Look who’s excited about Prop 123!

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

santa cruz land

Per the AZ Capitol Times, Governor Ducey is positively giddy over the strong support his education funding plan is getting from the “business community”:

Let’s Vote Yes for Arizona’s Schools, the campaign committee formed to promote Prop. 123 in the May 17 special election, announced that it brought in about $1.75 million in its first two months of fundraising. The fundraising haul brings the campaign about halfway toward meeting the expectations of campaign manager J.P. Twist, who has said he expects it to raise between $3 million and $4 million.

The biggest contributors were GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons and his wife, Renee, who each gave $250,000 to the campaign. Greater Phoenix Leadership has given $220,000, while the Helios Education Foundation contributed $100,000.

Salt River Project and the Arizona State University Foundation each gave $75,000. Cox Communications, DMB Associates, Blandford Homes and auto dealership magnate Larry Van Tuyl each gave $50,000. Developer Edward Robson and his company, Robson Communities Inc., each gave $25,000 to the campaign.

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Ducey: Prosperity Is Just Around The Corner!

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Hoover

No, this isn’t Governor Doug Ducey. It’s President Herbert Hoover. But same shit, different century.

It appears the efforts of Governor Doug Ducey and his communications people to enforce mandatory optimism are working, judging from this recent piece in the Arizona Capitol Times about the governor’s first year in office:

Remaking Arizona: Ducey’s free-market approach succeeds in year one

It would be difficult to imagine a more successful first year for Arizona’s 23rd governor.

Gov. Doug Ducey took office with two severe problems requiring immediate attention: a massive budget deficit and a K-12 funding lawsuit that threatened to drop Arizona even further into the fiscal hole. He set out to find an early resolution to the first and ended his first year by mediating a solution to the second. In the intervening months, he stayed active, putting his conservative, free-market imprimatur on state government.

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They can dish it out but can’t take it

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Dish it out

If there’s one thing as constant as the sun rising over the Arizona desert every morning it is that Arizona conservatives love to rag on California. Since I moved here close to twenty years ago I’ve been hearing right wingers characterize California as the epitome of every bad liberal thing imaginable. If you are a Republican running for office it’s practically a requirement to dis those commies on the Left Coast and, if at all possible, paint your Democratic opponent as an effete “San Francisco Nancy Pelosi liberal”. Our current Governor Doug Ducey wasn’t shy about getting his digs in on the Golden State when he was running for election, insisting that companies were leaving California in droves due to its terrible business climate, a claim that was fact-checked and found wanting.

But California Governor Jerry Brown said something unflattering (and true) about Arizona so, of course, Arizona conservatives including the Governor had a giant stupid hissyfit over it.

STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR DOUG DUCEY REGARDING COMMENTS BY GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN

PHOENIX – “All of Arizona mourns for the victims in California. To politicize a tragedy of this magnitude and use it as an opportunity to attack our state is out of bounds. Not only will we be ignoring Gov. Brown’s advice, but I call on him to retract his incredibly thoughtless and ill-advised comments.”
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They all must look alike to Gov. Ducey

Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR DOUG DUCEY PHOENIX – “Given the horrifying events in Paris last week, I am calling for an immediate halt in the placement of any new refugees in Arizona. As governor, I am invoking our state’s right under 8 USC, Section 1522 (a), to receive immediate consultation by federal authorities … Read more

“It’s just a bunch of Mexican kids. Why should I pay for them?”

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

There’s something that feels very inevitable about the way this Arizona school funding “settlement” is playing out.

The plan ends a lawsuit filed by schools in 2010 after the Legislature stopped giving required yearly inflation increases to basic school funding. It would funnel $3.5 billion to K-12 schools over 10 years. About $2 billion comes from increasing land trust withdrawals, and the $1.4 billion from the state’s general fund. The deal also contained several triggers that would allow the Legislature to stop mandatory inflation boosts in tough economic times.

If passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor, voters would have to approve the changes in a May special election.

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