CEBV Weekly: February 10, 2025
Groundhog Day without the groundhogs. Bomb-throwing and what it means. One good bill is moving again.
Have you noticed that our Republican-led state legislature seems to be stuck in a feedback loop? That they keep bringing rejected, stalled and vetoed ideas forward, even though Groundhog Day was last week?
If a lot of these ideas seem familiar, they should. The common thread is legislative Republicans leaning into their hubris and embracing the idea that their opponents need to either change their minds or get out of the way.
Political insiders call this “bomb-throwing.” Through disruptive sensationalism, bomb throwers seek to spotlight extreme ideas in the public eye. The idea is to galvanize support from their base and to — they hope — influence the political narrative.
It’s not an especially productive way to govern. But unfortunately, this year’s Legislature has even more bomb throwers than the last. One example: John Kavanagh (R-3) has reintroduced many of his failed culture-war proposals, saying, “I’m hoping that the governor and some of the Democrats have now learned their lesson from this election.” Another is House speaker Steve Montenegro (R-29), threatening to load up the ballot with failed ideas while arguing that Gov. Hobbs is "out of touch" with Arizona voters and proclaiming that voters "gave us a mandate.”
Bomb-throwing can also serve as a distraction from other, more critical issues. Of course, it’s important to speak out against the chaos. But the key question is whether there’s a larger game afoot. As always, while the Legislature’s right hand juggles flaming chainsaws, CEBV will be watching what the left hand is doing, and keeping you informed.
It appears that legislative Republicans have learned very little from voters’ resounding rejections of most of the referrals on last year’s four-page ballot. They are once again poised to circumvent Gov. Hobbs’ veto stamp by loading up our 2026 ballots with a range of nonsense.
Use Request to Speak to oppose the below referrals. We’ve got more details and talking points in the Bills section below; just search for the bill number.
SCR1002 would ban the use of photo radar, which studies prove will lead to more dangerous roads and more collisions
SCR1014 would mandate automatic income tax cuts of 50% if Arizona has a budget surplus, creating huge issues when Arizona experiences its next recession and needs those revenues
SCR1022 would blow up Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission (a nationwide model) by requiring it to hold its own “census” at huge expense and create grid-like legislative districts of equal citizen population, depressing Arizona’s legitimate census count
HCR2021 would ban cities from taxing food intended for home consumption, blowing holes in local budgets and forcing slashed services and higher property taxes
HCR2042 would enshrine racism in the state Constitution, ban certain content from being taught in schools, and allow the legislature to also "prescribe related practices or concepts" to ban, all in the name of a war on diversity, equity and inclusion
⏰ If you have 10 minutes: Use Request to Speak to oppose the 5 spotlighted ballot referrals in committee this week.
⏰⏰ If you have 30 minutes: Also use Request to Speak on the other bills in committees this week. Refer to the information, links and talking points in this Weekly to craft your own comments to lawmakers.
⏰⏰⏰ If you have 45 minutes: Also contact House Appropriations Committee chair David Livingston (R-28) at dlivingston@azleg.gov or 602-926-4178 to thank him for hearing universal school meal bill HB2213. Then contact the members of the committee to ask them to vote YES.
⏰⏰⏰⏰ If you have 60 minutes: Join us on Zoom for our next CEBV Happy Hour conversation and an informative state legislative rundown. (Yes, we know the #SuperbOwl🦉 is also happening, but politics is our favorite sport!) Happy Hour meets every Sunday at 4 PM through the end of legislative session. Sign up in advance here.
Democracy
SB1375, sponsored by Mark Finchem (R-1), would force county recorders to let anyone download voter registration rolls for free. Creating public, no-cost access of voter rolls is a great way to enable spam and harassment — not to mention allowing bad actors to easily generate fake purge lists, thus threatening the integrity of our elections. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1378, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would ban homeowners’ associations and planned communities from restricting the display of Trump flags. Currently, whether we can display signs and flags with the name of a public official or candidate hinges on whether the person appears on the next ballot. The core job of a homeowner’s association is to preserve property values, which it does through overseeing aspects like aesthetics. These associations have a right to restrict the display of controversial eyesores. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1441, sponsored by Carine Werner (R-4), would make school board elections partisan, a move being pushed by national extremist organizations. Local school boards are our most democratic institutions, and should stay above party politics. Making school boards partisan turns districts and schools into just another venue for extremist conflict. This idea failed in committee in 2022 and was vetoed last year. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1463, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would require initiative petitions to include a separate list, description and brief summary of existing statutes that “are likely to conflict with or be impacted by” the initiative. Prop 139, which voters resoundingly approved in November, conflicts with at least 40 separate statutes that the Legislature passed over decades to chip away at reproductive freedom. Including them all in this manner would have vastly increased the size of the petition, creating financial and logistical burdens on organizers and circulators, and thus on direct democracy. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1002, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would ask voters to ban the use of photo radar. Numerous studies have found both speed and red-light cameras offer many safety benefits. Conspicuous, fixed cameras reduce traffic crashes and injuries by up to 35 percent. Nobody likes a ticket, but Arizona has had speed cameras since 1987 for good reason. Repealing photo radar will lead to more dangerous roads and more collisions. Incredibly, far-right extremists call photo radar “totalitarianism“ and “mass surveillance,” and argue this bill “will single-handedly stop the World Economic Forum's globalist agenda.” Gov. Hobbs has vetoed similar bills, but this measure would head directly to the ballot. The idea failed last year thanks to Frank Carroll (R-28) joining all Democrats in voting no, but this year’s Senate has an additional Republican member who is likely to support. Scheduled for Senate Public Safety Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1014 and its companion bill SB1318, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would mandate automatic income tax cuts of 50% if Arizona has a budget surplus. Because Arizona requires a two-thirds supermajority vote for lawmakers to raise taxes, these cuts would effectively be permanent, creating huge issues when Arizona experiences its next recession and needs those revenues. Arizona’s budget is one of the smallest per capita in the US, and schools are funded at 49th in the country, but we give away more money every year ($29.9 billion) in tax cuts, credits and carve-outs than we spend in our budget. Any surplus isn’t evidence that we’re collecting too much revenue; it’s evidence of lawmakers’ persistent unwillingness to invest in our public schools and services. When the House refused to pass this idea in 2023, the fiscal note projected a loss of $253.5 million for one year alone. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SCR1022, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would blow up Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission (a nationwide model) by requiring it to hold its own “census” every 10 years to determine how many people live in Arizona who are verifiably US citizens. This would be used to create grid-like legislative districts of equal citizen population. Any state lawmaker could sue if they didn’t like the result. The fiscal note on last year’s bill says it could cost the state as much as $158 million every 10 years; this incredibly expensive move would purposely undercount communities of color, negatively impacting Arizona’s legitimate census count and depressing our federal funding. It would also partially defund the voter-created Clean Elections Commission to pay for the new “census.” The bill is being pushed by the Koch-funded Arizona Free Enterprise Club. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2038, sponsored by Alexander Kolodin (R-3), would cancel the registrations of “federal-only voters” on the grounds that they have not shown proof of citizenship. “Federal-only voters” are unique to this state, the result of a 2005 Arizona law requiring new voters to provide proof of citizenship and a US Supreme Court decision that Arizona could not impose that requirement on those who registered via a federal form. Arizona’s “federal-only voters” are predominantly college students or others simply unlikely to have easy access to citizenship documents. Arizona had more than 42,000 of these voters as of July 1; this bill could disenfranchise them all in violation of the Supreme Court decision. (Note: because the idea is being advanced via a strike-everything amendment, the bill’s short title will read “technical correction.” Please use your RTS comments to say you oppose the amendment.) Scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2060, sponsored by Lisa Fink (R-27), would require all federal elections on the Arizona ballot be run according to state election law, including voter registration requirements, proof of citizenship, proof of residency, and proof of ID. This is patently unconstitutional: Article VI, Clause 2 of the US Constitution (known as “the Supremacy Clause”) says federal law takes precedence over state law. Scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2206, sponsored by James Taylor (R-29), would stop Arizona from participating in ERIC, a multi-state 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. Republican-run states have been abandoning ERIC in the wake of far-right conspiracy theories and struggling to clean voter rolls without it. Gov. Hobbs vetoed a similar bill in 2023. Scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2649, sponsored by Steve Montenegro (R-29), would affirm the Legislature’s belief in the importance of the Electoral College for presidential elections. We disagree. The Electoral College is no longer a constructive force in American politics; it’s time to move to direct popular election of presidents. Held last week, but once again scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2632, sponsored by Alex Kolodin (R-3), is a close copy of Prop 315, shot down by voters on the 2024 ballot. The measure would ask voters to ban Arizona agencies from creating rules that would raise regulatory costs by more than $500,000 over 5 years (a very small amount in the government world) and to instead require the Legislature to enact legislation to ratify the proposed rule into law. This would not only kneecap our state government's ability to regulate spending, but is a direct slap in the face of voters who literally just rejected this idea. Scheduled for House Regulatory Oversight Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2651, sponsored by Steve Montenegro (R-29), is a copy of a bill vetoed in 2023 that would ban all electronic voting equipment beginning in 2029 unless it meets Department of Defense cybersecurity standards, all pieces of it are made in the US, and the auditor general is given copies of the source codes. This type of equipment does not exist. Inspired by a baseless conspiracy theory about vote-flipping supercomputers. Held last week, but once again scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HCR2021 would ask voters to ban cities from taxing food intended for home consumption. Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a similar bill in 2023 as it would have cost 65 Arizona cities over $150 million a year, blowing holes in local budgets and forcing slashed services and higher property taxes. Mayors are speaking out against the proposal, saying, "We really have no way to make up the loss in revenue.” Cutting taxes (and therefore revenue) only makes Arizona’s problems worse. Scheduled for House Ways & Means Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
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Education
SB1321, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would force district and charter schools to allow "patriotic youth membership organizations" to recruit in schools during school hours. Schools would be forced to schedule activities for these groups and notify parents of speaking engagements. "Discrimination" against eligible organizations would be prohibited. Goes further than similar bill HB2724. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1625, sponsored by Carine Werner (R-4), would expand the Arizona School Spending Portal to force district and charter schools to report each general ledger entry, including revenues, expenditures and disbursements. This is bureaucratic red tape that would snarl schools in time-consuming overreporting, not to mention a massive government overreach. Meanwhile, Arizona's ESA voucher program has zero transparency by design. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1694, sponsored by David Farnsworth (R-10), would ban Arizona universities from receiving state funds in any fiscal year in which they offer "courses on diversity, equity, and inclusion." These frameworks seek to promote fair treatment of all people, particularly groups that have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination. This bill not only pretends our differences don’t exist, but would hamstring the ability of our state universities to provide a competitive education compared to other states that have no such asinine requirement. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2167, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would ban school districts from holding an override election for one year if they fail to correct a financial reporting deficiency within 90 days of receiving notice from the auditor general. The bill also penalizes districts by removing 1% per month of the district's budget after 18 months until the Auditor General reports compliance. This unnecessarily punitive bill is inspired by troubles which have been uncovered and solved thanks to the robust accountability requirements in place for public schools. Meanwhile, ESA vouchers are costing our state $1 billion every year with zero accountability. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2169, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), forces district school boards to approve any out-of-state travel at least one month prior. This potentially will cause major issues for schools, such as when a student team wins a competition and schools have just 2 or 3 weeks notice to arrange a trip with chaperones. The bill also requires district school boards to meet in district buildings and requires 5 years of online access to materials and recordings; it is ludicrous to tighten these already stringent requirements when publicly funded charter and private school boards are subject to no such requirements. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2213, sponsored by Nancy Gutierrez (D-18), would fund free school lunches for children whose families meet the federal income requirements for free or reduced-price lunches. This change would help kids who don't qualify for free meals but still struggle to afford the costs. Kids who eat school meals show improved attendance, behavior and academic achievement (kids can't learn when they're hungry!), and they get more whole grains, milk, fruits and vegetables at mealtimes. Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.
HB2484, sponsored by Beverly Pingerelli (R-28), would require district charter school boards to restrict student access to the internet, including social media, and limit students’ use of phones during the school day to only for educational purposes or during an emergency, including during meals, passing periods and recess. A national trend that is already being handled on the local level. Schools should be allowed to set their own policies and not struggle under top-down legislative mandates. Scheduled for House Science & Technology Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2724, sponsored by Tony Rivero (R-27), would allow public school principals to decide whether to allow "patriotic youth groups" to address students for up to ten minutes during the first quarter of each academic year. Principals would then have to ensure that any materials from these groups are distributed directly to students throughout the school year. See similar bill SB1321. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
LGBTQ+
HB2126, sponsored by Julie Willoughby (R-13), is a copy of a vetoed bill from last year that would require health care entities to give parents access to all of their minor children’s medical records, even for services that don’t require parental consent. This effectively would strip minors of their right to medical privacy and strip medical professionals of the right to exercise their professional judgment on when to divulge information. The bill is being pushed by the evangelical Christian lobbying group Center for Arizona Policy. Scheduled for House Health & Human Services Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HCR2042, sponsored by Steve Montenegro (R-29), asks voters to enshrine racism in the state Constitution. This culture-war-driven measure would prevent the state from giving BIPOC-owned businesses any preference in state contracts, keep school districts from specifically hiring BIPOC teachers in an effort to increase representation, block teachers from discussing inclusion and equity issues that have arisen despite the 14th Amendment, and ban certain content from being taught in schools. This would negatively impact student learning, teacher retention and recruitment, and does nothing to prevent discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity in taxpayer-funded private schools receiving ESA vouchers. The legislature would be allowed to also "prescribe related practices or concepts" to ban. Scheduled for House Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
Water
We’ve done our best to cover this topic in plain language, but there’s no getting around some of the technical terms. For background, we recommend The Water Agenda, a new weekly newsletter from the folks at the Arizona Agenda. Here’s the most recent issue. We also recommend Beau Hodai’s excellent 3-part series in the Cochise Regional News about how Rep. Gail Griffin has for years stonewalled effective water management in Arizona.
SB1304, sponsored by TJ Shope (R-16), weakens assured water supply requirements by allowing the Arizona Department of Water Resources to designate portions of cities or towns within active management areas as having an assured water supply if the director thinks the area is simply making sufficient progress toward that goal. Scheduled for Senate Natural Resources Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
SB1521, sponsored by Tim Dunn (R-25), weakens assured water supply requirements for subdivisions by allowing unbuilt certificates of assured water supply to be sold or transferred separately from their original lots or parcels. Our water future is not a deck of baseball cards. Scheduled for Senate Natural Resources Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2574, sponsored by Gail Griffin (R-19), allows counties to approve small subdivisions of 6-10 lots each 2+ acres in size, thus circumventing existing assured water supply requirements. This undoubtedly benefits the developers of so-called “wildcat” subdivisions, who split large parcels of land into smaller chunks and sell hundreds of those chunks off one by one, skirting the requirement to ensure a long-term water supply. Scheduled for House Natural Resources, Energy & Water, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
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2025 Session Timeline
Monday, 2/10 House bill introduction deadline
Friday, 2/21 Last day for a bill to get out of committees in its originating house
Monday, 2/24 Crossover Week begins (most committee hearings are suspended)
Friday, 3/28 Last day for a bill to get out of committees in its crossover house
(and the last day to use RTS until a budget drops)
Tuesday, 4/22 100th Day of Session (the stated end goal; can be changed)
Monday, 6/30 Last day to pass a constitutionally mandated state budgetFlag this handy list of contact info, committee chairs and assignments, freshly updated for 2025.
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