The Navajo Nation spoke out again this week against the Biden administration’s efforts to undermine fossil fuel development. Their reservation is the largest of all, spanning across three states along the Four Corners Monument: Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
In an interview with Fox News, Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Company CEO James McClure explained that fossil fuels earn them over $75 million in annual revenue — over half of the tribe’s annual budget — yet, the Biden administration hasn’t given support in recognition of that “very important” fact.
“The current administration has worked to support the Navajo Nation on most clean energy initiatives,” McClure told Fox News Digital. “The same cannot be said of oil and gas development.”
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and the Navajo Nation Council oppose the Biden administration’s plans to eradicate fossil fuel development. The Department of Interior (DOI) will soon implement a 20-year ban on oil and gas leasing. President Joe Biden first announced the ban last November, as part of his ongoing pledge to counter climate change with fossil fuel eradication.
The ban would jeopardize the $6.2 million annual royalties earned by the tribe. The DOI has told reporters repeatedly that the Biden administration would ultimately support tribes’ desired land use.
Tribes deserve a seat at the decision-making table before policies that impact their communities are made. The first-ever Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee will help Tribal leaders engage with the highest levels of the @Interior on issues that matter most to their people. https://t.co/CfJQ4YieVw
However, that promise stands in conflict with Biden’s rhetoric around fossil fuels. During a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in March, Biden said that those profiting off of fossil fuels needed to sacrifice for the greater good of the country.
“My message is, it’s time in this time of war, it’s not a time of profit. It’s time for reinvesting in America,” said Biden. “This crisis is another indication why we need to get off dependency on fossil fuels.”
Conrad Stewart, the Crow Nation of Montana’s director of energy and water, also stressed to Fox News that their tribes’ economic well-being depends on fossil fuel development.
“A war on coal is a war on Crow,” said Stewart.
That phrase, “war on coal,” refers to the continuation of former President Barack Obama’s policies within the Biden administration. During Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s confirmation hearing last January, Granholm disclosed that “jobs might be sacrificed” under these policies.
Joe Biden's Energy Secretary nominee Jennifer Granholm admitted that there are “jobs that might be sacrificed” with Biden’s federal lands fracking banhttps://t.co/drlVfgMKNqpic.twitter.com/FpkofBzgZ7
Around the time of Granholm’s confirmation hearing, the Ute Indian Tribe asked the U.S. Interior Department for an exemption to the suspension on federal and tribal land leases and permits for oil and gas.
Reservations produce over 3 percent of the country’s oil and gas reserves untapped; according to a 2014 report, their lands contain about 20 percent of the oil and gas reserves, and 30 percent of domestic coal reserves west of the Mississippi River. A report from S&P Global Platts estimated that 12 of the 326 tribal reservations produce significant oil.
Another major tribe that relies heavily on fossil fuel development is the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Their chairman, Mark Fox, estimated in 2020 that oil accounted for 90 percent of their revenue. Last year, Fox told Fox News that fossil fuels ensured that their forthcoming generations would have a home.
Not all Native American tribes oppose the Biden administration’s efforts to curb fossil fuel development. Those tribes that don’t rely on those resources, such as the Standing Rock Sioux, support the Biden administration.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Arizona will have just one personal income tax rate of 2.5 percent instead of four rates as of Jan. 1, Gov. Doug Ducey announced last week. That is an effective date one year sooner than was originally expected when the governor signed legislation in 2021 for what was designed as a three-year phase in.
“It’s time to deliver lasting tax relief to Arizona families and small businesses so they can keep more of their hard-earned money,” Ducey wrote to Arizona Department of Revenue Director Robert Woods on Sept. 29. “This tax relief keeps Arizona competitive and preserves our reputation as a jobs magnet and generator of opportunity.”
It is Arizona’s thriving economy and record revenues which allows for full implementation of the flat tax now instead of January 2024, according to Ducey. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the Governor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting jointly informed the governor last week that Arizona’s General Fund revenues, excluding the beginning balance for Fiscal Year 2022, were at $16.7 billion.
This exceeded the statutory economic condition phase-in triggers written into the flat tax law in 2021. In addition, Arizona’s Rainy Day Fund is at its highest level ($1.4 billion) in state history and economists are forecasting Arizona will report at least a $4 billion budget surplus through 2024.
“It’s no secret that Arizona’s economy is booming,” Ducey added in his letter to Woods. “Over the last eight years, we’ve made responsible decisions to live within our means, reduce burdensome government regulations, lower taxes every year and ensure our state remains a great place to live.”
Arizona House Majority Leader Ben Toma was instrumental in getting personal income tax reform passed during the 2021 legislative session to eventually replace the state’s four-rate system of 2.59 to 4.5 percent with the 2.5 percent flat rate.
“I am happy to report that revenue thresholds have been exceeded one full year in advance, enabling the implementation of a single flat rate of 2.5% a year earlier, providing Arizonans with significant economic relief when they need it most,” he said in response to the governor’s announcement.
Several business groups and economic development organizations lauded the news, which will give Arizona the lowest flat tax in the country when it takes effect Jan. 1.
Americans For Prosperity – Arizona:
“This is a historic win for Arizona that couldn’t come at a better time,” said State Director Stephen Shadegg of AFP-Arizona. “Over time, Arizonans will continue to reap the benefits of more tax relief and the state will become even more attractive to businesses and investors, growing the state’s economy while letting hardworking taxpayers keep more of their paychecks.”
Common Sense Institute Arizona, a non-partisan research organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of Arizona’s economy:
Gov. @DougDucey on Day 1 of his campaign promised to reduce the state income tax to as close to zero as possible. Now, 8 years later – and a year ahead of schedule – Arizona will officially have the lowest flat tax in the nation when we ring in 2023. https://t.co/0Ri6vYUhgA
Just a month ahead of the November midterms, Maricopa County announced its new “Elections Command Center” to combat disinformation, and that it would limit press access on county property.
The first line of the press release issued on Tuesday emphasized that county officials across different fields of expertise teamed up together for the greater good when instituting these changes.
“Six elected officials and a team of elections and communications professionals are coming together as one ahead of the 2022 November General Election in Maricopa County,” stated the county.
NEW: Board, Recorder, and @maricopavote establish the 2022 Elections Command Center as a central hub of info leading up to & following the Nov. 8 General Election. Plan to host regular news conferences in October and November for credentialed media. More: https://t.co/CZTTfRrrhRpic.twitter.com/BTKNlNrTK9
With this new command center will come tighter restrictions on press access to the county. The county now requires the media to have press passes to enter its facilities and cover election events.
“Because of logistical and security considerations, it is impossible to give the public and media limitless access to Members of the Board of Supervisors, the County Recorder and election experts for events such as press conferences and availabilities,” stated the signup page.
— Stephen Richer—Maricopa Cnty Recorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) September 27, 2022
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Chairman Bill Gates indicated that the Elections Command Center would serve as an improved information dissemination platform compared to traditional social media and mainstream media outlets.
“The Command Center will further deliver on that promise by creating a structure that allows us to reach more people, faster, with factual information about how elections are run and how people can successfully participate,” said Gates.
I'm excited about this Command Center because it will create a structure that allows @maricopavote & @RecordersOffice to reach more people, faster, with factual information about how elections are run and how people can successfully participate. https://t.co/jTv7e7XsdI
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer added that the county’s decision to establish an additional communications hub wasn’t an indictment of their recent management of the primary election, but rather a commitment to improvement.
“We ran a terrific primary election, but because of our ‘continuous improvement’ work ethic, we will have an incredible communications team assembled that will allow us to better respond to constituent concerns and combat misinformation during the General Election,” said Richer.
The Elections Command Center will be responsible for informing voters about deadlines and election processes, engaging with media, addressing mass-spread rumors and false information, and issuing updates on election results. Additionally, the command center officials will host live-streamed press conferences in the upcoming months.
The county implemented a similar command center in April 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Maricopa County Unified Command Center.”
Another unusual but busy day. Started with our Board of Supervisors meeting using our social distancing format. From there visited our Maricopa County Joint Information Command center for COVID-19. Very impressive coordinated effort to help minimize the impact of this virus. pic.twitter.com/Ar5RKf2HYl
On Wednesday, the Department of Education (ED) announced the distribution of over $20.8 million to increase mental health oversight in Arizona schools.
The funds may be applied to a variety of mental, social, and emotional initiatives within schools. This includes school counseling, mentorships, and bullying and harassment prevention.
During a press call on Wednesday, the ED featured insight from Dr. Marty Pollio, the Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent in Louisville, Kentucky. Pollio said that the SCG funds allowed for three means of school improvement:
Identify students in need and in crisis who need mental health support like counseling;
Reduce the counselor-to-student ratio;
Train teachers on how to identify troubled students and support school personnel.
Pollio suggested that mental health professionals, such as board-certified behavioral analysts, should be deployed to classrooms to identify problematic students.
“Educators have to do more than ever,” said Pollio.
AZ Free News asked the Biden administration whether they would be providing guidelines for behavior analysis enabled by SCG funds, such as what students would be deemed problematic as Pollio suggested. The ED said they weren’t providing guidelines. Rather, the ED said that level of management would be up to the states and districts.
“[The SCG] allows states and districts to tailor their funds to each district and school,” said one of the officials.
The funds come from the Strong Connections Grant (SCG) within the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). Nationwide, grant funds totaled over $971 million.
Today, ED announced nearly $1 billion in Stronger Connections grants through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) to support students’ physical, emotional, & mental well-being – real benefits for students across the country. https://t.co/WwxaZ4tQGZ
ED Secretary Miguel Cardona asserted that teachers have been handling student behaviors on limited funding and resources, and that students behaved better with reduced disciplinary action and increased promotion of positive behavior. Cardona noted that in all, investments to improve mental health in schools through SCG total $1 billion.
“We must broaden our focus beyond physically safe learning environments,” said Cardona. “If we’re serious about equity and opportunity, we must expand our definitions of learning and growth to include mental and emotional health.”
President Joe Biden’s special assistant for education policy, Maureen Tracey-Mooney, said that the SCG funds are designed for “high impact strategies” that would ultimately impact home life, such as counseling, tutoring, mentoring, and summer learning.
Earlier this month, Cardona sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) notifying them of this recent investment. Cardona’s letter provides educators with suggestions and guidelines on how to implement the SCG funding.
The ADE will decide which school districts will receive the SCG funds and oversee their expenditure. However, the ED retains the authority to audit and investigate schools’ use of the SCG funds.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
So many parents were trying to apply for Arizona’s expanded Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) by Friday’s first quarter deadline that the department of education’s website was overwhelmed, leading to a decision to extend the application period.
“Because we are experiencing a high volume of parents trying to apply by today’s deadline for Q1 funding, @azedschools is extending the deadline to remain eligible for retroactive Q1 funding to 10/15/22,” the department announced midday Friday.
UPDATE: Because we are experiencing a high volume of parents trying to apply by today's deadline for Q1 funding, @azedschools is extending the deadline to remain eligible for retroactive Q1 funding to 10/15/22. https://t.co/NbiNjT8SnI
Gov. Doug Ducey helped spread word of the extension while commenting on the tremendous popularity of the new law which now makes all 1.1 million of Arizona’s K-12 students eligible to apply for an ESA which provides about $7,000 per student, per year to assist families in tailoring a student’s education experience to best meet their needs.
The funds can be used for a variety of purposes, including private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, educational therapies, tutoring, and other expenses in exchange for not attending a public school or receiving a tuition tax credit.
Arizona parents have shown time and time again they want options for their children’s education. https://t.co/Th3lqXXC2O
More than 12,000 applications have been received by the Arizona Department of Education since the governor signed ESA expansion legislation in June. That outpaces the number of students who were utilizing the ESA program under the old law.
The new expanded eligibility was to take effect Sept. 24 with a Sept. 30 deadline to qualify for first quarter funding. The rush by families to apply this week was bolstered by publicity involving a political action committee’s failed referendum effort to waylay the ESA expansion until voters could decide in 2024 whether it should go into effect or not.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs put the law on hold Sept. 23 based on claims by Save Our Schools Arizona that more than 141,000 referendum petition signatures had been submitted to Hobbs’ office. Of those, at least 118,823 signatures needed to be validated to keep the ESA expansion sidelined.
But in a letter dated Thursday, Hobbs’ staff officially confirmed what has been known for days – that the referendum effort failed to come anywhere close to the constitutional minimum number of signatures.
We have informed the SOS committee that the referendum will not qualify for the 2024 General Election Ballot. While the statutorily required review continues, our office has inspected enough petitions & signatures to confirm that the 118,823 signature minimum will not be met. pic.twitter.com/UVydtBH5oi
One parent said Friday’s announcement by Hobbs’ office ensures parents are now “rightly in control of their children’s future.”
Christine Accurso of Gilbert is among pro-ESA parents who questioned whether the glaringly insufficient referendum filing was simply a calculated ploy by anti-school choice politicians to freeze funding for children right in the midst of the school year.
“As a longtime ESA parent, I could not be more thrilled to see thousands of new parents benefiting from this program,” Accurso said. “It is my hope that the rest of the country can follow our lead and bring this legislation to their state, so that we can one day see all American children in the school of their parent’s choice.”
Save Our Schools Arizona issued a statement Friday putting the blame for the group’s referendum effort failure on the governor, who is one of ESA’s staunchest supporters.
“We are confident we would have succeeded had Governor Ducey not waited 10 days to sign the bill, robbing Arizona voters of crucial time to sign the petition,” according to the statement.
The group even criticized pro-ESA organizations like the Goldwater Institute for using “sophisticated software” to review the petitions, resulting in Monday’s revelation that Save Our Schools Arizona submitted only about 90,000 signatures.
For school choice advocates like Accurso, the important fact is that the ESA expansion is now in effect. The priority now is to ensure families that still want to apply become aware of the extended Oct. 15 deadline.
BREAKING: So many families are applying for the new school choice program that the Arizona Department of Education extended the application deadline by two weeks pic.twitter.com/vrNKDisO5z
On Wednesday, Democratic Maricopa County Attorney candidate Julie Gunnigle denied allegations of partnering with an abortion clinic accused of fetal organ sales.
Gunnigle issued the denial in response to a text campaign survey which asked voters about their attitude toward Gunnigle’s connection to an abortion clinic that “violated federal law by harvesting and selling organs for profit.” Gunnigle called the allegation a “new low” and denounced her opponent, Maricopa County attorney Rachel Mitchell, for having supporters that would issue the text.
“This ‘survey’ which is untrue, hurtful, and reprehensible has no place in politics and is a disservice to her constituents, particularly coming from someone in an office reeling from lack of integrity,” stated Gunnigle.
Today I was accused of…being part of a fetal organ harvesting operation?!?
The origins of the allegation that Gunnigle partnered with a fetal organ harvesting operation likely originated with a viral report from earlier this month. The Washington Free Beacon reported on Gunnigle’s campaign event in 2020 with Camelback Family Planning, an abortion clinic that harvested and sold fetal organs from 2010 to 2015.
The Washington Free Beacon report also noted Gunnigle’s recent fundraising efforts for another abortion clinic, Desert Star Family Planning, whose founder made light of fetal organ harvesting.
NEW: Soros-Backed Arizona DA Candidate Partners With Abortion Clinics That Sold Fetal Organs
In addition to endorsements from both abortion clinics, Gunnigle benefits from the Democratic dark money network’s kingpin, George Soros, whose Open Society Policy Center bankrolled Planned Parenthood lobbying after investigative journalist David Daleiden released undercover videos of abortion providers selling fetal tissue. Those videos sparked national controversy.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has a “Planned Parenthood Fact v. Fiction” page countering Daleiden’s claims. The committee notes that Planned Parenthood recoups only the cost of transferring the fetal parts, drawing the distinction between “sale” and “profit.”
In March, months ahead of the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Gunnigle pledged to not prosecute anyone who broke laws limiting or prohibiting abortions if elected.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
