John --



Welcome to our latest weekly update! Wow, what a week it was last week. Let’s dive in.



As you may have heard, the Senate finally voted this past Monday to lift the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL), and I of course voted yes. You could say it was the easiest vote I’ve cast all year.



You can watch my floor speech supporting the bill here. <[link removed]> I dedicated my vote to my five public school districts I represent (Kyrene, Tempe Union, Tempe Elementary, Mesa Public Schools, and Chandler Unified) and to the students, teachers, and support staff. Not voting by March 1st to life the cap would have resulted in a cumulative $154 million cut to these districts.



Monday was an especially hectic day, because as I shared in my update last week, my little sister got married! After explaining my vote and hitting my vote button, I rushed out of the capitol to make sure I made it to the ceremony in time (I did).



Walking my little sister down the aisle was one of the great joys of my life. A special day, indeed!



Tuesday last week was filled with an all-day Senate Appropriations hearing where we heard nearly 40 bills, although most of them were non-controversial. We dealt with several housing bills that took up some time, but overall, the hearing lasted about nine hours all things considered. We left the Senate a little after 7pm, which is early for Crossover Week Appropriations hearings!



Wednesday was dedicated to floor sessions all day where we debated and voted on dozens of bills. Two of those bills were mine: SB 1018, which would create a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for working Arizona families, and SB 1222, which would protect federal benefits like the Child Tax Credit during the bankruptcy process.



Both bills passed by large margins with broad, bipartisan support! Here is the vote board for SB 1018:







I spent quite a bit of time with my Republican colleagues last week convincing them that supporting my EITC bill was the right thing to do. In the end, ten of my Republican colleagues voted yes, and for that I am very grateful.



Both bills are now headed to the House, and I am working with leadership and my Republican colleagues in the House to ensure that each receives a hearing and can keep moving through the legislative process.



Thursday last week was a *long* slog, as we spent almost all day on the Senate floor and ended up voting on over 70 bills. We defeated a few bills, unfortunately saw several bad bills make their way through the chamber, and unanimously supported several dozen others.



Last week was long, but this week should be more evenly paced. Our Appropriations committee is not even meeting tomorrow because the Senate has not received enough bills from the House yet to put on committee calendars. Our Senate Finance committee on Wednesday is only going to hear three bills, for example.



Including this week, we have four weeks to hear House bills in the Senate, and the House has the same length of time to hear Senate bills. Once that deadline hits near the end of March, it’s on to the state budget!



As I have shared in this space before, I am a very gettable vote on the state budget this year. I liked many of the elements in the governor’s executive proposal that he released in January, including additional funding for higher education and K-12. As you know, the governor also made my Earned Income Tax Credit the centerpiece of his tax plan.



I naturally want my EITC bill to get signed into law this year. It’s my last year in the Senate, and I want to leave a legacy that I can be proud of. I’ve had six bills signed into law over the last five years (the most of any Democratic member of the legislature over that span), and I want to leave the Senate this year knowing I accomplished something significant. Getting my EITC bill signed into law this year would accomplish that.



I can tell that it is still early days in terms of the budget this year, and I am regularly having conversations with my colleagues on what it will look like and assessing whether it is something I can support. I will of course keep you updated as the session progresses.



One last thing: I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks reflecting on how much I love my job, and how much I am going to miss it next year.



I knew when I made my decision last September not to seek a fourth term in the Senate that I would miss my job, and that feeling has only magnified since we started session in January. I *love* my job and am excited to leave my house early every morning to drive there.



I decided to run for the Senate in 2015 because I was excited about the opportunity to govern and work to support good public policy. I wanted to represent the community I grew up in and do all I could to support them just like they supported me growing up.



It’s the day-to-day nature of the job that I love the most. Every day is different and brings with it new opportunities to work on good bills and work to try and defeat bad ones. Opportunities to work with my colleagues, build relationships, and forge coalitions to achieve wins and avoid losses.



The most exciting and rewarding parts of my job are the stories I can’t tell you about. The conversations with colleagues, the back and forth, the tense and harrowing negotiations and deal making on bills, and all the stories I wish I could tell you. It’s those experiences that I am going to miss terribly.



It’s getting to visit my local schools, like I did this past Friday at my old elementary school, Kyrene de la Mirada. It’s meeting with constituents who share their stories about why a bill is so important to them, and how thankful they are to be a part of the process.



I will never have a job for the rest of my life that I love half as much as this one. As my final session winds to a close, I am regularly asked what I am going to do next. My common reply? “I have no idea.”



Whatever that next endeavor is, I am forever blessed and fortunate for the opportunity to serve these past six years.



But for now? I still have one last session to finish, and I have every intention of making it my best one yet.



As always, thank you for reading.



Sean





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

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