CEBV Weekly: April 3, 2023

The annual last-minute rush to take out the trash. More new bills, again. And, now entering the fog of secrecy.

Apr 02, 2023

This marks the last week for bills to be heard in committee. Bills which don’t make it are considered dead for the year. So naturally, this week’s agendas are chock-full of long-stalled bad ideas and plenty of strikers (see Spotlight Bills section below) — many of them bills that have already failed.

After this week, we’ll enter the “fog of secrecy” portion of legislative session, where there’s no more Request to Speak or weekly agendas, and nearly everything is negotiated behind the scenes with little if any input from the minority party. That will continue from now until lawmakers agree upon a budget, which is typically presented as a done deal and rammed through with little public input. We’re hearing rumors that a few key legislative Republicans are in conversation with the governor, but all signs continue to point to a long legislative session, with a viable budget right against the July 1 deadline.

As always, the important conversations on which lawmaker will support what bill are happening primarily behind the scenes — so if you care about an issue, make it public. In addition to contacting your lawmakers directly, other great ways to make your voices heard include social media; Letters to the Editor; talking with friends, family, neighbors and co-workers; and more. Please stay tuned to our Twitter for breaking news, and attend our weekly happy hour Zoom calls for suggestions on how to shift your civic engagement so you can continue to make a difference.

⏰ If you have 15 minutes: Act on the five Spotlight Bills, below.

⏰⏰ If you have 30 minutes: Use Request to Speak on all bills in committee. It’s your last week to do so until budget bills drop! Head on over to CEBV’s Facebook or Twitter for our RTS crib sheet, the Sunday Morning Quickie.

⏰⏰⏰ If you have 45 minutes: Contact your senator and representatives on the bills being heard this week that mean the most to you.

⏰⏰⏰⏰ If you have 60 minutes: Join us on Zoom at 4pm on Sunday for our next CEBV Happy Hour. Our featured speaker this week is veteran lawmaker and Senate Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein.

Issue 1: Revenge of the Strikers

This week we’ve got lots of strikers, gut-and-replace amendments introducing new ideas (or reviving old ones) that don't even have to be related to the original bill. It’s like a piñata of bad ideas that contains no discernible good for everyday Arizonans.

SB1088, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would allow police officers to cite “non-operators” (anyone other than the driver of a vehicle) for certain violations. The bill is aimed at bicyclists and scooter riders, but could apply to passengers as well. Critics expressed concern that the bill will lead to increased racial profiling. Courts have overturned statutes that allow police to demand non-operators’ names, which means the bill could also open Arizona to lawsuits at taxpayer expense. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1131 is now subject to a striker that brings back the proposed ban on cities charging taxes on rent, which Gov. Hobbs vetoed. The League of Arizona Cities and Towns strongly oppose the concept as it would force cities to either raise taxes elsewhere or cut services. There’s nothing requiring the tax credit to trickle down past landlords to benefit renters. Currently, 71 of Arizona’s 91 cities use these taxes to help fund police, fire, libraries, parks and other services. The fiscal note for the original bill says a ban would cost cities $202 million a year. Inflation is a temporary cycle, and we should be looking for solutions that match the problem, not permanent tax cuts that harm us forever. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1225, sponsored by TJ Shope (R-16), is subject to a striker that would limit the sale of nicotine (cigarettes, e-cigarettes, vaping products, etc.) to ages 21+, but also would ban cities from enacting stricter regulations. This completely fails to address the actual problems with nicotine sales in Arizona. Half the tobacco retailers in Tempe, for example, have violated existing law since 2015, nearly all for selling to minors. Each of these businesses remains open today because Arizona is one of only 10 states that doesn’t require a tobacco sales license. That means retailers can’t lose the right to sell nicotine no matter what they do. Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Monday. Use RTS to comment that you oppose the preemption portion of the bill and want to see licensing requirements added. OPPOSE.

SB1285, sponsored by Janae Shamp (R-29), is subject to a striker reviving SB1249, requiring the Arizona Medical Board to grant a medical license to international graduates who have not completed an accredited US residency. Currently, this is not allowed anywhere else in the US. Doctors’ groups are opposing the bill as a safety and quality issue. Libertarians in Arizona have long degraded professional standards in the name of “cutting red tape”; Koch-backed libertarian Americans for Prosperity supports. Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

HB2545, sponsored by Cory McGarr (R-17), is subject to a striker that would ban the governor from issuing any public health emergency declaration for more than 7 days; declarations could be extended another 7 days with approval from two-thirds of the Arizona Legislature. Arizona currently has 41 open emergency declarations, which in many cases must be in place before we can receive federal funding. As one lawmaker pointed out, changing the law would make that funding “dependent on us getting together every 30 days to argue over whether or not the drought is real and upends the whole practical approach to dealing with the drought.” Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

These bills are scheduled for a floor vote on Monday. COW and Third Read floor calendars are released only the night before, so we don’t yet have information for Tuesday through Thursday. Contact your senator or representatives directly, as applicable, on bills you care about.

HB2108, sponsored by David Livingston (R-28), would force unemployment recipients to submit documentation of at least 5 work search actions each week. If someone refuses a “suitable” job offer or fails to appear for a scheduled interview, the prospective employer would be required to report them to DES. The punitive bill leaves no room for correcting misinformation or determining what “suitable” means, instead carrying automatic criminal penalties. At a weekly maximum of just $320, Arizona ranks in the bottom 5 nationally for unemployment benefits. Currently people must lose their job through no fault of their own or a compelling personal reason in order to be eligible for unemployment. Scheduled for a Senate floor vote, Monday. OPPOSE.

HB2415, sponsored by Leo Biasiucci (R-30), would further restrict early voting by stripping voters from the early voting list if they fail to vote their early ballots in all elections within a single election cycle. The current law requires voters to participate in two back-to-back primary and general elections before being dropped. Scheduled for a Senate floor vote, Monday. OPPOSE.

HB2552, sponsored by Austin Smith (R-29), would ban the use of ranked choice voting in Arizona. Ranked choice voting, similar to an automatic runoff, would open up partisan primaries to all voters regardless of party registration, and tends to result in more centrist, less polarized victors. Similar measure SB1265, Kern (R-27), is in House Rules this week. Scheduled for a Senate floor vote, Monday. OPPOSE.

HB2591, sponsored by Gail Griffin (R-19), would mandate that ballot drop boxes must be located inside a county building or secured to a building or footing. This creates more roadblocks to voting, such as precluding people from dropping off their ballots at their local polling place on Election Day. Scheduled for a Senate floor vote, Monday. OPPOSE.

HB2757, sponsored by Ben Toma (R-27), would expand retention elections for appeals court judges to be statewide, rather than countywide. This is a transparent attempt to keep appellate judges from being unseated by allowing people to vote out of district for judges who don't represent them, diluting the votes. Appellate judges represent certain areas; they're chosen that way. It's not representative democracy if people in Yuma are voting for someone who represents Flagstaff. CEBV Gavel Watch unseated 3 judges in November 2022. Scheduled for a Senate floor vote, Monday. OPPOSE.

The stakes are higher now. All of these bills have been through committees and a full floor vote in their chamber of origin. From here, the path to the governor’s desk is much shorter: only a single floor vote remains.

View Committees

Monday

SB1001, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would ban teachers from using a student’s chosen pronouns without written parental permission. Trans youth are twice as likely to consider suicide as their peers; gender-affirming care, which may include using a person’s chosen pronouns, lowers suicide risk. The bill continues the recent Republican theme of pushing manufactured, divisive culture-war issues for political profit. The bill further politicizes teachers, which will deepen Arizona’s ongoing teacher retention crisis. State lawmakers in 34 states are flooding the zone this year with almost 300 bills targeting LGBTQ rights; two-thirds of those relate specifically to transgender rights. The Legislature’s nonpartisan rules attorneys have told them the bill is unconstitutional. Part of a package of bills that ostracize LGBTQ people and perpetuate false offensive narratives. Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

SB1170, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban unmonitored drop boxes. These are accessible, convenient, reliable, secure, and hugely popular, yet some lawmakers continue to insist without evidence that they increase election fraud. Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

SB1225, sponsored by TJ Shope (R-16), is subject to a striker that would limit the sale of nicotine (cigarettes, e-cigarettes, vaping products, etc.) to ages 21+, but also would ban cities from enacting any stricter regulations. This completely fails to address the actual problems with nicotine sales in Arizona. Half the tobacco retailers in Tempe, for example, have violated existing law since 2015, nearly all for selling to minors. Each of these businesses remains open today because Arizona is one of only 10 states that doesn’t require a tobacco sales license. That means retailers can’t lose their right to sell nicotine no matter what they do. Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Monday. Use RTS to comment that you oppose the preemption and would like to see licensing requirements. OPPOSE.

SB1285, sponsored by Janae Shamp (R-29), is subject to a striker reviving SB1249, which would require the Arizona Medical Board to grant a medical license to international graduates who have not completed an accredited US residency. Currently, this is not allowed anywhere else in the US. Doctors’ groups are opposing the bill as a safety and quality issue. Libertarians in Arizona have long degraded professional standards in the name of “cutting red tape”; Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity supports. Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

Tuesday

HB2538, sponsored by Beverly Pingerelli (R-28), would allow district and charter schools to offer live, remote instruction for students in grades 9-12 in exchange for a portion of school funding. Schools would get a $500 incentive bonus for each remote student who passes the course. Offering bonuses for passing grades monetizes learning and leads to cherry-picking of students and other forms of inequity. Scheduled for Senate Appropriations Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

HB2705, sponsored by Leo Biasiucci (R-30), would create an optional school safety training pilot program for district and charter schools, and appropriate $10 million from the general fund to run it. The legislation is intended to bring to Arizona the FASTER Saves Lives program, an “intensive training for school teachers and staff that qualifies them to carry concealed weapons in schools.” Besides that obvious concern, opponents point out that Arizona’s public schools already offer safety training each year. The only thing this training offers that current trainings don’t: concealed carry instruction. Scheduled for Senate Appropriations Committee, Tuesday (held on 3/21). OPPOSE.

Bills in Rules Committees

Rules exists only to consider whether a bill is constitutional and in the proper form for passage; the committee doesn’t take testimony and won’t read comments.

These bills will likely proceed to caucus (separate partisan meetings of all Democrats and all Republicans) and from there to a full floor vote, which could happen this week. Bottom line: Treat these as bills that could get a full vote at any time. Contact your senator for Senate bills, your representatives for House bills.

HB2291, sponsored by David Cook (R-7), is now subject to a striker that would continue the Arizona Schools for the Deaf & Blind (ASDB) for another 5 years. The school, which has educated students with auditory and visual issues since Arizona's statehood in 1912, would have to close by July 1 if the bill does not pass. The delay on reauthorization, usually a clean and seamless process (and usually an 8-year continuation), has fueled suspicions of a more nefarious agenda. Earlier this session, Justine Wadsack (R-17) attempted to force ASDB to offer services to any child with a disability, forcing numerous staffing and programmatic changes and increasing ASDB's annual operating costs by $295 million annually. The school received a clean audit last year as part of its review; we urge lawmakers to continue ASDB so it can continue to help these children with unique needs as Arizona's Constitution requires. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. SUPPORT.

HB2305, sponsored by Cory McGarr (R-17), would force elections officials to allow representatives of the two largest political parties to observe signature verification for ballots. The bill presents a number of problems. Space for partisan observers is an issue outside of Maricopa County (many rural elections areas are quite small), and including partisan observers would give them access to view voters’ personal information. Violations would be a class 5 felony, and county attorneys would be forced to prosecute, which the House’s own nonpartisan rules attorneys said is unconstitutional. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

HB2379, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would ban Arizona and its cities and counties from requiring hotels and motels to participate in housing voucher programs that house homeless individuals or families in unoccupied guest rooms. This bill represents NIMBYism at its worst. Arizona has one of the worst homelessness crises in the nation, with a 23% increase last year alone; housing vouchers for apartments remain in short supply. Social service agencies often use hotel vouchers to temporarily shelter homeless people during bad weather or natural disasters; they give people the dignity of privacy, and can accommodate couples, families and people with pets. A recent survey shows nearly all people experiencing homelessness want housing, but not group shelters, mostly due to lack of privacy and safety concerns. Quickly moving people into housing can solve long-term homelessness. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

HB2722, sponsored by Gail Griffin (R-19), would allow county elections officials to hand count all of the ballots for any election. In November, the courts blocked Cochise County, where the sponsor lives, from hand-counting all midterm ballots. Elections advocates testified that such a move would put ballot security at risk, create counting errors, and damage voter confidence, ushering in a cascading series of events that would seriously undermine election integrity. Cochise County’s elections director has resigned, citing a physically and emotionally threatening work environment. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

SB1028, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would classify drag performances as “adult cabaret” (a category historically limited to strip shows) and ban them from public property or anywhere else a minor may be able to see them. As Arizona law contains no definition for drag performances, this could ban everything from drag story hours for kids to performances of Cabaret, Rent and even Peter Pan. A first violation would carry to up to 6 months in jail; a subsequent violation would be a felony. Part of a package of bills to ostracize LGBTQ people, perpetuate false and offensive narratives, and marginalize or shutter dozens of businesses that attract audiences for drag performances. Similar attacks on free expression have been proposed in at least 10 states this year. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1030, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would mandate that counties change their zoning laws to define business that hold “drag shows” as adult-oriented, and would also ban the beloved Sunday drag brunch. Part of a package of bills to ostracize LGBTQ people, perpetuate false offensive narratives, and marginalize or shutter dozens of businesses that attract audiences for drag performances. Polls show Americans from every political ideology and age group oppose anti-trans legislation. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1040, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would ban trans kids from using the school bathrooms, changing facilities and “sleeping quarters” that align with their gender identities. It would create a situation where trans kids couldn’t use any facilities at all without undue scrutiny of their bodies, calling that a "reasonable accommodation." Anyone who “encounters” a trans person in a bathroom could file suit against public schools. A federal court found that these policies violate the US Constitution and Title IX, so in addition to being monstrously cruel and creating harm from continued anti-trans rhetoric, this would open Arizona to a host of lawsuits at taxpayer expense. Polls show that Americans from every political ideology and age group oppose anti-trans legislation. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1106, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would ban social media platforms from willfully "deplatforming" or “shadow banning” a candidate. Inspired by a conspiracy theory that right-wingers, candidates in particular, are being persecuted by Big Tech via settings which let the user post and browse the site normally but limits their posts’ reach to other users. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1135, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would force voters who try to return their early ballots at the polls on Election Day to stand in line, surrender their early ballot, show ID, and then wait their turn to fill in a fresh ballot. In November 2022, this was nearly 1 in 5 voters. SB1135 would also end “emergency voting,” or in-person voting the weekend before Election Day. The sponsor says he is trying to “stop voter fraud,” which is exceedingly rare. An amendment would also stop Arizona from participating in ERIC, a multistate system that weeds out duplicate, deceased or suspicious voter registrations. The ERIC system is one of the strongest safeguards against voter fraud for election officials; there’s no viable replacement. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1138, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban banks that do business in Arizona from "discriminating" based on political affiliation or social or environmental values. If the measure passes, most banks would not be able to work with any Arizona counties. Fourteen of Arizona's 15 county treasurers (10 of whom are Republicans) oppose the bill; as the Coconino County treasurer says, “How are teachers going to get payroll if I don’t have a bank I can work with?” Such efforts could cost Arizona millions. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1264, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would ban any elections officer from forming a PAC. This “sore loser bill” is clearly motivated by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer doing just that to back pro-democracy Republicans. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1265, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would ban the use of ranked choice voting in Arizona. Ranked choice voting, similar to an automatic runoff, would open up partisan primaries to all voters regardless of party registration, and tends to result in more centrist, less polarized victors. A coalition of center-right Republicans is discussing a 2024 ballot measure — so, naturally, MAGA is terrified of it. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1278 is now subject to a striker from Steve Montenegro (R-29) that would preempt cities and counties from restricting people from using gas stoves. This newest culture-war ridiculousness was spurred by a US Consumer Product Safety commissioner who suggested in January that the government might consider stricter regulation of new gas stoves in response to health concerns about indoor air quality. Even after the agency issued a statement that they "aren't coming for anyone's gas stoves," within days, partisan actors had seized on the topic to drive faux outrage. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1323, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would put Arizona public school teachers (but not teachers at ESA-funded private schools) behind bars for up to two years if they so much as recommend a book to students that lawmakers consider too “sexually explicit.” The bill builds on last year’s ban, which has essentially frozen the teaching of books like “The Color Purple,” “The Canterbury Tales” and “Atlas Shrugged,” preventing Arizona's students from getting a well-rounded education. State law already makes it a felony to show pornography to children. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1332, sponsored by Janae Shamp (R-29), would make the “cast vote record” (a receipt of everything scanned by a voting machine) a public record. Election deniers have overwhelmed the Maricopa County Elections Department with a deluge of requests for this tedious and routine document, insisting baselessly that it will help detect fraudulent voting patterns. It’s the latest example of the endless, fruitless quest for a smoking gun that has so far yielded no proof of election wrongdoing. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1413, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would require cities and counties to immediately remove any "homeless encampment" and throw away all materials found there. Homeless people on private property would be charged with trespassing. The bill does not include solutions for housing or shelter. The definition of “homeless encampment” is so broadly written as to criminalize recreational camping. In addition to being blatantly cruel, this bill criminalizes homelessness and has constitutionality issues. The bill was written by the libertarian lobbyist group Goldwater Institute. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1471, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would set up a “man-versus-machine test” of whether humans are better or worse than machines at counting ballots. This would essentially serve as a hand-count audit, measuring accuracy as well as the time and resources required to implement hand counting statewide. Driven by a false belief that machine counting is inherently suspect and susceptible to fraud. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer is supporting the bill, saying it “will build confidence in our election system by showing that machine tabulation is highly accurate, free of bias, and fast.” Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1518, sponsored by Ken Bennett (R-1), would allow voters to skip the signature verification process by presenting ID when dropping their early ballots off on Election Day. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer has said that would break the chain of ballot custody, harming election integrity. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1559, sponsored by Steve Kaiser (R-2), would exempt from state taxes all of the profits for a corporation in its first year of business, half the profits in its second year, and a quarter in its third year. Arizona already gives away far more in tax loopholes and carve-outs than it spends in its state budget every year. Most corporations in Arizona pay only the minimum tax of $50, and the bill’s fiscal note observes “a lack of detailed business income data” as a barrier to estimating the cost. State revenues are forecast to crater over the next two years; this is no time to further cut taxes. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1611, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would ban government from contracting with any company unless the contract specifies the company will not "discriminate" based on political affiliation or social or environmental values. Similar to a failed bill from last year and several this session. One recent study says such efforts could cost Arizona millions. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1694, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban the state, including public schools, from requiring "diversity, equity, and inclusion programs" for its employees, spending public funds on such programs, or setting policies to influence the composition of its workforce on the basis of race, sex, or color. Any employee required to participate could sue. Diversity, equity and inclusion is a philosophy designed to harness the differences, talents and unique qualities of all individuals; this bill pretends our differences don’t exist. When did living in a country that looks like the world, and intentionally making space for all different kinds of people, become a bad thing? Shamefully, the sponsor says his bill is what MLK would have wanted. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

2023 Session Timeline

Legislative majority leadership can change bill deadlines at any point. The budget deadline, however, is set in stone because it is tied to the state’s fiscal year.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Saturday, 4/22        100th Day of Session (the stated end goal; can be changed) 
Friday, 6/30             Last day to pass a budget before the government shuts down

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