The Farley Report: April 20, 2010

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Time once again for the Farley Report by Rep. Steve Farley (D-LD28):

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What a week we're having at the Capitol! I'm sure glad I got all energized on Sunday by spending time with many of you at Cyclovia Tucson. It was terrific to see so many Tucsonans of all ages and backgrounds riding our bikes all over town for the event. My daughters and I had a terrific time.

As an added energy boost before I headed on up I-10 again, I was honored to deliver the opening remarks at the Arizona Transit Association annual conference yesterday morning. The public transit professionals and supporters in that room are working hard during these tough times to build the communities we need all over Arizona as we transform ourselves to thrive in the 21st century.

I arrived yesterday in Phoenix for the week's legislative work, where all that stored-up energy has come in handy. Hundreds of people gathered on the Senate lawn to celebrate their Russell Pearce-provided rights for everyone to carry a concealed weapon without training or testing. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans gave their final approval to this year's Russell Pearce immigration bill, SB1070, his most distressing effort yet.

Today, scores of national and international media are covering thousands of protestors from Arizona and beyond who are surrounding the Capitol area in an effort to convince Governor Brewer to veto the bill. Many of them plan to hold a 24-hour vigil in that regard. We can only hope their vigil bears fruit, because the passage of SB1070 will not do anything to secure our borders — it will force police officers to check immigration papers based on the color of a person's skin instead of doing the more vital work of protecting us in the event of burglaries, violent crimes, and auto accidents.

If we want to deal with the border in a permanent and effective way, simplistic media grandstanding won't do the job. We need to collaborate with the federal government to enact a comprehensive plan that includes cracking down on human smuggling and drug violence while building economic development on both sides of the border so that those who feel they need to come here to create a better life for their families can have a better life at home in the first place.

One bit of very good news is that the Republican legislative leadership and the Governor have finally decided that we need to restore KidsCare healthcare and return Arizona citizens below the poverty line to AHCCCS membership. As you recall, we stood to lose $7 billion in federal funds per year if we did not do these things by June 15.

Thanks to your efforts in speaking out to let the Republican leaders know how important it is to do this, the striker bill will be heard tomorrow morning in the Health committee, and we will third-read the bill on Thursday morning.

The bill will restore our eligibility for our $7 billion in federal funds, and allow those on AHCCCS and KidsCare to regain coverage, but this is only the first step. We still need to remove the enrollment freeze for KidsCare which is projected to eliminate coverage for more than half of the kids currently covered by next June. Also next June we need to maintain coverage for those below the poverty line for another year or else we once again will endanger our eligibility for the annual $7 billion in fed funds. But at least we are OK for now.

Away from the glare of the international TV lights, there was another epic battle that escaped most public notice, in which I played a key role. Here's a little narrative that says a lot about how this place works.

Senator John Nelson (R-Glendale), in his role as the chair of the Senate formerly-known-as-Transportation Committee, sponsored a bill (SB1137) supported by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to allow them to do a number of things, mostly technical, that they need to do to provide a working transportation system for the state.

One of those things was really important: A proposed provision to allow us to set aside a small portion of the Vehicle License Tax (VLT) we already collect in order to draw down federal matching funds for public transit projects in Arizona, especially passenger rail projects in Maricopa and Pima Counties and between Tucson and Phoenix.

Here's a bit of background. We pay 18 cents in federal taxes on each gallon of gas we buy in Arizona. That money gets sent to Washington. We get it back if we put up a certain percentage of matching funds from the Arizona gas tax or some other source. Currently, 15 of those federal cents go into a Highway Fund for road projects, and three cents go to a Transit Fund for public transit projects. That works out to about $500 million per year for Arizona roads and $100 million per year for Arizona transit.

The problem is, the Arizona constitution says that our state gas taxes can only be spent for use on roads. That means that we are able to draw down all of our $500 million for roads, but none of our $100 million for transit, since we have no dedicated source for the transit match. Consequently, our Arizona transit money gets sent to other states that do have dedicated matches for their transit projects. They get the jobs, they get the trains, and they get the buses. We get the shaft.

Leveraging some money we already have to take our money back from other states is a really good idea.

That why the bill came out of the Senate with no opposition. Until it met Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Gilbert), the same Transportation Chair who has killed my ban on driving while texting for four years in a row. Mr. Biggs does not believe that we should spend any transportation money on transit that could be spent on highways.

So he refused to hear this ADOT omnibus bill in his committee (a necessary step for its passage) unless ADOT agreed to remove the transit matching fund language, and unless ADOT agreed to publicly support this removal. I tried to stop this amendment in committee using a series of parliamentary maneuvers, but was unsuccessful at that level because Mr. Biggs said he would kill the bill if that provision remained.

But I did not give up because this is a vitally important issue. Federal transportation funding is increasingly moving toward rail and other transit, and the federal transit funding could double or even triple in upcoming years. Without this fund, we will lose out on being able to bring all our money back, and become even more of a "donor state" than we are today. So I went to work, lobbying House Republican members last week and weekend.

Yesterday, SB1137 was debated during Committee of the Whole (COW) on the house floor. I moved an amendment that would restore the transit matching fund to the bill. I obtained the support of the sponsor Senator Nelson, and several Republicans rose up on the floor to support my amendment as well. When the voice vote was taken, the Chair of the COW was in doubt, so we went to a head count. My amendment to the committee amendment won 30-19, with nine Republicans in support.

Mr. Biggs then rose in opposition to his own committee amendment because I had successfully amended it. Again on a head count we won 30-19. Mr. Biggs told members that he opposed my efforts because ADOT had not publicly opposed his efforts to remove the transit fund.

Once we had won decisively with bipartisan votes — twice — Mr. Biggs decided to kill the whole bill rather than allow that provision he opposed to move forward. During his argument to finally kill the bill, he gave up the angle that he was opposing the fund in order to support ADOT, but instead admitted that he felt that the establishment of the transit fund was "stealing from highways to build transit."

In the headcount on that vote to retain the bill on the calendar, all the Republicans voted with him because their caucus etiquette is to never oppose a caucus member on a procedural matter. Thus did we lose, wiping out those two earlier victories along the way. The good news is that we gained a lot of Republican allies on this totally bipartisan issue that will prove very important in the future.

This morning, 1137 appeared on a COW calendar again. I offered my amendment once more in order to hammer home the case, but did not push to force a headcount after the voice vote was called against me because I did not want Mr. Biggs to kill the underlying bill once again. We third-read the bill without the transit fund in the afternoon and handed it back over to the Senate. At least the issues were well argued. I believe we will prevail sooner or later because time and history are on our side.

There is still no outcome to the standoff over HB2250–the Corporate Bailout Bill–as pushed by Speaker Adams, but the Governor has now said publicly that she will not sign the bill unless there is no cost to the state during the three-year period that the one-cent sales tax would be in effect. The Speaker says that idea is a non-starter — he wants to give away more money to out-of-state corporations earlier, and lower corporate property taxes while raising them on middle-class homeowners. Stay tuned.

But you needn't stay tuned much longer — word is that Republican leadership is aiming to end the session Sine Die on April 29 — next Thursday. It may actually happen this time, so next week's Farley Report should prove especially interesting as we come down to the wire.