Should the Arizona Legislature help Microsoft pay its APS bills? Tuesday was a light day at the Capital. There was no floor action, but I had time to catch up with colleagues and sign some of their bills. I wanted to tell you about the conversation I had with two Microsoft lobbyists about the tax … Read more
Bloomberg News reports, Arizona Ballot Laws Tossed, U.S. Supreme Court Review Likely: An Arizona election law restricting who can return early ballots was struck down by a federal appeals court because it discriminates against minorities, a decision that sets up a likely showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. The en banc U.S. Court of Appeals … Read more
Thursday, January 23, marked our first floor debate of the 2020 session of the Arizona House. We had Committee of the Whole (COW) for HCR2023, a bill to raise the Constitutional funding cap that was imposed upon schools districts in 1980. We have to pass this bill in order to allow school districts to spend … Read more
In his January 13, 2020 State of the State Address, Governor Ducey, in remarks designed to appeal to his fringe conservative base, blamed the “heavy hand of government” (otherwise known as the law) for permanently preventing families on the Navajo Reservation from using public Arizona State funds to pay for the private school (called Hilltop … Read more
On Thursday, January 16, 2020, the Regulatory Affairs Committee started bright and early with a sunset review hearing for three different departments: the Residential Utility Consumer Office (RUCO), the Department of Insurance, and the Arizona Board of Library Examiners. (This post focuses on the Auditor General’s review of the Department of Insurance.) I have been … Read more