by B. Hamilton | Jul 8, 2021 | News
By B. Hamilton |
Arizona, as part of a coalition of states is suing Google in an antitrust case challenging the company’s control over its Android app store.
Google is facing a series of major antitrust cases, including a suit that the Justice Department and 14 states filed in October, focused on Google’s efforts to dominate the mobile search market; one from 38 states and territories filed in December, also focused on search; and a third suit by 15 states and territories related to Google’s power over the advertising technology.
As Big Tech continues to flex its monopolistic powers regulators have attempted to rein in the search giant in Arizona. State Rep. Regina Cobb had hoped to help consumers save money and innovators compete in the tech market this past legislative session. Rep. Biasiucci had thrown his support behind Cobb’s bill, which would have allowed app developers to avoid what the two lawmakers call “devastating” fees imposed by big tech monopolies.
That bill died an untimely death.
The heart of the lawsuit centers on Google’s exclusionary conduct which substantially shuts out competing app distribution channels. Google requires that app developers, that offer their apps through the Google Play Store, use Google Billing as a middleman. This arrangement forces app consumers to pay Google’s commission— up to 30 percent— on in-app purchases of digital content. This commission is much higher than what consumers would pay if they could choose from one of Google‘s competitors instead. The lawsuit alleges that Google works to discourage or prevent competition, violating federal and state antitrust laws.
When Google launched its Android OS, it originally promised to keep it an “open source” platform. The lawsuit alleges Google did not keep that promise. By promising to keep Android open, Google successfully enticed manufacturers (such as Samsung) and operators (such as Verizon) to adopt Android, and more importantly, to forgo competing with Google’s Play Store at that time. Google then shut down the Android ecosystem and relevant Android App Distribution Market as soon as it was feasible to do so, effectively trapping consumers and app developers in that ecosystem and removing any effective competition by (among other things) requiring manufacturers and operators to enter into various contractual and other restraints.
Arizona also alleges that Google engaged in conduct in violation of consumer protection laws by falsely representing that it would keep Android “open” and by issuing misleading warnings to consumers– that directly downloading an app would lead to disastrous consequences for the user and their device which also enhanced and protected Google’s monopoly position.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
by Terri Jo Neff | Jul 7, 2021 | Economy, Education, News
By Terri Jo Neff |
Chairman Larry E. Penley of the Arizona Board of Regents has high praise for the investment made by Gov. Doug Ducey and the State Legislature in the Fiscal Year 2022 budget passed last week which recognizes the role the state’s three public universities play in Arizona’s economic wellness.
“This spending plan invests in Arizona’s competitiveness by supporting public university instruction, research and development, especially in the key growth sectors of health care, the sciences, biomedicine and engineering,” Penley recently said. “State funding also will assist ongoing efforts by Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona to meet the needs of a growing number of Arizona students.”
The 12 members of the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) serve as the governing board for Arizona’s three public universities – Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona. The board is tasked with providing policy guidance for nearly every aspect of the university system, including capital development plans, strategic plans, and legal affairs.
The regents also set policy related to financial and human resource programs; academic and student affairs; public outreach; and the all-important student tuition, fees, and financial aid programs.
The main Higher Education budget bill, SB1825, involved more than just funding appropriations. Among other things, it requires the UA cooperative extension office to establish an Agricultural Workforce Development Program to provide incentives to food-producing agricultural organizations to hire apprentices.
“As Arizona emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, focus shifts toward ensuring our state is ready for the challenges of a New Economy increasingly built on the innovation, adaptability and skills of our workforce,” Penley said.
Another SB1825 provision allows the three state universities to offer pro bono assistance to claimants in the general stream adjudication of water rights if the claimants are small landowners and not represented by counsel.
The legislation also calls for ABOR to administer and implement a Promise Program to provide financial assistance to students in a baccalaureate degree who qualify for in-state student status, graduated from an Arizona high school with a qualifying grade point average, and meet eligibility criteria for the Federal Pell Grant.
“With the state’s initial investment in the board’s Arizona Promise Program scholarship, qualifying low-income Arizona students will have their tuition and fees paid in full to attend the Arizona public university of their choice,” Penley said. “The value of a university degree has never been higher, and this program represents our promise that cost won’t be a barrier to any deserving Arizona student.”
ABOR will take on yet another new responsibility thanks to the budget bill. On Jan. 1, 2022, the statutory duties of the Commission for Postsecondary Education and the e Arizona Teacher Student Loan Program will be transferred to ABOR.
State law designates the governor and the superintendent of public instruction -currently Kathy Hoffman- as ex-officio ABOR members along with two student regents who serve two-year terms. The other regents serve eight-year terms after being appointed by a governor and confirmed by a majority of the 30-member state senate.
In addition to Penley, the current regents are Fred DuVal, Kathryn Hackett King, Lyndel Manson, Cecilia Mata, Bill Ridenour, Ron Shoopman, and Karrin Taylor Robson. ASU student Nikhil Dave is serving as a student regent until 2022; the second student regent seat is currently vacant, according to the ABOR website.
Next up for the ABOR is a Sept. 9 meeting of the Finance, Capital and Resources Committee as well as the Academic Affairs and Educational Attainment Committee.
by AZ Free News | Jul 7, 2021 | News
Foodservice, retail, health-care and logistics jobs are now coming with an extra perk—signing bonuses, some as much as $1,000, the Wall Street Journal reports. Once the domain of professional athletes or some white-collar professions, hiring bonuses have exploded across all sectors this summer.
So far, 10 states, including Michigan, Connecticut, Arizona, Colorado and Kentucky, have gotten into the work bonus game to move people off unemployment.
Last month, close to 20% of all jobs listed on ZipRecruiter had a signing bonus, up from 2% of all jobs advertised on the online employment database in March. Such diverse industries as convenience stores, hotels, restaurants, warehouses, trucking, health-care and retail have jumped on the signing bonus bandwagon, with bonuses starting at $500 and ballooning up from there..
Now, $1,000 has fast become the benchmark for hourly worker recruitment.
Employers like cash signing bonuses because they don’t impact the hourly wage long term, according to Brad Hershbein, senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. “Businesses are jockeying for workers,” he said. “They are basically gambling they can hire workers for a one-time payment. They are going to try that first, and if it’s not enough, then they will have to do persistent wage increases.”
by Terri Jo Neff | Jul 6, 2021 | Education, News
By Terri Jo Neff |
The Fiscal Year 2022 K-12 Education bill signed last week by Gov. Doug Ducey contains several provisions which could vastly change school transportation options for students during the 2021-2022 school year, especially those who live in rural areas or outside a district’s boundaries.
House Bill 2898 contains In Lieu of Transportation Grants (ILT Grants) which among other things allows a school district to use a portion of the district’s transportation funding to provide ILT Grants to parents of students who attend the school district.
The grants, which require a plan submission to the Arizona Department of Education, also permit charter schools to use a portion of its Charter Additional Assistance funding for the same purpose.
Among the offerings which can be included in an ILT Grant plan is financial support for an individual parent or a neighborhood carpool which transports students to school. The legislation also includes a provision protecting a school district which seeks to offer ILT Grants for its students from having its transportation funding allocations reduced.
Charter schools which use CAA funding for transportation awards to parents must report such expenditures to the Department of Education.
HB2898 also establishes a Public School Transportation Modernization Grants Program (PSTMG Program) through the Arizona Department of Administration. The program, which would end in 2025, would select a third-party administrator to distribute grants to school districts, charter schools, or other eligible entities based on demand and the most innovative solutions.
The administrator, who would be permitted to retain up to five percent of the appropriations each year, must award at least 25 percent of the grants to rural and remote proposals if a sufficient number of qualified remote and rural proposals are submitted.
In another effort to ensure parents understand transportation options, HB2898 included language which now requires a school district to include transportation resource information in its open enrollment policies.
And for non-resident students with disabilities, a district will be required to provide transportation of no more than 30 miles (up from 20 miles) if the students’ individual education program specifies that transportation is necessary.
Meanwhile, school districts will have the option in 2021-2022 to provide transportation for nonresident students up to 30 miles if the student is deemed eligible for the Free or Reduced Price Lunch program. The current limit is 20 miles.
The school transportation legislation was signed by Ducey as districts across Arizona ramp up efforts to recruit drivers for the new school year. Some districts have reported needing to hire several dozen drivers, many who will be assigned to rural routes which often have only a handful of student riders.
by Terri Jo Neff | Jul 6, 2021 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
A new committee tasked with reviewing Cyber Ninjas’ findings of the Senate’s ongoing audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 general election is one of the provisions signed into law last week when Gov. Doug Ducey put his signature on the Fiscal Year 2022 budget bills.
Formation of the Special Committee on the Election Audit was included by Senate President Karen Fann in an amendment to SB1819, one of the 11 budget bills. The committee will run through Jan. 1, 2022 and be made up of Democrats and Republicans who are members of the current Senate Government Committee.
The purpose of the committee, according to the new state law, is to recommend to the senate president “the appropriate legislative action based on the findings of the audit, including a call for a special session of the legislature to implement the special committee’s recommendations.”
The Fann amendment also provides leverage for pressuring Ducey to call a special session if it appears new election-related legislation is needed which cannot wait until next January’s regular session. Without an assured two-thirds vote margin in either chamber, the governor is the only option for calling lawmakers back into session to pass laws to take effect before the 2022 primary in August.
Ducey, however, has been reticent on the subject, leaving it to a spokesman to comment.
“We will wait and see what the committee recommends,” C.J. Karamargin said last month about the possibility of an election-related special session.
One reason a special session to address the election audit is so important to Republicans is that the majority of the election reform and election integrity bills introduced by GOP lawmakers during the regular session were either watered down or did not pass. And the main reason for that was the ongoing feud between Sens. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-LD23) and Kelly Townsend (R-LD16).
Ugenti-Rita chaired the influential Senate Committee on Government. She and Townsend butted heads throughout the session, often over the fact Ugenti-Rita refused to allow the committee to consider some of Townsend’s bills.
Then during the last week of the session, the women took turns voting against each other’s election bills, both of which contained reforms many Republican voters supported.
by Terri Jo Neff | Jul 5, 2021 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
Gov. Doug Ducey grew frustrated in May with the legislature’s slow pace of action on the Fiscal Year 2022 budget packet. So Ducey thought he would send the state’s 90 lawmakers a message by vetoing 22 bills, several which had passed with bipartisan support.
The vetoes did little to motivate either chamber to action and it would take more than one month before all 11 budget bills finally passed, and even then several bills were amended from what Ducey’s staff and legislative budget negotiators wanted.
But Ducey’s vetoes were not forgotten by many legislators. The Senate passed reintroduced versions of the 22 vetoed bills but was motivated enough to symbolically override one of the governor’s 22 snubs, something no other Arizona governor had faced in nearly 30 years.
The House did not follow the Senate’s suit, choosing instead to pass 20 of the Senate’s reintroduced bills. As of July 2, the governor had signed 10 of the reintroduced bills and the other 10 were transmitted to Ducey by the Senate prior to Sine Die on June 30.
Under current legislative rules, Ducey must act on the bills on his desk within 10 days after Sine Die of the bills automatically become law. The remaining two bills passed by the Senate died in the House.
The 10 bills Ducey has already signed:
SB1830 authorizes the creation of an individual and corporate state tax credit for the donation of real property to a school district of charter school. It passed with bipartisan support
SB1841 requires the Department of Law (the Arizona Attorney General’s Office) to review a federal executive order for constitutionality if requested by any member of the Legislature
SB1833 addresses proficiency testing by the Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) of third-party marijuana laboratories and marijuana testing facilities
SB1834 allows DHS to conduct unannounced inspections of a medical marijuana dispensary
SB1835 requires that an election challenger or party representative must be a resident of Arizona and a registered voter of the state
SB1831 mandates that the State Registrar provide a person a copy of his or her original birth certificate sealed due to adoption if the person was born before June 20, 1968
SB1832 modifies Arizona’s DUI laws and requires traffic survival instruction courses to include information about aggressive driving. Such instruction is to be completed in person unless the Governor declares a state of emergency
SB1838 replaces the term “product of human conception” with “unborn child”
SB1839 outlines changes to Arizona Psychiatric Security Review Board
SB1843 changes the classifications of excessive speed and the statute related to waste of finite resources
The bills on Ducey’s desk:
SB1844 modifies the maximum Arizona adjusted gross income subtraction for college savings plan contributions authorized by section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code and allows subtraction of Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account contributions
SB1848 requires the Arizona Department of Housing to provide emergency shelter beds in western Maricopa County for homeless persons who are at least 55 years old
SB1846 exempts containers of spirituous liquor from prescribed labeling requirements under specified delivery conditions
SB1849 makes some changes to health and medical services offered to female inmates and allows a prisoner is to receive a certificate upon successful completion of training programs to work in a specific field or trade
SB1847 mandates DHS to provide grant monies from the Medical Marijuana Fund for research on the correlation of marijuana use and mental illness and requires DHS to develop a warning label to be affixed to the packaging of marijuana
SB1842 addresses the security, packaging, and labeling of marijuana and marijuana products
SB1845 requires the Department of Economic Security to implement a Produce Incentive Program
SB1850 contains technical corrections relating to multiple, defective, and conflicting statutory text
SB1851 outlines data required for the Arizona State Hospital financial and programmatic report, and establishes the Joint Legislative Psychiatric Hospital Review Council
SB1836 modifies sex offender registration requirements
HB2905 specifies that a county recorder or other election officer may not deliver or mail an early ballot to a person who has not requested an early ballot for that election.
HB2906 requires the certified public accountant (CPA) or auditor to present audit results to certain members within 90 days after a statutory audit and outlines requirements for training of certain employees (prohibits Critical Race Theory-based material/curriculum).
The other vetoed bills:
SB1837 would have banned a county recorder or other election officer from delivering or mailing an early ballot for an election to a person who did not requested an early ballot for that election
SB1840 would have required in certain instances that a certified public accountant or auditor present audit results within 90 days after a statutory audit, and it outlined requirements for employee training
