UPDATE: At approximately 8:30 p.m., the Senate passed the primary budget bill and worked until 2:30 a.m. to pass all of the 11 budget bills including the tax cut.
Arizona lawmakers are nearly halfway toward approving what Sen. JD Mesnard calls a “once in a lifetime overhaul” of the state’s tax system, but whether the other half get approves this week is still in question.
As of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Senate had passed 8 of the 11 budget bills on a 16 to 14 margin in a marathon day of amendments, commentary, and votes which was continuing as of press time. Among those eight were appropriation bills for higher education, criminal justice, health, environment, capital outlays, and transportation.
It also included the tax omnibus and revenue bills which are two of the three priorities of the legislature’s majority Republican caucus. And among the legislation were several amendments offered by senators which matched a variety of bills that failed to pass earlier in the session.
One amendment offered to the health budget bill, SB1824, came from Senate President Karen Fann to codify Gov. Doug Ducey’s recent executive order prohibiting COVID-19 vaccinations for community college and university students. It appears, however, that the prohibition is only valid while those vaccinations are offered under “emergency” approval.
That is one of the amended bills the State House is expected to consider on Thursday. None of the budget bills were discussed by the House on Tuesday because 28 of the 29 Democrats in the chamber failed to show up.
The maneuver by the minority party caused a lack of quorum due to the fact four of the 31 Republicans were participating remotely. House rules allow members to vote remotely but for purposes of determining a legal quorum there must be at least 31 representatives present on the floor or in their official House office.
In explaining his support of the budget bills, Mesnard cited several features, including an appropriation toward paying down state pension liabilities. He also noted income taxes will be cut “at a significant amount” which in turn will put Arizona in a positive competitive position.
Throughout Tuesday’s floor session, most of the 14 Democrats in the Senate proposed numerous amendments for how to spend Arizona’s $2.3 billion surplus. Many of the options involved additional funding for lower income residents but were voted down on a 16 to 14 margin.
And some supporters of the Democrats’ amendments suggested the tax cuts contained in the budget bills were disproportionately beneficial to higher income residents.
Sen. Sonny Borrelli said he took many of the Democrats’ comments “as contempt for the rich.”
Earlier in the day the House Committee on Government & Elections gave due pass recommendations to two bills, including SCR1010 which would promote a three-day States’ Convention in September. All seven Republicans on the committee voted for the Sen. Kelly Townsend sponsored bill but indicated they would likely vote against it on the floor.
However, the bill never made it to the full House due to the lack of quorum. The same problem affected Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita’s attempt via SB1431 to bring changes to the citizen advisory committees utilized by flood control districts.
Ugenti-Rita explained there is currently no restrictions on who sits on those committees, which has allowed city officials to hold seats on what is supposed to be a citizen committee. The bill would also mandate all counties with a population of 1.5 million or more must have a citizens committee; the only county which would be impacted by that provision is Maricopa County, even though Pima, Pinal, and Yuma also utilize citizen committees for their flood districts.
On Tuesday, Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema, and Mark Kelly voted in favor of a piece of legislation, S.1, which would have grabbed power over elections away from the states. S.1 would have banned requiring photo I.D. to vote, expanded ballot harvesting, and require taxpayers to fund political campaigns.
The duo joined the other Democrats in support of the bill. However, all Republicans voted to filibuster the bill, effectively killing it.
It was Sinema and fellow Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin that preserved the filibuster for just such an occasion.
S. 1 is an unprecedented power grab & a blatant attempt by those who are in power–by the slimmest margin possible–to overhaul & rewrite election laws for all 50 states in one fell swoop. Yesterday, I addressed Democrats’ misnamed “For the People Act” on the #Senate floor. pic.twitter.com/U9KKNPrE20
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) June 22, 2021
S.1 makes election fraud easier to commit & harder to detect by allowing unlimited ballot harvesting, undermining voter ID laws, & making it more difficult to maintain accurate voter lists.
MCCONNELL: The biggest lie being told in American politics has been that the states are involved in a systematic effort to suppress the vote. That’s not happening. As we all know, we had the biggest voter turnout last year since 1900. pic.twitter.com/wrONnJTJpq
— Senate Republican Communications Center (@SRCC) June 22, 2021
Senate Democrats are pushing a false narrative that S.1 is about voting rights. Do not be fooled. This bill is about Dems grabbing for power, forcing taxpayers to finance political campaigns, and making our elections less secure.
— U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (@SenHydeSmith) June 22, 2021
S.1 is a power grab that would effectively nullify state voter ID laws, mandate public funding of political campaigns, and transform the Federal Election Commission into a partisan body empowered to limit free speech. This is a bad bill, which is why I voted no.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) also slammed S1 as an “unprecedented partisan power grab.”
“The Democrats’ S. 1 is an unprecedented partisan power grab that seeks to undermine the sanctity of the ballot by codifying a federal takeover of local elections. The Democrat politicians act seeks to eviscerate widely supported voter ID requirements and use taxpayer dollars to bankroll political campaigns,” GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a release. “Americans understand states should run their own elections — not unelected bureaucrats in Washington, DC. As Democrats continue their assault on election integrity, the Republican Party remains committed to making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”
The State Transportation Board approved last week the expansion and improvement of four corridors for passenger and freight traffic under the Arizona Department of Transportation’s five-year construction program.
The 2022-2026 Five-Year Program, which also includes more than $1 billion in pavement preservation projects, will fund several projects to widen highways and improve safety that include:
Adding lanes along Interstate 17 between Anthem Way and Sunset Point, with construction on the $328 million project beginning in 2022.
Replacing the Gila River bridges on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Casa Grande. Construction for that $83 million project is targeted for 2023.
Constructing the first phase of the I-40/US 93 West Kingman interchange. The $70 million project is expected to begin by 2024.
Widening US 93 between Tegner Street and Wickenburg Ranch Way. The $41 million project is scheduled for 2022.
Funding of more than $1 billion on pavement preservation projects will bring 581 lane miles of pavement from fair and poor condition to good condition.
The plan was approved in a virtual meeting following a three-month period for the public to provide feedback. Arizonans submitted more than 1,000 comments on projects across the state.
The 2022-2026 Five-Year Program allows ADOT to reach its goal of allocating $320 million per year for rehabilitation of bridges and roadways throughout the state highway system. These projects include repaving and repairing highways, along with repairing or reconstructing bridges.
The State Transportation Board’s approval of the Five-Year Program followed a call for public comment in March and four virtual public hearings. In general, major projects begin as part of the agency’s long-range visioning process, move into a six- to 10-year development program and then become part of the Five-Year Program.
Funding for the Five-Year Program is generated by the users of transportation services, primarily through gasoline and diesel fuel taxes and the vehicle license tax.
While budget negotiations continued behind closed doors, the State House got back into action Monday by focusing on one of its showcase subjects – election integrity.
On a 31-29 party line vote, representatives passed SB1083 which if signed into law would change the criteria for when an election recount is necessary for some races. Depending on the race, recounts are currently only mandated is the margin of victory for a candidate between 10 and 200 votes, or one-tenth of one percent or less of the combined total votes cast for the top two candidates.
Under SB1083, a recount will be triggered in most races when the margin of victory is one-half of one percent or less. Supporters of the bill have pointed out for months that an automatic recount would have been triggered for the U.S. President race if Arizona had the new margin formula in place in November 2020.
The other bill passed Monday was SB1241 which involves the signature a voter is required to affix on an early ballot affidavit. If signed into law, it would require county election officials to refer certain non-matching signatures to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office or the local county attorney.
More than 80 percent of ballots cast in the 2020 General Election were early ballots which had to be mailed in a special envelope to the county recorder’s or dropped off at an official ballot box. Upon receipt, a county recorder employee verified the voter’s signature on the envelope by comparing it to digital copies of all prior signatures used by that voter.
If the signature did not appear to match the voter’s registration file, then the county recorder’s office would reach out to that voter who is given a choice to “cure” the signature within a specific time period. If the voter chooses not to cure the signature, or if local election officials cannot reach the voter, then the ballot inside that envelope is not counted.
Statewide, less than 2,000 out of the more than 3 million early ballots cast in the 2020 General Election were not counted based on a non-matching signature flag. It is unclear how many of those ballot affidavits were actually signed by someone other than the voter, or how many voters given an opportunity to cure chose not to because of COVID-19 or being out of state.
Rep. John Kavanagh has argued during this legislative session that elections officials and prosecutors need more options in their toolbox for addressing possible fraud. And he has complained that reports of there being little to no fraud connected to early voting is disingenuous without consistent statewide protocols.
“It’s easy to claim there’s no fraud in early ballots if you never look for fraud, even when it may be staring you right in the face,” he said Monday.
One issue facing smaller counties is that many of their county attorney’s offices do not have investigators. As a result, any investigatory work would likely have to be referred to the local county sheriff or even a local police department.
That possibility was the subject of questions raised during Monday’s floor debate about what protections would be in place to ensure the ballot itself is not identifiable to multiple people as possibly belonging to a specific voter. The Arizona Constitution guarantees a voter’s ballot choices are secret.
Because SB1241 was amended in the House, it has been transmitted back to the Senate for final action. It is expected to pass there on a party line vote and then head to Gov. Doug Ducey who has not said much about what election bills he may sign.
For the last three weeks the Arizona Legislature has spent more time not working on the state budget slated to start July 1 than they have spent working on it. But optimism is rising -particularly within the Republican caucus- that the impasse may be over.
Gov. Doug Ducey warned lawmakers at the end of May that he did not want to see any legislation hit his desk unless it was the 11 bills contained with the budget packet. He even vetoed 22 bills, all of which had Republican supports, to show he was serious.
On Monday, a number of people involved in the budget process signaled that compromises were being worked out to ensure 31 House and 16 Senate “aye” votes will be put forth for all 11 bills, or at least a significant number to get things moving forward.
According to Sen. Vince Leach, the proposed budget compromise provides money for education, public safety, road infrastructure, debt reduction, and “significant tax relief.” The first four of those items have been the key areas of disagreement, while the latter involves both tax cuts and a transition to a flat rate income tax.
Ducey also released a letter of support for a revised budget package which would now provide cities and towns with an 18 percent share of the state’s Urban Revenue Sharing Fund rather than 15 percent. The increased percentage is intended to cover $225 million in revenue municipalities were estimated to lose if Ducey’s proposed flat rate income tax is approved by lawmakers.
The transition to a flat tax would take place over a few years, and would limit the top rate at 4.5 percent, although Arizonans making less than $250,000 would have a rate of 2.5 percent.
Another compromise expected to be introduced would cap the amount of tax cuts next year at $1.3 billion unless certain revenue thresholds are hit. In that case, the tax cuts could go as high was $1.8 billion.
The Arizona Education Association has come out against the tax cuts and the flat tax. However, the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona threw its support behind Ducey’s efforts to reach a compromise on the budget package. According to a statement released Monday by HBACA, the budget “enhances Arizona’s economic environment, provides more resources to keep Arizona growing, and promotes housing affordability.”
The mayors who signed the letter to Ducey are from Avondale, Buckeye, Camp Verde, Chandler, El Mirage, Gila Bend, Gilbert, Glendale, Goodyear, Lake Havasu City, Kingman, Marana, Mesa, Payson, Peoria, Prescott, Sahuarita, Surprise, Winkenburg, Youngstown, and Yuma.
