Steve Farley

Rep. Victoria Steele and Pamela Powers Hannley

Transitions for the New Year: Powers Hannley Says ‘I’m In It To Win It’ #AZLD9

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Rep. Victoria Steele and Pamela Powers Hannley
LD9 Rep. and Congressional District 2 candidate Victoria Steele with Pamela Powers Hannley, LD9 House candidate at DGT Luncheon in September.

The beginning of a New Year is often a time for transitions.

On Monday, January 4, 2016, I will make a major life transition as I step down from my 11-year position as Managing Editor for The American Journal of Medicine. Beginning in 2016, I will be working part-time as the Journal’s Social Media/Technology Editor, managing the blog, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media accounts, as well as writing occasional editorials, like this one in the January issue.

Why am I voluntarily leaving a great job? Because I want to work for the people of Arizona in the Legislature, and I am willing to put the work in to get elected. This transition will allow me to dedicate more time to my campaign for the Arizona House, representing Legislative District 9. This is the seat currently held by Rep. Victoria Steele, who is challenging CD2 Rep. Martha McSally for Congress in 2016.

I’m it in to win it. Transitioning from full-time to part-time will give me the time to knock on more doors, attend events, and talk with more constituents about my ideas for making Arizona more prosperous and more equitable place to live.

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

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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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Mollycoddling right wingers is insulting to them and does no favor to the rest of us.

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

maceachern

Conservative AZ Republic columnist Doug MacEachern has a habit of being willing to die on the weirdest hills, such as the time he defended a spurious anonymous complaint harassing the executive director of a pro-choice organization last November. More recently, he chided Democratic Sen. Steve Farley (D-Tucson) for tweeting and others for reporting a direct quote of his colleague Sen. Sylvia Allen (R-Snowflake) proclaiming that she would like for there to be mandatory church attendance.

First, MacEachern set the table with misty nostalgia for past lawmakers from Tucson who were so pleasant. Then he expressed somber disappointment that Farley, who held such promise to continue the tradition of being “a good person to be around”, has failed to do so.

Then MacEachern called Steve Farley a jerk.

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Arizonans for a New Economy

Arizona Legislature Considers Multiple Public Banking Bills (video)

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Arizonans for a New Economy
Arizonans for a New Economy has been working on public banking initiatives in Arizona since 2011.

Austerity is a lie.

We have plenty of money.

The problem is that it is being gambled on Wall Street, instead of being invested on Main Street.

That is the message of public banking.

The State of Arizona– and 48 other states– allow billions of  dollars in taxpayer funds to be invested for the benefit of Bank of America, JP Morgan CHASE, Wells Fargo, and other Wall Street banks who our hold rainy day funds. Shareholders in those “too-big-to-fail” banks make money on OUR money, while we are told to “tighten our belts”. The only state whose economy didn’t crash in 2008-09 was North Dakota because the State of North Dakota created a public bank in 1919 and invests its money at home, rather than allowing Wall Street to invest ND funds for the benefit of Wall Street shareholders. Forty percent of the world’s banks are public banks, but there is only one in the US because our country and our government are controlled by Wall Street.

Public banking advocates across the country are working on state and municipal public banking initiatives. Public banking initiatives have been proposed by both Republicans and Democrats in multiple sessions of the Arizona Legislature. This year, there are multiple bills addressing public banking and/or the health of community banks in Arizona.

The most promising bill is SB1395, proposed by Southern Arizona Senator Andrea Dalessandro, a long-term public banking advocate which would establish a task force to study the feasibility of establishing a state bank of Arizona. SB1395 will be heard by the Senate’s Financial Institutions Committee on Wednesday, February 18, 2015.

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