John --

Hello and welcome to our sixteenth weekly update on all things legislative session. We’re already at Week 16, you say?

Another relatively quiet week at the capitol last week, with really only one day of substantive floor action on Wednesday. Thursday in particular was uneventful: we spent about five minutes on the floor before we adjourned for the week.

The highlight of the week for me was inviting one of the high schools I represent, Desert Vista in Ahwatukee, to perform for our Senate floor session on Wednesday. Keep in mind that because of the pandemic restrictions, before last week we had not had a group musical performance all legislative session. I asked the president to allow a special group of high school seniors perform for us before they graduated in May.

Desert Vista’s wind ensemble performed ‘America the Beautiful’ at the start of our floor session, and they were spectacular! We had about thirty seniors perform, and they were joined by their director and a few parents and photographers. It meant so much to have them at the capitol and perform for us. Turns out this was their first performance all year!

Other than that wonderful musical performance, not much of substance happened at the capitol last week. We don’t have that many substantive bills left to debate and vote, with much of the time dedicated to reconciling changes between House versions of bills and Senate versions of bills, meaning they sometimes go to something called a conference committee (when an amendment gets on the bill in one chamber, and the bill differs from the version that passed the other chamber).

When this happens, a bill finally passes through something called “Final Read,” as opposed to “Third Read.” We end up getting briefed on the bill again since it has gone through so many iterations, before we vote.

But enough about all that. Let’s get to what most people ask me about these days: what’s going on with the budget?

Not much new to report there either. I had several conversations with senior level Republican leaders last week that went well, where we discussed shared priorities. There seems to be broad based support for items like infrastructure investment, paying down state debt, and strengthening our state pension systems.

I would love to see more support for our state universities, and their New Economy Initiative. There doesn’t appear to be as much support for that as the other items I named above, but I am hoping that changes here in the next couple of weeks.

But ultimately, the core of the debate over the budget comes down to the tax plan. As I have said in this space, I do not support the proposal going around the capitol right now that would move our state income tax to a flat tax of 2.5%, at the cost of around $1.5 billion a year (that’s over 10% of the revenue in our state budget).

I am very open to the conversation around tax reform, provided it is at a smaller cost so we can make investments in areas like higher education, infrastructure, housing, and paying down debt. 

There is not enough support at the capitol right now for the tax plan, and I don’t see that changing here between now and when we adjourn the session. That means the tax plan needs to change.

There is talk of separating the tax cuts from the budget, and doing the tax cuts first. That doesn’t have the support of 31 representatives and 16 senators either.

There are also some of my colleagues who want to continue the legislative session until the audit at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum is finished, which could take another couple of weeks. They want to stay in session in case legislation is needed to fix whatever they think is going to come up when the audit’s findings are complete.

All of the things I mentioned above lead to the same logical outcome: we’re going to be in session for quite some time.

That’s fine by me. I’d rather we continue our session until we pass a budget that reflects the needs of our state and the wishes of our constituents. 

I wish I had more to share with you - that’s how little is going on at the capitol right now. If you are hearing that the budget is almost complete, and that we may be done soon…that is not correct.

Here’s hoping I have a more substantive update next week. Until then, you can follow me on FB and Twitter for more frequent updates on all things legislative session.

Thank you!

Sean 

http://www.seanbowieforaz.com/

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