Week Five: Fifty-Fifth Legislature — Second Regular Session

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A Moment of Silence for Senator Olivia Cajero Bedford 

Arizona lost a much-loved stateswoman with the passing of former Senator and Representative Olivia Cajero Bedford from Tucson. Senator Cajero Bedford first took office after winning her election in 2002 and served Southern Arizona until 2019. The Senator came from a long line of public servants who fought for working families. Her father, Bernardo Cajero was first elected in the 1966 midterm elections. Her mother, Carmen Cajero was appointed to her husband's seat and made free textbooks for students number one issue. Our deepest condolences go out to her family and loved ones.

Story of the Week: School Vouchers

Legislative Republicans have passed a radical expansion of private school vouchers in the Senate Education committee this week. If passed and signed into law, SB1657 would become the largest expansion since the Prop 305 proposal was rejected by the voters of Arizona by a 2:1 margin in 2018.

The bill would expand ESA vouchers to over 70 percent of the 1.1 million public school students in Arizona. Meanwhile, our public school districts will be forced to give back 16 percent of what they have already budgeted for the last 12 weeks of the school year without legislative action.

We are asking the handful of Republicans who care about our State’s economy to join with legislative Democrats to pass an override to the Aggregate Expenditure Limit by March 1st to avoid further damage to our public schools.

Take action by telling Republicans to override the 1980 School Spending Cap today.  

The Good
Thanks to President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats Arizona received $90 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to agencies or organizations selected and vetted by the legislative caucuses, which the House and Senate split evenly.

This week the House Democratic Caucus directed another $8.8 million to 10 non-profit organizations including: 

• $3,854,892 for AZCASE – AZ Center for After School Excellence to enhance training and improve technology for staff and after-school programs.

• $2,000,000 for Career Pathways for job training to ensure highly skilled talent pools in high-poverty communities.

• $600,000 for Valle Del Sol to hire new clinicians to help deal with a backlog of behavioral health cases resulting from the pandemic. 

• $500,000 for Zion Institute to expand and launch new early learning centers for pre-school and after-school care and expand behavioral health services for low-income families.   

• $490,000 for Stepping Stone Foundation to fund COVID-19 mitigation services in underserved areas and expand childcare opportunities for families.

• $250,000 for Ryan House to provide increased respite care to immune-compromised children and their families impacted by the stress and financial hardship caused by the pandemic.  

• $250,000 for West Valley Arts Council to train additional artists work with older adults in skill-based arts programs.

• $250,000 for YWCA Southern Arizona Women's Economic Advancement Center to increase career readiness, entrepreneurship, financial stability and economic mobility for disadvantaged individuals and women of color.  

• $99,436 for Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture for farm job training and to address food insecurity in the Gila Bend area. 

• $570,000 for the Arizona Association for the Education of Young Children to provide preschool educators with professional development tools.

SB1525– Senator Rosanna Gabaldon sponsored a bill that appropriates $10,000,000 to install cable median barriers and creates a 15-member Interstate Cable Barrier Median Expansion Study Committee, passed in the Senate Transportation & Technology committee.

SB1216– Sen. Victoria Steele sponsored a bill to increase the effective duration of an order of protection from one year to two years after a defendant has been served, passed the Senate floor and now heads to the House.

HB2651– Rep. Brian Fernandez sponsored a bill that would repair Cesar Chavez Boulevard in San Luis, passed the House Transportation Committee and heads to the House floor.

HB2600– Rep. Diego Espinoza sponsored a bill that would create a slip ramp on the Loop 101 to ease traffic congestion for Tolleson and West Valley residents, passed the House Transportation Committee and heads to the House floor.

HB2650– Rep. Reginald Bolding sponsored a bill last year that was introduced this year by Speaker Rusty Bowers that creates a critical incident bureau to investigate police use of deadly force, passed out of House Appropriations and heads to the House floor.

HB2562– Rep. Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren sponsored a bill that would spend $5 million to build a traffic circle on US Route 89 near Lake Powell, passed unanimously in House Transportation and heads to the House floor.

HCM2002– Rep. Andrea Dalessandro sponsored a bill that urges Congress to restore the Cherrybell mailing center which serves more than 1.8 million people in Tucson, passed out of House Government and Elections and heads to the House floor.

HB2224– Dr. Rep. Amish Shah sponsored a bill that bans declawing cats, passed House Government & Elections and heads to the House floor. “Cats have the right to bear claws.” - Dr. Rep. Amish Shah.

The Bad
HB2086 – Rep. Joanne Osborne sponsored a bill that bans a requirement to be immunized from COVID-19 to attend a public school.

HCR2015 – Rep. Tim Dunn sponsored a bill that would require a supermajority for a citizen initiative to pass.

HB2602 – Rep. Shawna Bolick sponsored a bill that would ban early vote centers, passed out of House Government and Elections.

HB2289 – Rep. John Fillmore sponsored a bill that would require challengers to be present at all polling places, passed House Government and Elections on party lines.

HB2447 – Rep. Quang Nguyen passed out of the house judiciary committee that allows students, faculty & staff at Arizona colleges and universities to carry or possess firearms on the property, passed out of the House Judiciary.

SB1360 – Sen. Kelly Townsend sponsored a bill that would require election observers to be near enough to what they want to observe and outlines the process to evict an observer, passed out of Senate Government.

SB1343 – Sen. Wendy Rogers sponsored a bill that requires all ballots in a precinct get tallied in that precinct, passed the Senate Government on party lines.

SB1058 – Sen. Wendy Rogers sponsored a bill that bans on drive-through voting, passed the Senate Government and heads to the floor.

SB1166 – Sen. Vince Leach sponsored a bill that prohibits employees from engaging in political activities like lobbying or campaigning, and could be used to keep public workers from organizing union members and advocating for better working conditions, passed in Senate Commerce.

SB1474 – Sen. Kelly Townsend sponsored a bill that would eliminate early voting, passed the Senate Elections.

SB1404 – Sen. David Gowan sponsored a bill that would make election day a holiday and eliminate early voting, passed Senate Elections.

The Ugly 

Thanks to a packed room of supportive parents, trans adults, and trans youth who testified against SB1138, it failed in committee.

However, Republican leaders like Senator Nancy Barto and Kelly Townsend refuse to acknowledge the testimony of the trans youth and have brought back the bill via a strike-everything amendment in next week’s Health and Human Services committee.