John --

Welcome to our latest weekly update from the state capitol!

A great way to start the week yesterday: I attended the annual Fresh Brunch event for one n ten, a local organization that does amazing work supporting our young LGBTQ population throughout Arizona.

I’ve worked closely with one n ten over the years and so greatly admire the work they do. As you know, I regularly run several bills every year to support Arizona’s LGBTQ population, including a bill to ban gay conversion therapy and another to implement stronger anti-bullying protections in our schools.

While we have made steps in the right direction in recent years, there is still so much work left to do. A special thank you to everyone at one n ten for all their hard work and their commitment to improving the lives of Arizona LGBTQ youth!

We have now hit the point in session where committee action is starting to stop (all committees other than Appropriations have ended for the year) and we turn the bulk of our attention to the Senate floor for debates and floor votes.

It’s also the time of the year when the budget conversation starts happening in earnest, and now that Proposition 208 was thrown out in court a couple of weeks ago, that should clear things up, right?

The governor really wants to call a special session to repeal last year’s tax cuts and replace them with a NEW tax cut that is even bigger. Why repeal last year’s tax cuts? Because voters last year collected enough signatures to refer those tax cuts to the ballot in November.

This would obviously impact the state budget, as whatever tax cut goes into place will impact what investments we can make as a state in education, health care, and other public services.

The governor could call that special session any day now (who knows, maybe later today!), but the sense around the capitol right now is that he does not have the votes to do so yet. Stay tuned!

This week will be a busy one for me personally. Our Senate Appropriations committee is holding our final non-budget related hearing of the year, and it is traditionally the longest one of the year. Why is it the longest? As bills fail to pass through other committees and other chambers, this hearing (along with the House Appropriations hearing happening later today) is the last chance for bills to clear the committee hurdle before they can go to the Senate floor for a full vote.

As of our last count we are hearing 40 bills in our hearing this week. It will start on Tuesday morning, is expected to go all day, and is potentially scheduled to finish on Thursday.

It’s a little bittersweet because it is my final Appropriations hearing not counting the one we do for the state budget later this year. A little sad, because I love our Appropriations hearings, getting ready for them, and asking questions during our session.

If you are interested in watching our committee hearings live, you can go to azleg.gov. We should be in committee all day Tuesday into the evening, and possibly Thursday as well.

In other news, my bill to protect federal benefits like the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit from being seized in the bankruptcy process for low-income working Arizona families passed the House Appropriations committee last week!

The bill number is SB 1222, and I had to work for several weeks to get the bill on the committee agenda. I also met with most of the members of the committee individually to get their support.

The only individuals who would be potentially negatively impacted by the bill are bankruptcy attorneys (who would no longer be able to collect those dollars for themselves, since they would get to stay with the families). You know what that means: the bankruptcy attorneys hired a lobbyist to represent them to oppose the bill in committee last week (groan).

Thankfully, I had done enough legwork on the bill ahead of time and the bill passed committee by a vote of 9-3. Strong bipartisan support!

After it goes through the Rules committee the bill will head to the House floor. Will keep you updated on its progress!

One final note before I go: as I shared in last week’s update, a dear friend to me and many of you, CJ Briggle, passed away last weekend. We are working on scheduling a memorial service for late April; I will share the details with all of you as soon as I have them.

Thank you as always for reading! And remember that you can find more regular updates from me on my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Sean

http://www.seanbowieforaz.com/

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