John --

Hello, and welcome to the seventeenth edition of our weekly updates on all things legislative session!

Yesterday was the 120th day of session, which marks the end of the regular per diem payments we receive every day as legislators ($35 per day for legislators from Maricopa County, and $60 for legislators outside of Maricopa County). Starting today, our per diem rates go down to $10 for legislators from Maricopa County and $20 for legislators outside of Maricopa.

The 120-day mark is usually the time of the year when many members get antsy, and want to adjourn session because it’s getting hot outside, and perhaps because the per diem rate drops. But that requires getting a budget done, and oh dear, that’s going to take a while (more on that below).

I’ll also point out that there was an effort earlier this year to pass a bill to increase our legislative per diem to $56 per day for Maricopa County legislators and $180 per day for rural members, even after the 120-day threshold. I voted NO on the bill in the Appropriations committee, and would vote no a second time if it came to the floor for a full Senate vote. 

Some bad news to report from last week: the Senate passed HB 2682, a bill backed by the tobacco industry that would preempt local control over tobacco regulation, and codify one set of loose regulations over the sale of tobacco and vaping products statewide.

It’s all the more frustrating because we had the votes to block this bill all session, up until last week. It was last Thursday when several members of the Democratic caucus, including the entire leadership team, suddenly switched sides and decided to support the bill.

The bill now heads back to the House, since it was amended in the Senate. I’m hopeful the bill will stop over there, and we can have a substantive conversation about regulating tobacco and vapor products at the state level, while allowing our local governments to pass additional restrictions if those cities choose to do so.

In other news, there is still quite a bit of drama surrounding SB 1485, the PEVL purge bill that I have talked about in previous updates. The bill was once again scheduled for a vote yesterday, but was pulled at the last second.

Rumor is it still does not have the sixteen votes to pass the Senate and go to the governor, but we will of course be keeping an eye on it, since it could come back at any time between now and the end of session (whenever that is). 

A piece of very good news from yesterday: the House approved SCR 1044, which would allow DREAM Act and undocumented students who graduate from Arizona high schools to be eligible for in-state tuition at our three state universities. SCR 1044 is a ballot referral, meaning Arizona voters will decide in November 2022 if this change will go into effect.

I was the lone Democratic co-sponsor of SCR 1044, and I participated in a press conference yesterday celebrating the news. This change would benefit thousands of Arizona high school students, and would be a big boon to our state’s economy and business environment.

Today is slated to be another quiet day in the Senate, with only two bills on the calendar as a whole. The House adjourned until Thursday, ostensibly to discuss the budget until then and try to come to an agreement (spoiler alert: it’s going to take longer than a few days to come to an agreement, given all of the factors currently at play). 

So what’s the latest on the budget? There were rumors flying late last week that a deal was close, but recent intel seems to indicate that is not the case.

There are two main components to discuss here: the actual budget, with the funding amounts for all the programs we fund as a state, and the massive tax cut proposal that many of my colleagues in the majority want to pass before we adjourn and go home.

Notice that I said “many” of my colleagues in the majority, and not “all.” To this day, the 121st day of session, there are still members of the majority that do not support the tax plan, and they come from *both* chambers of the legislature.

There may be an attempt this year to separate the tax cuts from the budget, and do the budget first, and then pass the tax cuts afterwards. That plan does not have the votes either.

That would certainly be a clever way to pass a budget, with the core budget documents including funding for many programs and causes that would attract bipartisan support, like education, infrastructure, affordable housing, and health care.

But any legislator who considers voting for the overall budget should be held liable for what strings are attached, and those strings would likely be the massive tax cut that many members in the majority would demand in order to support the budget.

So even if the budget included hundreds of millions of dollars for *one-time investments* in programs and areas we would support, that pales in comparison to *billions of dollars ongoing* for tax cuts.

It would be very easy to support a budget that was just focused on revenues, and deciding where those revenues are going. But if a budget deal is contingent on supporting billions of dollars of ongoing, permanent, very hard to change and modify tax cuts, that’s an entirely different conversation.

And I suspect, one that will be difficult to count up votes for. Leaders in the majority party are modifying and tweaking budget proposals they want to see passed, but I think it’s going to be difficult for them to gather up support in both chambers to get to 16 votes in the Senate and 31 votes in the House.

As I’ve said in this space before, we could get a budget deal done quickly if we focused on strategic long term investments, paying down debt, and sensible, modest tax reform. I’m ready to have that conversation every day of the week.

But as long as a block of legislators insist on a massive tax cut that would harm our cities and towns, and not benefit all Arizonans equally, we’re going to be in session for a while. The sooner they realize the tax plan they want doesn’t have the votes, the sooner session will end.

Until then, I’ll continue to work with my colleagues in the majority on ways to produce a state budget that our constituents can support. Stay tuned to this space, and my social media feeds, for more updates!

Thank you,

Sean

http://www.seanbowieforaz.com/

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