who may have signature issues.

Please click below to access links to House Leader Reginald Bolding (with conspiracy theory lover and possible insurrectionist Mark Finchem in back) and Kelli Butler delivering stinging rebukes to Republicans for passing these draconian voting suppression measures.

Perhaps the most callous amendment is Amendment 2893.

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It has lots of goodies for the far-right including:

• The creation of civilian police officer review boards solely populated by people with backgrounds in policing. Talk about the fox in the hen house.
• Expands opportunities for fringe lawmakers to exert political payback on local governments that adopt any policy or regulation that any one member of the legislature (can we say people like Vince Leach or Kelly Townsend) feels is against the state constitution. This provision would give the State Attorney General the power to investigate and perhaps withdraw state funding from these local governments if they do not correct any violations.

The Democrats, thanks to Republicans not seating all their members in the House chamber (another example of Republicans not being able to govern. They can not even get all their members on the floor to secure a quorum,)  were able to postpone debate on the budget until at least 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.

In a statement, House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding wrote:

“You can’t simultaneously ignore the wishes of half the state and then take us for granted to pass a partisan budget. The public and our members need more time to analyze the measures Republicans negotiated in secret and stuffed into their budget plan, and what the long-term implications will be for our state before we debate this. Their plan was already a massive gift to campaign donors and special interests, and full of retaliatory attacks on educators and Democratic elected officials. Dropping a dozen new amendments this morning that rewrite major portions of their plan to vote on this afternoon is inappropriate. A budget should be developed with all voices at the table, but they don’t want the public to know what’s in this plan until it’s too late.”

Please take this time given to you to contact your legislative district representative and senator and tell them that you want a budget with amendments that work for the people and not the fringe greedy plutocrats.