John --

Welcome to our ninth weekly update from the state capitol! I hope you enjoy these updates each week as the legislative session progresses.

For those of you who read last week’s update, I am happy to report that last week was nowhere near as bad as the previous week. It was mostly quiet, with the exception of last Monday when we voted on a bill that would dramatically change our vote by mail process, SB 1713. I covered that bill and what I said on the floor in last week’s update.

We started voting on House bills on the Senate floor last week, meaning those bills are headed to the governor’s desk for his signature or veto. The first week or two of voting on House bills includes bills that generate little to no controversy, and most pass unanimously or pretty close to it.

Good news to report on several of my bills that are making their way through the legislative process. SB 1097, our bill to clarify that mental health days count as an excused absence for our students in our K-12 schools, passed the House last week! The final vote was 37-23, and I’m still trying to figure out why twenty three of my colleagues voted no. But in the end, it passed and is now sitting on the governor’s desk for his signature.

Our second K-12 mental health bill, SB 1376, passed the House Rules committee yesterday and is eligible to go to the full House floor later this week. SB 1376 would treat mental health the same as physical health in our school health curriculums as outlined by the state board of education. 

There are still some substantive issues out there that have not been resolved yet, and could see some progress this week. We voted last Thursday on SB 1411, a bill that would raise our weekly unemployment benefits level, which is currently one of the lowest in the country. The bill is a good start, and there is a competing bill that passed the House that has a lot of support as well. I expect there to be a compromise at some point in the process; this is an important priority bill for our caucus as we seek to further help those who are on unemployment and help them get back on their feet.

You also may have heard about the “gaming” bills making their way through the legislature. There are mirror bills introduced in both the House and Senate that would legalize online sports betting, meaning you could place bets on sporting events from your cell phone. The bills are a result of negotiations between the governor, our four major sports teams, and our tribes across the state who operate casinos.

In exchange for the tribes continuing to have exclusive rights over operating casinos for another twenty years, and the tribes receiving the rights to open a couple more casinos and be allowed to operate several new gaming options like keno and craps tables, they would allow our sports teams and other outside entities to operate the mobile sports betting away from their reservations. Sports teams would be allowed to operate sports books at their stadiums or at other locations throughout the state.

The House bill passed the House a few weeks ago, but the Senate bill has not moved since it passed the Commerce committee several weeks ago. My colleagues and I still have concerns about some of the provisions, and we don’t expect it to hit the floor this week.

I am also asked about the budget pretty frequently; the process has started, and I have had conversations with several of my Republican colleagues about broad parameters and what I would like to see in the final product.

We know that many of our Republican colleagues want to see large-scale tax reform, or tax cuts. In an overall budget of around $12 billion, some of my colleagues want to see upwards of $1 billion a year in tax cuts. 

Sure we have a fair amount of one time revenue available thanks to the federal CARES Act, but permanent ongoing tax cuts of $1 billion or more a year? I’m concerned that our state would not be able to afford that, especially with such pressing issues as education, infrastructure, and pension debt in need of support.

I have told my Republican colleagues that I would be open to tax reform on the lower end of the scale, potentially around $100 million a year, and substantive one-time investments in our schools, our state’s infrastructure, and even shoring up our state’s unemployment trust fund, which was hard hit by the downtown last year. 

I also have a great tax cut bill that passed the Senate by a vote of 26-3 last month, SB 1040. It’s a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which would directly target low income working families. It would cost about $60-$70 million a year, which could be added as a part of the budget.

So like every year, I am open to supporting a budget that is good for the state and addresses some of my core priorities. This year that’s our state’s universities through the New Economy Initiative, and our state’s community colleges through their STEM programs. It’s also funding for critically needed infrastructure projects around the state, which would help create jobs and economic activity, especially in rural areas (one project I strongly support is widening of the I-10 between Ahwatukee and Casa Grande). 

I’ve supported two of the last three state budgets, in 2018 and 2020. So I’ve gone through this process before. However, I think this budget will take quite a bit of time, as disagreements in the majority caucus over how much to allocate to tax cuts and what KIND of tax cuts will drag on for the next couple of weeks.

Finally, a special thank you to everyone who wrote me after my update last week. Dozens of you reached out to me to thank me for what I wrote, and also quite a few of you were concerned about me after reading it! It was a tough week, and I think that came through in my communication with all of you.

This job can be difficult sometimes, and while I love it very much, some days are easier than others. I still haven’t decided yet whether I will run for re-election again next year, so thank you again to everyone who wrote back and said so many nice things about me and the work that I do at the capitol. Your words and thoughts are appreciated!

That’s it for this week’s update. Follow my social media feeds for more updates throughout the week!

Thank you,

Sean

http://www.seanbowieforaz.com/

Paid for by Sean Bowie for State Senate. Authorized by Sean Bowie.