Other Controversial Bills Which Passed Before The AZ Legislature Declared Sine Die

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Probably because the Arizona legislature ended its sessiion on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 49-year precedent of Roe v. Wade, which sucked up all the oxygen in the room, the media did not do its usual reporting on bills that were passed before the Arizona legislature declared sine die.

Some of the reporting that I have seen is behind paywalls. This is bullshit. Early voting in Arizona’s primary election begins July 6, voters have a right to know what their legislators snuck through in the dead of night before sine die. The media must do better.

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I will use the Arizona Mirror’s reporting (excerpt), which is not behind a paywall:

Other controversial bills

The legislature also moved forward a number of other measures during its final hours, including a controversial measure that would essentially ban books like “The Color Purple” or “Atlas Shrugged” from Arizona schools due to their frank descriptions of sex and sexuality.

The legislation bans schools from teaching or directing students to study any material that is “sexually explicit,” which the bill defines as “masturbation, sexual intercourse or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks or if such person is female, breast.” An earlier version of the bill also included homosexuality but the bill was later amended to remove the reference.

An amendment was also added to the bill by Rep. Michelle Udall, R-Mesa, that allowed for classical literature, early American literature and literature needed for college credit to still be allowed, but only with parental consent.

[Coup plotter and fake GQP elector] Rep. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, the sponsor of House Bill 2495, previously argued before the Senate Education Committee that the bill was not about “sex ed” and was instead about keeping sexually explicit material out of the hands of children. A petition on his website, AlignAct.com, describes the bill as helping stop “sexual grooming” in Arizona classrooms.

The legislature also passed a measure that would make it illegal to film any “police activity” if you are closer than 8 feet.

You can blame Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita. The bill had died earlier on a tie vote.

The bill, by Fountain Hills Republican Rep. John Kavanagh, who spent decades as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, would make it unlawful for someone to film police from up to 8 feet away while officers are engaged in “law enforcement activity.”

The bill originally made it unlawful to film someone from 15 feet away, however, the bill was amended to 8 feet away to mirror a Supreme Court ruling regarding the distance protesters could be from abortion clinics, according to Kavanagh. Anyone who violates the new law can find themselves on the receiving end of a class 3 misdemeanor.

“Consider throwing some money to the state coffers for defending a lawsuit against this,” Rep. Domingo Degrazia, D-Tucson, said when explaining his no vote, saying that lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the measure surely will come. [Guaranteed.] “When we come down to our jobs here and being accountable, just remember who will be accountable to the lawsuits coming out of this.”

A number of election related bills were also approved, including a revived one that was initially vetoed by the Governor earlier this year.

[Coup plotter and fake GQP elector] Hoffman’s House Bill 2243 requires a county recorder to cancel a voter’s registration if they receive information that the voter is not a qualified elector. It is identical to House Bill 2617, which Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed earlier this year because he said it could be utilized by bad actors in a discriminatory manner. [It still can. This is not a bug but an intended feature.]

Lawmakers also approved a bill that would let any Arizonan request a recount. [Governor Ducey needs to veto this insane MAGA/QAnon Election Denier bill.] And they want voters to change the Arizona Constitution to require all future ballot measures to get at least a 60% supermajority of the vote to become law instead of the simple majority that has been required since statehood in 1912. [Voters need to reject this anti-democracy veto by a tyranny of the minority. A democracy functions by a simple majority vote, just like the one that passed this GQP Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression bill to effectively nullify your cosntitutional right to citizens initiatives.]

The legislature also approved a measure by Rep. Jeff Weninger, R-Chandler, that would require 90% of condo owners to support terminating a condo association and selling the property. Currently in Arizona, if a company were to purchase 80% of the condos in a condominium they can force the remaining 20% of the owners to sell their properties.

And lawmakers passed a film tax that will allow productions to get up to $25 million in tax credits when it uses an Arizona production facility or films primarily in Arizona or as long as the majority of its pre- and post-production is also done in the state. House Bill 2156 would grow to as much as $125 million a year in tax credits, and it drew largely bipartisan support, but still drew ire from some Republicans who said it opened up the door to “woke Hollywood.”

“Every Republican voting with Democrats should be ashamed,” Hoffman said, adding that Hollywood is “grooming” Arizona kids, a line popular among conservatives who are currently attacking groups like Disney as a part of the on-going “culture war.”

Note: To the contrary, coup plotter and fake GQP elector under investigation by the FBI, Hollywood and film crews of all kinds should boycott Arizona so long as it bans abortions. You can keep your damn film credit. Why would “woke” Hollywood even want to come here? Duh.

Other Republicans jumped onto the bill saying it was a way to attract more jobs to Arizona, including Globe Republican Rep. David Cook.

“So, what I see it as, is the possibility of expanding those jobs, maybe not MGM Grand to come and shoot movies here, but whether it is Hulu or Netflix or other entertainment, to come and invest in Arizona,” Cook said, explaining his vote for the bill.

Not going to happen, Dude. A film boycott of Arizona is far more likely.

Lawmakers also came to a bipartisan agreement on a water bill that includes $1 billion over the next three years to be spent to find new sources of water for the state which was applauded by Ducey late Friday night.

“With the passage of this legislation, we are rising to one of the most consequential challenges of our time,” Ducey said in the press release. “We are securing Arizona’s water future. We’re protecting our water supply, strengthening our conservation strategies and ensuring that our future remains bright.

Senate Bill 1740 by Sen. Sine Kerr, R-Buckeye, would require that 75% of the funding spent to acquire any new water to come from the state. It also adds a number of measures such as rainwater harvesting and conservation measures that were negotiated alongside members of the Democratic caucus.

Note: Arizona is in a water emergency now. Cuts to our CAP Colorado River water supplies are scheduled to happen. Securing water supplies for the future with a desalination water plant in Mexico is years away. The Democrats’ provisions for rainwater harvesting and conservation measures are things we can do right now.

There should be mandatory water conservation measures going into effect. This state is in a world of hurt unless political leaders step up and lead right now on our water crisis.

There are likely other bills which passed that are not included in this review by the Arizona Mirror.





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