Next Week in the Arizona Legislature, Feb 7-11

You can keep up to date with the goings-on at the AZ legislature due to the hard work of volunteers around the state. Our media has largely opted out of the sort of close coverage and scrutiny they used to bring to bear in days gone by. With staff cuts and the lack of full-time correspondents at the Capitol, one can hardly blame them, but we now are almost wholly reliant on the valiant efforts of unpaid volunteers to keep tabs on some of the insanity that goes on in our state legislature.

Two excellent newsletter sources of timely information are the weekly newsletter (this week’s) of Civic Engagement Beyond Voting, a non-partisan volunteer organization, and the Arizona Legislative Alert (to sign up, email: legislativeadvocacy@vuu.org) of the Valley UUs. And of course, we do our best here at BlogForArizona to get you timely information about what’s actually happening; check in daily, or subscribe to make sure you don’t miss our coverage.

This week will see the bill introduction deadline for the House – the Senate deadline having passed last week. So there will be no more new bills -other than strike-alls – and some possible floor votes on bills already passed through their assigned committees.

February 16th is the drop-dead date, so any bills that haven’t passed out of assigned committees by that date will die.

Floor votes are, thankfully, going to be tough for the AZGOP this week, as they only have a bare majority of one seat in each chamber, and this week Senator Mesnard is absent with the birth of his first child. The irony is that the AZGOP has eliminated remote voting for this session seeking to disadvantage the minority, but they have ended up hamstringing themselves.

As you will see below, our public schools are under strong attack right now and face the #AZEducationCliff sometime in April. Arizona public schools may have to shut down starting in April or put teachers on furlough or take other drastic measures unless this 40-year-old constitutional budget limitation is waived by the AZ Legislature, and they need to do it by March 1. This has been done for years by a bipartisan 2/3 vote (usually unanimous). But this time, the AZGOP caucus is making efforts to link the Aggregate Expenditure Limit lift with ‘reforms’ that seek to undermine our public schools, permanently raid their financing, or censor what local school boards and teachers can do in our classrooms. Push back with your electeds on this notion. We want a ‘clean’ limit lift with no conditions as per HCR2012 and SCR1022.

CEBV has some suggestions as to what you can do in the coming week:

• If you have 5 minutes: Call House Speaker Bowers (602-926-3128) and Senate President Fann (602-926-5874). Ask them to advance a clean bill to waive the school spending cap, so Arizona’s public schools aren’t hit with $1.2 billion in cuts this school year.
• If you have 40 minutes: Use RTS. For help, watch our 5-minute video (best on a separate device you can pause as needed) or stop by our Zoom Happy Hour for a breakout training.
• If you have 50 minutes: Scan the list of bills in Rules committees, and plan your phone calls: these bills are likely to head to the floor this week.
• If you have 60 minutes: Watch a committee hearing or some floor action. Once again this week, there’s something every day that’s worth your engagement: 
• • • Senate Government, Monday at 2 PM (video feed here) 
    • Senate Education Committee, Tuesday at 2 PM (video feed here)
    • House Government & Elections Committee, Wednesday at 9 AM (video feed here)
    • House or Senate floor debate on Thursday. No agendas yet, but it’s bound to be lively! 

• Need help? Join a weekly Monday night RTS training, or drop into our Sunday afternoon RTS Happy Hour, both on Zoom. 
• Bonus action: Take your RTS comments to the next level! Register for the next Letters to the Editor training on February 22. 

CEBV also has some top priority suggestions for this week:

Priority #1:

It’s February in Arizona, and that means several things: beautiful sunny weather, winter visitors… and a legislative majority that’s scheming at all costs to expand private school vouchers.

True to form, Sen. Paul Boyer (R-20) has another major voucher expansion attempt this year. This one is a wish list from the Goldwater Institute, the special interest group that first created Arizona’s ESA voucher program. Their bill is crafted so broadly that it would not only make nearly every child in Arizona eligible for a voucher, but pulls the money directly from the Classroom Site Fund, which voters created to fund public school teacher salaries. 

Voters have made it clear time after time that we want our public schools funded, not more private school voucher schemes. The kicker is that private school enrollment has remained pretty stagnant over the past 20 years. Back then, roughly 5% of kids went to private school in Arizona. Now it’s about the same, except that Arizona is subsidizing private schools with $320 million of taxpayer funding every year. Where is the accountability? These voucher-pushing lawmakers and unaccountable special interests need to either prove their tax drain is working (we suspect they’ll struggle) or give up the ruse.

Use Request to Speak, then contact key members of the Senate Education Committee — bill sponsor and committee chair Paul Boyer, TJ Shope and Tyler Pace — to OPPOSE.

Priority #2:

Remember that upcoming bill deadline we mentioned? It’s provoked lawmakers to entertain more jaw-dropping nonsense than we’ve ever seen on an agenda before — and that’s a pretty high bar. Here is just a partial list of the sheer absurdity being heard in committee this week:

• Banning or restricting early voting and drop boxes (SB1058, SB1404, SB1474)
• Banning masks and vaccines in every possible setting (SB1298, HB2616, HB2453, HB2086, SB1567)
• Forcing busywork on elections staff (SB1343, SB1358, 
• Going full covid conspiracy-theory (HB2619, SB1016, SB1052)
• Putting guns in every conceivable public place (HB2448, HB2489, HB2447)

We wish we could tell you these bills likely won’t advance. Unfortunately, committee chairs usually don’t put a bill on their agendas unless they know it already has the votes. After you’ve used Request to Speak to get your name and position on official record, consider taking the next steps: 

• Contact your own representatives and senator. Calls and emails work!
• Write a Letter to the Editor, or register for our next LTE training on February 22.
• Testify in committee. Uneasy? Stop by our Zoom Happy Hour for a quick training, or sign up for our full Testimony training on Sat 2/12 at 10 am or Thurs 2/17 at 6:30 pm. Our media coordinator would love to amplify your voice!

Some of the top issues and priorities are highlighted this week by the VUU’s Legislative Alert:

• Public Schools are at risk! Public schools will come up against a decades-old expenditure limit that the legislature should have waived again this year (as they always do), but they have not yet even sent the bills to committee!!! These bills MUST BE SENT AND PASSED: SCR1023 and HCR2012. SCR1023 would repeal this limit and that would be a very good idea! Read more about it here.
• Trying to Ban Critical Race Theory is a Bad Idea. There are some good things about critical race theory (CRT), such as advocating for an honest history of racism and racial inequalities. But, there also are some reasons to criticize CRT, such as it sometimes abandons basic principles of democracy such as free speech and press, freedom of conscience, reliance on science and other liberal values in its efforts to bring about racial equality. Nevertheless, bills to ban CRT or any of its principles are not a good example of how to deal with ideas we dislike. Disagree with them, make a good argument, present data, etc… don’t ban ideas! HB2112 is a statute to ban CRT teaching in the schools and HCR2001 is a proposal to amend the constitution (with a public vote required) so that CRT as well as all forms of “diversity, equity inclusion,” and “reverse racism” would be banned. These passed committee on straight party line
• Gun advocates are having a field day! Several bills expanding the scope of gun carrying for people with concealed carry permits are alive and advancing. This includes HB2414, HB2447, SB1123, HB2316, and SB1125, that allows such things as loaded guns on vehicles on schools grounds and ability to carry into public places.
• A Severe Anti-Abortion Bill is active (SB1164). It limits abortions to a 15 week gestation period, similar to the one in Texas that is before the Supreme Court.