It Has Begun
So far . . .
House -- 184 bills and 9 concurrent resolutions (which would amend the Constitution).
Senate -- 84 bills and 1 concurrent resolution.
Bills can be introduced for approximately 3 more weeks!
RTS can be used once a bill is has been assigned to a committee.
The League's focus will be on bills in the general areas below:
Passage of the ERA.
There will be a bill filed in both houses.
Maybe Arizona can be the 38th and final state to pass this (in spite of the road of legal issues that will arise if it passes; one step at a time!)
More info on the ERA at
this website
.
See ERA Forum event below.
Voting Rights. We want no more obstacles to registering or voting. For example, Senator Ugenti-Rita would like to keep people from turning in their early ballots on election day (
SB1054; Judiciary). They would instead have to vote a provisional ballot. This will
not shorten count times and is more likely to disenfranchise voters.
On the other hand, another of the Senator's bills (
SB1054; Judiciary) would allow early-ballot curing (contacting a voter about a deficient signature) up to 5 days after an election, which is a good thing!
Citizen Initiatives.
Fewer obstacles! Rep. Finchem's
HB2021 would allow initiative organizers to collect signatures online, but has not yet received a first read. However, a bill by Rep. Kavanagh (
HCR2005) would require that a certain % of signatures come from each legislative district, vs. statewide.
Clean Elections and the CE Commission. "No!" to any attempts to weaken responsibilities for campaign finance tracking/auditing or candidate funding. We're still reviewing a bill by Fillmore (
HB2076) that looks promising.
Independent Redistricting Commission. At this point League would support a portion of a bill (Fillmore,
HCR2002 - no 1st reading yet) introduced to increase the number of commissioners to 9. The power to nominate those Commissioners would be given to the Clean Elections Commission instead of the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, but League sees no justification for this part of the bill since we see no evidence that the process hasn't worked since it became law.
Campaign Finance.
We want transparency! As an example of what we don't want: Rep. Kavanagh filed a bill (
HB2038-no 1st reading yet) that would exempt lawmakers from having to report their attendance at lobbyist events.
Public Education Funding.
Senator
Sylvia Allen's bill
SCR1001
(Education Cmte) would raise sales taxes by a penny, beginning in 2021, for for primary, secondary and higher education. There will be other bills filed. We will evaluate such bills based on criteria of long-term sustainability, accountability to taxpayers and educators, and fairness to all children needing education.
Charter School Reform.
Transparency and accountability in funding and administrative transactions is needed. A small step is Rep. Townsend's
HB2032
, which would specifically require charter schools, including their sponsors, governing boards and private management contractors, to comply with Arizona’s open meeting laws.
