Attorney General Kris Mayes, a pro-choice Democrat, applauded the Supreme Court’s ruling on the controversial abortion drug, mifepristone.
Mayes issued a press release on Thursday in response to the Court’s ruling that the doctors and medical groups suing to roll back the FDA’s expansion of access to mifepristone had lack of standing, or the legal right to sue. The Supreme Court ruled that the doctors and medical groups couldn’t show that they would be harmed directly by the FDA’s mifepristone policies, specifically citing past rulings in which courts were determined to not be the forums for all “general complaints about the way in which government goes about its business.”
I applaud the unanimous decision by the US Supreme Court to uphold nationwide access to the drug Mifepristone. I will never stop fighting against any attempts to restrict the rights of Arizonans to make their own healthcare decisions without interference.
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) June 13, 2024
Although the High Court’s ruling hinged on the technicality of the plaintiffs’ identities, the attorney general depicted the ruling as supportive of mifepristone’s safety and efficacy.
“Millions of Americans have used Mifepristone safely and effectively for over two decades,” said Mayes. “By reversing the disastrous ruling by the Fifth Circuit, today’s decision will save lives and avoid widespread confusion among providers, distributors, pharmacies, and patients.”
Mayes also indicated that she would support those fights to expand abortion access. Arizona law currently restricts abortions to 15 weeks.
“I will never stop fighting against any attempts to restrict the rights of Arizonans to make their own healthcare decisions without interference from anti-abortion politicians and activists,” said Mayes.
The author of the Court’s opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, admitted that the doctors and medical groups turned away for lack of standing had “sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections” to mifepristone.
The FDA approved mifepristone over 20 years ago during the Clinton administration through a controversial fast-tracked approval process. The FDA reclassified pregnancy as a “serious or life-threatening illness,” with mifepristone therefore validated as a “meaningful therapeutic benefit.”
The Governmental Accountability Office issued a 2008 report highlighting the criticization of the FDA’s reclassification.
“Critics have argued that unwanted pregnancy should not be considered a serious or life-threatening illness,” read the report.
The FDA restrictions such as a risk evaluation mitigation strategy have faced rollback considerations on mifepristone as well.
The lawsuit at the center of this most recent Supreme Court ruling was prompted by the FDA’s announcement in 2021 that it would no longer enforce an initial in-person visit for practitioners to prescribe mifepristone.
Past court rulings and research have indicated that there have been thousands of adverse event cases from mifepristone.
The attorney general has been a vocal and repeat proponent of mifepristone.
Mayes joined an amicus brief last May advocating for the federal approval of the abortion drug. Since taking office earlier last year, Mayes encouraged major pharmacy chains to continue to offer mifepristone regardless of the ongoing or potential legal challenges.
The attorney general also launched a Reproductive Rights Unit tasked with advancing pathways for abortion, such as taking on legal challenges against medical providers and offering guidance to women on hiding their data when seeking abortion.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, a Republican hopeful for U.S. Senate, issued a press release on Wednesday extolling the virtues of the law enforcement agencies responsible for the capture of eight terrorists tied to ISIS who had illegally entered the country and excoriating the Biden White House for its maladministration of the dangerous situation at the Southern Border.
In his release, Lamb’s office explained that the Sheriff offered his congratulations to “law enforcement at every level in the tracking and arrest of eight terrorists with ties to ISIS who had managed to cross the southern border in recent months.” As reported by The New York Post six of the ISIS-linked terrorists were Russian nationals from Tajikistan, and were arrested during coordinated raids in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. Per NBC two additional terrorists with links to ISIS were also arrested after they were surveilled for “several months” by the Joint Terrorism Taskforce.
Lamb said in a statement, “One week after Joe Biden’s executive order was issued to ‘close the border’, I can report that the situation on the ground is just as chaotic and dangerous as ever.”
He warned, “the arrests of the terrorists in our major cities is just the tip of the iceberg. Those Russian nationals were identified and tracked. There are countless military-aged men who have already made their way across the border illegally and continue to do so. We have little or no idea where they reside and what they are planning.”
Cartels are pushing people through the southern border ‘more than ever’: Mark Lamb | https://t.co/UwDuys4pee
According to the Post, FBI Director Christopher Wray issued warnings to Congress regarding a potential plot on U.S. soil at the hands of ISIS-K or Islamic State Khorasan, the same group that successfully attacked a concert hall in Moscow with Tajikistani nationals killing 145 people and wounding hundreds.
“Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” Wray told the House Appropriations subcommittee in April. “But now, increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall a couple weeks ago.”
Lamb noted that his Deputies recently made a significant drug bust working in coordination with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol saying, “My deputies just took 80 pounds – 360,000 pills – of fentanyl and 9 nine pounds of cocaine off the street. Can you imagine the millions of people who would likely die if that fentanyl had made it in hands of Americans.” He added, “The border shouldn’t be a photo-op for politicians. Every state is now a border state, every county is a border county. Every school and neighborhood is a fentanyl war zone. We can close the border if the politicians in Washington wanted. The political establishment has shown they don’t have the willpower or experience on the ground to make it happen.”
On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, the Gilbert Town Council will hold a meeting to adopt the boundaries of a redevelopment plan which could encompass up to 18% of the town’s landmass extending from its western boundary eastward to Lindsay Road and then south to Ray Road, an area of almost 9 ½ square miles. The Town is seeking to take this action under Arizona Revised Statue § 36-1471-1491 using laws intended to curb “slum or blighted areas,” terms that could hardly be used to describe the 22nd Best Place to Live in the U.S. by Money Magazine and the 2nd Safest City in America by Law Street Media according to Gilbert’s website.
The controversial move, which seems to carry the broad support of the Town Council, would allow Gilbert to bypass property taxes over the vast swath of real estate, opening a path for the town to engage in a property acquisition and lease scheme known as a Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) according to Arizona Tax Research Association President Kevin McCarthy.
Ironically, McCarthy, who has opposed this method of redevelopment for years, told AZ Free News that he penned an op-ed for the Arizona Republic crediting Gilbert with not employing this strategy.
“Most of your suburban cities have done very little of this,” McCarthy explained. “Gilbert to date has done none of it. Ironically, I wrote an op-ed for the paper, I don’t know, six, seven years ago that was in the Arizona Republic, crediting the city of Gilbert for doing development the right way and not doing it by harvesting the property taxes that are otherwise owed, making everybody else’s property taxes higher as a result of some development, not being on the rolls and shorting the schools, their monies, that kind of thing.”
Adding another wrinkle to the matter though, is a potential legal vulnerability to the strategy which could land the town in court. McCarthy continued, “And so now we’ve got them wanting to break through and begin using this tool. But what’s different about this now than even five years ago, the last time we made a legislative effort to narrow the use of it, is that there have been court decisions in this space that we’ve been involved in with the Goldwater Institute that have found that this mechanism violates the constitution’s gift clause.”
As reported by the Arizona Republic, a 2020 ruling found that a similar GPLET scheme between the city of Phoenix and developers of The Derby Roosevelt Row, involving a promised tax break, was illegal. In 2016 the Phoenix City Council okayed a plan that would have had developer Amstar/McKinley successfully avoid paying the appropriate property taxes for 25 years. For eight years under the law, the tax would be completely waived, and it would’ve been further reduced for an additional 17 years.
McCarthy explained how the process works: “I assume what happened in Gilbert: Gilbert’s probably got a new economic development director, or maybe it’s the city manager goes to some meetings, and here’s what fund the city of Phoenix is having harvesting the property taxes that otherwise would be owed on a development. To make development easier, the way these deals are usually done is a developer goes to City Hall, and if a city has a central business district that they’ve declared as slum and blight, they know that if they want to propose an $80 million multi-use building that is 30 stories high and have some residential apartment building and then commercial on the first floor, that kind of thing they can negotiate to have it qualify as a GPLET.”
During a Town Council meeting on April 16th, Gilbert Redevelopment Program Manager Amanda Elliott explained that under the law, a municipality must have a combination of nine findings for redevelopment “to eliminate or prevent your [town’s] signs of decline”
Under the applicable law (ARS § 36-1471), the statute states that a “’Blighted area’ means an area, other than a slum area, where sound municipal growth and the provision of housing accommodations is substantially retarded or arrested in a predominance of the properties by any of the following:
(a) A dominance of defective or inadequate street layout.
(b) Faulty lot layout in relation to size, adequacy, accessibility or usefulness.
(c) Unsanitary or unsafe conditions.
(d) Deterioration of site or other improvements.
(e) Diversity of ownership.
(f) Tax or special assessment delinquency exceeding the fair value of the land.
(g) Defective or unusual conditions of title.
(h) Improper or obsolete subdivision platting.
(i) The existence of conditions that endanger life or property by fire and other causes.”
This language is explicitly presented by the Town as the basis for the redevelopment plan. Further, under the finding for the necessity of the law, the legislature explained clearly, “That the existence of these areas contributes substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, necessitating excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for the preservation of the public health and safety, for crime prevention, correction, prosecution, punishment and the treatment of juvenile delinquency and for the maintenance of adequate police, fire and accident protection and other public services and facilities, constitutes an economic and social liability, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of municipalities and retards the provision of housing accommodations.”
The law adds, “the acquisition of property for the purpose of eliminating the conditions or preventing recurrence of these conditions in the area, the removal of structures and improvement of sites, the disposition of the property for redevelopment and any assistance which may be given by any public body in connection with these activities are public uses and purposes for which public money may be expended and the power of eminent domain exercised.”
According to the Town Council, the moves toward this step have been gradual and ongoing for more than a decade.
Two Words Not Spoken: Property Taxes
During the presentation given by Elliot, the Town explicitly made the claims that the redevelopment plan “will not,” “Specify individual properties, specify commercial centers industrial complexes or neighborhoods, show up on a title report, displace residents or businesses, institute zoning changes, decrease property values or change the voter approved general plan.” However, conspicuously absent from that list is: property taxes.
McCarthy told AZ Free News that when a municipality negotiates to have a redevelopment qualify as a GPLET, “they are exempted from paying any property taxes on the improvement of the property for the first eight years, which is usually when the maximum amount of tax exposure is going to be on a property. That results in the schools not getting all the property tax money that they should get. The counties get zeroed out. The community colleges get zeroed out. The city themselves, it doesn’t get the property. If they do use property taxes, they don’t get any property taxes out of it. And the way that they execute this is that upon completion of the building, they literally deed the property back to the city.”
He added that a developer then wouldn’t have the property added to the tax rolls, “but it’s put on the tax rolls as an exempt property as any government property is, and [wont’] get a property tax bill for eight years.” In prior years, the period was as high as 25 years, but organizations like ATRA, working with the legislature, succeeded in getting that narrowed to eight. A bill was passed to lower it again to four years, but was vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs. McCarthy noted, “Our argument to lawmakers was that at four years, it’s a lot closer to being able to pass the mathematical calculation of whether or not it’s a gift of public funds and therefore in violation of the constitutional gift clause.” The same gift clause that Phoenix ran afoul of in the Derby ruling.
McCarthy concluded, “Last thing I’ll say is that these property taxes are harvested because in many instances, these deals are agreed to by the cities because there’s a mutual benefit between the developer and the city to exempt the property from paying property taxes and enter one of these GPLET deals, and that is they can enter into any number of agreements that allow them both to benefit financially and maybe not. So not just the developer benefits the city.
So in the example I gave you that the deal might include me as the developer paying for infrastructure that otherwise may not be owed by the developer, but would be a city obligation. Whether the utilities that would be going in the city would bring up to the boundary of the property, any number of improvements in city of Phoenix, it could include, if it’s going to have multifamily, which is a lot of our stuff that we’re seeing in Tempe and Phoenix, a lot of apartment buildings where I as a developer grant concessions to the city council that a certain percentage of the apartments are going to be saved for low-income housing.”
The implications for property taxes also could impact the Gilbert Unified School District considerably as McCarthy observed with properties that “normally would be paying a million dollars a year in property taxes to Gilbert Unified,” not doing so. State funds would be used to subsidize the difference. However, that isn’t so for school bond measures, which are voter approved as are school overrides. “In those instances, the tax rates are going to be higher than they otherwise would’ve been if that property would’ve been on the tax rolls. But even there, the schools really don’t lose money.”
“It’s the other taxpayers that are on the tax rolls that get screwed because the property isn’t paying taxes.”
Gilbert Mayor Brigette Peterson made particular mention during the April meeting that the council is “not trying to turn the town of Gilbert into a city because that’s always a bone of contention with our residents. But it is focused on making sure that this town doesn’t become a city that we’ve seen in the past go downhill. We’re trying to make sure that we’ve learned from other cities’ mistakes in the past and do what’s best for our community to move us into the future and forward.”
Peterson added, “The other thing that we heard at that last meeting that was so well attended was um they they felt like the decisions had already been made. We have not made any decisions, and tonight even we’re just offering more feedback. We’re not voting on anything at a study session, so this still has a lot of time to go through more of a process and to hear from the public too.”
A mailer sent to Gilbert residents in the proposed ‘Blighted area’ indicated that the next meeting is scheduled for June 18, 2024 at 6:30 PM.
Border apprehensions continue to be high in southern Arizona.
Last week, the Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, John R. Modlin, posted an update on the number of apprehensions of illegal aliens from his area of jurisdiction. Chief Modlin wrote that there were 7,500 encounters over the last week.
According to Modlin, there were also 23 human smuggling events and 6 significant arrests.
A local reporter noted that “apprehensions in the Tucson Sector remain steady in the first week with Biden’s executive order in effect.” There were over 7,400 encounters of illegal aliens in each of the previous two weeks.
In the first week at the border with Biden's EO in effect apprehensions in the Tucson Sector remain steady.
7,500 this week compared to 7,800 last week, and 7,400 the week before that.
Chief Modlin also shared a chart to compare year-over-year apprehensions in the sector, showing that the past three weeks have produced thousands more encounters than in Fiscal Year 2023.
Over the past year, Tucson has been at the top – if not the top – of the nation when it comes to apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the southern border each month.
These numbers do not factor in the ‘gotaways’ who escape detection from law enforcement on the ground. The ‘gotaways’ in the Tucson Sector are always estimated to be very high.
In addition to a large number of apprehensions and ‘gotaways,’ the Tucson Sector is home to one of the most active drug smuggling corridors in the nation, with international cartels able to send much of their illicit and deadly stashes north through Arizona and across the rest of the country.
The out-of-control and dangerous border crisis has forced Arizona legislative Republicans to find ways to take matters into their own hands to help secure and protect communities around the state. Earlier this month, the Arizona Legislature put the finishing touches on HCR 2060, the Secure the Border Act, to send the measure to state voters for the November General Election. If courts do not pause its inclusion on the ballot, Arizonans will have the opportunity to enact multiple border-related policies that will help local law enforcement to mitigate the negative effects of this crisis.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) June 12, 2024
The “X” account for the Party thanked donors for their “incredible support” and assured readers that “we’re well on our way to victory in 2024!”
The AZGOP’s fundraising haul is especially notable since its chair, Gina Swoboda, has only been in her position since late January, when she assumed the role in a special election.
Swoboda and company will have to keep fundraising through the election to play both offense and defense in a very critical swing state. The Republican Party will be attempting to capture Arizona’s eleven Electoral College votes for former President Donald J. Trump in his rematch against President Joseph R. Biden, after the 46th President won the state in 2020 by an extremely narrow margin.
Republicans are also trying to hold on to a slim majority in both chambers of the Arizona Legislature. Should Democrats flip both the Arizona House and Senate, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs would likely have free rein to sign any progressive bills that would be passed by her same-party legislature. Such a power sharing arrangement would allow Arizona Democrats to remake the state into the realities of many of their policy dreams.
The Republican Party of Arizona figures also to be active in some of the ballot initiatives that are likely to appear on the November General Election ballot, including abortion, an election system overhaul, border security, and potentially others.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Governor Katie Hobbs is under investigation for an alleged “pay-to-play” scheme with a group home that donated to her inaugural fund and the Arizona Democratic Party.
Last May, following the donations, the Arizona Department of Child Services (DCS) drastically increased the rates for the for-profit, state-contracted group home operator and major Democratic Party contributor, Sunshine Residential Homes (formerly Sunshine Group Homes). The nearly-60 percent rate increase was approved several months after the company gave $100,000 to Hobbs’ “dark money” inaugural fund. That $100,000 rendered to them by the second-largest donor after Arizona Public Service (APS). The governor raised nearly $2 million.
As the Arizona Republicreported, that $100,000 to the fund came several days after the group home operator was denied a rate increase in December 2022. No other group homes have been awarded rate increases under Hobbs, and none came close to the rate granted to Sunshine Residential Homes: over $230 a day, where the average was about $170.
The governor’s fund earned the unofficial “dark money” pejorative following reports that Hobbs pushed for $250,000 donations to her inaugural event, though the event itself only cost around $200,000.
Sunshine Residential Homes also donated $200,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party in September and October of 2022, and another $100,000 to the party in August 2023.
The group home operator’s CEO and founder, Simon Kottoor, and his wife, Elizabeth, also donated $10,000 collectively to Hobbs’ campaign.
Hobbs appointed the Kottoors to her inaugural committee.
Last year, the group home operator received a nearly 60 percent increase in rates: much higher than the rates awarded to other group homes, and unique given DCS choosing to cut contracts with dozensother group homes: 16, to be exact.
DCS blamed budget constraints coupled with a desire to scale back on the reliance of group homes for the contract denials.
Hobbs’ spokesman, Christian Slater, claimed the allegations came from a place of unsubstantiated scrutiny similar to other attacks by “radical and partisan legislators.”
“Governor Hobbs is a social worker who has been a champion for Arizona families and kids,” said Slater “It is outrageous to suggest her administration would not do what’s right for children in foster care.”
Some have questioned whether Sunshine Residential Homes wired additional funds to Hobbs’ inaugural fund after their $100,000 donation cleared in February 2023, or whether the group home operator or its executives issued donations to other groups operated by Hobbs, like the “An Arizona For Everyone” entity.
An Arizona For Everyone, a nonprofit, was activated in December 2022 and voluntarily dissolved in September 2023. No tax filings exist for the nonprofit on the IRS public search portal of tax-exempt entities.
Last Thursday, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced an investigation into the matter. On Friday, Mayes also ordered Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to back off her investigation and for Auditor General Lindsey Perry to stay away.
“It would not be appropriate or in the best interest of the state to conduct parallel investigations into the same matter. Furthermore, a separate process conducted by the MCAO could jeopardize the integrity of the criminal investigation that my office will now proceed with,” wrote Mayes.
However, Treasurer Kimberly Yee urged Mitchell to continue her own investigation into Hobbs to complement Mayes’ investigation. In a press release on Monday, Yee announced request letters to both Mitchell and Mayes.
“Arizona taxpayers deserve financial accountability. Giving state dollars to political donors is a grave misuse of public funds,” posted Yee on X.
I requested an investigation by the Maricopa County Attorney into Governor Hobbs' alleged "pay to play" scheme. Arizona taxpayers deserve financial accountability. Giving state dollars to political donors is a grave misuse of public funds.
— Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee (@AZTreasurerYee) June 10, 2024
In her letter to Mitchell, Yee advised that Mitchell continue her investigation over Mayes’ conflict of interest.
“Pursuant to these legal authorities and due to concerns related to Attorney General Mayes’ ethical conflict of interests because her office is required to provide legal services to the agencies at issue and the fact that her representatives have personal and professional relationships with those individuals potentially involved in any alleged wrong-doing, I respectfully request that you investigate the allegations that have occurred in your jurisdiction, Maricopa County,” wrote Yee.
In Yee’s letter to Mayes, the treasurer advised the attorney general that her assertion of singular control over any investigation — especially one involving the state agencies she represents — was inappropriate and unlawful. Yee suggested that Mayes transfer the investigation wholly to Mitchell or another independent county attorney.
“[T]hat is the only action that will ensure the integrity of the investigation and avoid the duplication of efforts you raise as a concern in asserting sole jurisdiction,” wrote Yee.
Sunshine Group Homes was recognized as a nonprofit by the IRS until 2022, when they were placed on the auto-revocation list that August (EIN: 86-0815254).
According to the latest publicized tax filings from a decade ago, the Kottoors received a collective $623,500 annually in reportable compensation from related organizations.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
