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
http://www.seanbowieforaz.com/
Paid for by Sean Bowie for State Senate. Authorized by Sean
Bowie.
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