Arizona Legislative District (LD) 18 House Representative Mitzi Epstein has spent her public policy career championing causes to help the people.
These include advocating policies designed to:
- Fully fund public schools.
- Improve access to mental healthcare
- Foster suicide prevention strategies.
- Reform unemployment insurance for better benefits for workers and better tax rates for employers.
- Expand KidsCare and other child-centered programs.
- Help the needy and expand the middle class.
- Fight pollution and promote a clean sustainable future for Arizonans and the state economy.
Representative Epstein has been at the forefront in speaking for pragmatic progressive policies that would move Arizonans and the Grand Canyon state forward.
With the retirement of LD 18 State Senator Sean Bowie, Representative Epstein has chosen to run for the State Senate seat in the new legislative district that emerges after redistricting.
If elected, Ms. Epstein would take her expertise on the issues and wealth of legislative experience and put it to good work in Arizona’s legislative upper chamber.
She would continue to champion the issues she fought for while in the Arizona State House.
Representative Epstein graciously took the time to discuss her candidacy for the Senate.
The questions and her responses are below.
1) What are at least two reasons you want to run for a term for the Arizona State Senate?
- “I want to continue to work for great schools and clean air. A thriving economy needs an excellent education system and a healthy environment.
- I am fighting for fairness and practical solutions. It’s a fight because the Republican majority keeps pushing extreme notions like the ban on mask mandates and censorship of history lessons. These ideas did not pass through the normal committee process, so they are full of troubles. And yet, they were passed into law with shortcuts and favors.
- The Arizona Legislature is a murky place full of log-rolling and backroom deals. The power to change bad laws should be the power of the people, but it is not. Not the way that the Republican Majority runs things. Just look at all the lawsuits against the laws that were passed this year alone. They are being ruled unconstitutional because the Republican Legislative Leaders have cut corners and worked in the dark. Their shadowy work ethic has resulted in bad laws and expensive court cases. You and I and everyday Arizonans are stuck paying the bill for their messes, and I’m fed up with it!
- It’s time to shine a light on the AZ Legislature. As the Democratic Lead on budget issues, I am working to bring much better transparency to the legislature and to uplift the voices of everyday people. Where the money goes, something grows. By making transparency a big bright light on the money, we can keep an eye on what it is that we are growing. We’ve seen that the Republicans want to shower favors on billionaires and make everybody else pay for it. We’ve seen their “flat tax for fat cats” and we know it’s no good for real people. We must invest in Arizona to grow opportunities for real people, and we do that with strong public education, reliable infrastructure like roads and broadband, and affordable healthcare. All of that must be done with a big bright light of transparency and accountability. When we invest, we need to make sure we are using every penny prudently and we are getting a good ROI – Return on our Investment.”
2) Please explain why you are running for the State Senate and not again for the State House.
“There is really not much difference between the two chambers. In the House, minority legislators share an assistant, but in the Senate, even the minority members get a full-time assistant. I hope to be able to answer more emails from constituents and generally get even more work done with a full-time assistant. My assistant, Kathy Dominguez has been a fantastic help to many people who have called our office in the House. I hope I will be able to continue to work with her. In general, I look forward to working with the whole Democratic caucus to unite behind action to help the people of Arizona.”
3) What are at least two reasons voters should elect you over any opponent in the Senate race?
“I have the skills and the track record to get things done that help real people.
My voting record and outreach to residents show I listen to the community and reach out to them, not the paid lobbyists. The people in the community care about education, a thriving economy, voting rights, equal rights, and safe communities, so that’s where I focus. My work to develop practical solutions created bipartisan laws including Jake’s Law for mental healthcare, Family Caregiver Grants, and the 2021 historical step forward in Unemployment Insurance.
My professional experience in computer systems and finance has been instrumental in evaluating the data for the best policies. For example, Unemployment Insurance is a labyrinth of state and federal laws and programs. By digging into the complexities, I found ways to do both: improve benefits for workers and reduce tax rates for employers. By working as a team in the Democratic Caucus and with colleagues across the aisle, we found common ground and got the bill passed. It was a genuine example of bipartisanship when Democratic Rep. Randy Friese and I worked with Republican Rep. David Cook to develop the details of the bill and move it through committees in the House and the Senate.”
4) If elected to the State Senate, what are at least four issues you will focus on in that chamber?
“Education, Environment, Economy and Equity – the 4 “E’s” for Epstein.
Education: We still need to fully fund public education. We need better teacher pay and reasonable class sizes in ALL our schools in Arizona. Our students deserve 21st Century technology and learning materials to prepare them for the jobs of their futures and their own pursuits of happiness.
Environment: Maricopa County has had over 55 days of High Pollution Alerts this year and the trend is not getting better. For people with COPD and asthma, it literally hurts. We’ve got to develop policies to support a sustainable economy and clean air. If we do not meet clean air goals by 2024, some businesses could be curtailed by the federal Clean Air Act. Nobody wants that. As the Chair of the Sustainability Work Group, I am convening air quality stakeholders and Climate Crisis stakeholders this fall to make a plan for clean air and a sustainable economy.
Economy: Every year highly-paid lobbyists bring the legislature a new batch of economic development tools, also known as tax cuts for business. As the Ranking Member on the House Ways and Means Committee, I lead our Democratic team to add accountability measures. If taxpayers are going to pay for some businesses to pay less, then we want to be certain that the tax incentives really did improve jobs, and really do continue to create a net improvement to life for Arizonans.
Equity: You want to get ahead. When equity suffers, you suffer.
When the Arizona legislature passes inequitable policies, like unfair regressive tax policies, it feels like they are intent upon shooting the economy in the foot. With the Republican Majority, taxes keep getting worse and worse for everyday Arizonans. Time after time, the Republican majority has passed a state-level tax cut for special interests, and that has resulted in higher taxes at the local level for everyday working families. When Republican legislators cut funding for schools and cities at the state level, you end up paying even more in school and city taxes. Retirees are especially getting hit with an unfair tax wallop as their fixed income is taxed more and more each year by regressive tax schemes.
Math and evaluating data are my strong suits. When I look at the data, it shows that Arizonans keep working harder and harder, but only the very few billionaires get ahead.
Take the new gambling laws as an example of inequitable, regressive policies. You’ve seen all those ads for “sports books” since the Legislature passed the expansion of gambling laws this year. It may be fun for folks to add excitement to watching games, but every day Arizonans are getting a ridiculously bad deal. Gambling licenses are limited to a very few bazillionaires. In other industries, such as microchips, the profits of a big corporation do help to foster lots of entrepreneurs and smaller businesses. But with this scheme for expanded gambling, all the big money stays with about a dozen people and corporations. That is plain old not fair. When the economy is not fair, it allows very few to prosper and everybody else pays for them.
I know we can make life fairer for you. I know we can make changes to help expand the middle class and help everybody to achieve more when they work hard.
5) Is there anything not covered in the first four questions that you would like the readers to know about you and your candidacy? Please explain.
“It is important for everyone to know that I am listening to you and working for you and not some paid lobbyist. In the legislature, there are too many instances of highly paid lobbyists shaping bills and the creation of laws. It really means a lot that I represent the people in the community and work to make their lives better. I have the skills and the knowledge to help people solve big problems like changes in the insurance industry to help people find mental healthcare and improvements to unemployment insurance. I bring together neighbors and experts – like the AZ Science Policy Network –to help formulate solutions and solve problems.”
Please click on the below social media sites to find out more information on Representative Mitzi Epstein and her candidacy.
https://twitter.com/MitziEpstein
https://www.facebook.com/MitziEpsteinforAZ
Instagram: MitziEpsteinAZ
For more info about clean air:
https://www.maricopa.gov/1643/Air-Quality-Status-and-Monitoring
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