John --



Happy Monday! The 2022 legislative session is just around the corner (it seems like just yesterday that we were adjourning the LAST legislative session), so I wanted to check in and give you an update on what I’m working on.



Even though we are not currently in session, I am going into the office 2-3 days a week on average. While in the office we are meeting with stakeholders about potential bills or issues coming forward next year, researching bill ideas for us to introduce or co-sponsor, and meeting with staff to discuss budgetary priorities.



We are starting to get our bill list ready for January, and doing research on policy areas like mental health, sexual assault prevention on college campuses, bankruptcy protection for consumers, and higher education funding ideas. More on these issues as we get closer to session in January!



The biggest commitment for me this month and next is going out and visiting the 55 K-12 schools in my district. As I shared in our last update back in October, we are scheduling visits with the public, charter, private, and parochial schools across LD18. We have already visited over a dozen campuses, with dozens more scheduled in the coming weeks. We don’t have every site scheduled yet but are hoping to visit all of them by winter break.



Because each of these visits takes about 90 minutes, it’s quite a significant chunk of my schedule. I love these visits, and enjoy the opportunity to meet with principals, teachers, support staff, and especially the students.



Each visit is different, but several themes are shining through at each of the campuses I spend time at. It’s very clear that students are still adjusting to being back at school full time in-person, and that mental health support is more important than ever. I’ve spoken to counselors and social workers about the toll the pandemic has had on our young people, and how they need more staff and more support to keep up with the number of students who need their help every day.



I visited one high school in the district last week who had a student-counselor ratio of under 400:1 (the state average is over 900:1), and they still desperately needed more personnel to keep up with the number of students coming to them every day. The stories I’ve heard from counselors, social workers, and other support staff will stick with me long after the visits this fall.



I have long advocated for additional funding for mental health counselors and social workers in our schools; back in 2019, I helped secure the $15 million of annual funding that goes to grants for counselors and social workers in our state budget. I’m hoping we can increase that amount in next year’s budget, and it’s something that I will be fighting for during my last legislative session.



We have five school visits scheduled this week, and six more next week. At every school I visit, I ask to meet with counselors to hear how the kids are doing. Not every school has a full-time counselor, which speaks to how dire the need is in our schools.



Speaking of the budget, you may have heard that the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling last week that invalidated several controversial parts of the state budget we passed earlier this year. Essentially, our state constitution requires “budget bills” to be limited just to the budget (what a concept!), meaning the legislature can’t insert random things in there. This is often done to get wavering members of the majority to sign on to the budget after they threaten to vote no unless their ask is included.



The problem is the majority party has been doing this for years, even though it’s technically unconstitutional. They thought they could just keep doing it, thinking that the state supreme court wouldn’t slap them on the wrist.



This year was particularly bad. We had a *very* long legislative session this year, in large part because members of the majority kept holding out and demanding that certain things be included. Due to the extremely narrow margins in both chambers, these members knew they could hold out and get what they wanted, because working with the minority party is always (unfortunately) the last possible option.



Thankfully, the court unanimously ruled that inserting non-budget related language into the budget is unconstitutional, and that language was nullified and is no longer law. It includes very random provisions like stripping away power from the Secretary of State’s office (because she’s a Democrat) and telling school districts what they can and can’t do around requiring masks in their schools.



What does this ruling mean for the 2022 legislative session? I think it means a longer legislative session than it would have been otherwise. As long as the House stays 31-29 and the Senate 16-14, any member of the majority party can hold up the budget or other important legislation because they know their vote is necessary to pass anything that is party line.



A lot of this could be avoided, obviously, if there was a stronger desire to build bipartisanship from the majority and the governor. Speaking as someone who has tried relentlessly to build that bridge, I will continue to extend my hand and find common ground where possible. I just hope that approach is reciprocated next year, unlike this past session.



I would love nothing more than to spend my last session next year working together on bipartisan solutions to many of the issues facing our state. Stay tuned!



Thank you as always for reading, and for your support.



Sean





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Sean Bowie for State Senate - PO Box 50802, Phoenix, AZ 85076, United States

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