Four years ago, on a ridiculously hot July day, thousands of Tucsonans showed up to welcome the Modern Streetcar (AKA SunLink or affectionately “the trolley”) to downtown Tucson.
I won’t be downtown for the birthday party because I am giving a talk on the Equal Rights Amendment on Saturday night in Tubac, but I hope you all will check out the festivities and the live music on the streetcar and along the route. Below the fold are a few photos and a video from opening day.
Arizona State Treasurer Democratic Candidate Mark Manoil
Over beverages in the outdoor common area of the Phoenix café Lolas last week, Democrat Mark Manoil explained he would promote the creation of state community banks as the first Democratic Arizona State Treasurer since 1967. A July 25 Poll from Data Orbital shows the race between Manoil and his likely opponent Kimberly Yee a virtual dead heat with many undecideds Manoil has time to convince on the merit of his positions.
A Clean Elections Candidate, Mr. Manoil believes that “we need a Treasurer that is dedicated to preserving state assets including human capital.” He comes from a long line of public servants with his great-grandfather and granduncle serving as territorial treasurers before Arizona became a state. A graduate of Stanford and Arizona State University (where he received a Masters in Business Administration), he earned his law degree and has been practicing primarily property tax law for the last 30 years, which has partly equipped him with the knowledge necessary to function as the State Treasurer.
Mr. Manoil’s views on the State Financial Situation
Mr. Manoil feels that Republican leadership, reinforced by the passage of Proposition 108 in 1992, has led this state to poor financial stewardship with tax cuts needing only a simple majority to pass but tax increases needing a supermajority to correct any fiscal imbalances or errors. This has led to a plutocrats dream where social justice programs like university tuition rates have soared since the early 1990’s while Dark Money interests reap the rewards with trickle-down tax cut after tax cut while the people have to pay regressive state taxes to try to maintain a semblance of state services.
The Citizens Clean Elections Commission (CCEC) organizes and hosts debates for all elections in which at least one Clean Elections candidate is running. In Legislative District 9, three of the five people running for office are Clean candidates: Jim Love, Victoria Steele and me. The other two people who are running for house– Rep. Randy Friese and J.P. Martin– are running traditional.
Since early ballots for the August 28 primary election will be mailed on August 1, the CCEC has been hosting many debates in the past month. On July 19, the LD9 candidates had their debate. (The LD9 video link is here and the embedded video is below. To watch other CCEC debates go here.)
CCEC debates include some questions that are asked of all candidates and other questions that are asked of specific people. I have annotated the debate with time stamps– in case you want to focus on particular topics. Since there were several audience questions about guns in schools, the environment and prison reform, I have grouped those questions and answers.
Handmaids visited the Arizona Legislature frequently in 2018. Here they are on opening day with Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley.
It has been a little more than a month since the 53rd Legislature ended with a 40-hour marathon, passing the budget in the middle of the night, under the watchful eye of Red for Ed teachers and supporters.
We passed dental therapy, expanding access to affordable dental care for urban and rural residents and creating new healthcare jobs. (Video.)
We stopped several corporate tax giveaway bills that would have further drained the general fund and taken money from public education. (Video.)
We stopped an untested technology from being used on Arizona workers. After Uber and Theranos, hopefully we have learned our lesson on putting untested technologies into statute. (Video.)
What didn’t we do?
We failed to adequately fund k-12 public education, community colleges or the university system. In fact, the Republican response to the Red for Ed movement was to make 50 fund transfers to pay the teachers a bit more (but not as much as they deserve). It’s time to restore k-12 public education funds for personnel and infrastructure to pre-recession levels. Funding education is economic development. (Video.)
Remote-controlled drone delivery delivery devices were approved for use in Arizona by the Legislature.
On a lighter note, today’s video focuses on drone delivery devices. These are not flying taco copters. These are fancy ice chests on all-terrain baby buggy tires. Soon they will be making remote-controlled deliveries using our sidewalks, bike paths, intersections, and side streets with speed limits of 25 or less. Watch where you’re walking!
