This week, bills in committee are a train wreck pulling a dumpster fire, which is no change and no surprise. So it’s time to address a different question, one we are asked often: How do bills moving at our state legislature break down by party?
That’s best illustrated with an example. This past Tuesday, January 30, the House heard 58 bills in its caucus meetings, where all GOP and all Dems meet separately to discuss positions on bills. 29 of the House’s 60 lawmakers are Dems, but just 3 of the 58 bills were Democratic. One of those 3 bills was a deadline extension for a specialty license plate. The other two would create memorials on Wesley Bolin Plaza.
Meanwhile, the Republican majority advanced far more substantive bills on just about every topic, many of them culture-war or conspiracy-theory based. Because of their one-seat majority in each chamber, Republicans control every aspect of the Legislature, from choosing committee chairs to deciding which bills are heard. The good bills are out there; the people in charge of our Legislature are just refusing to advance them.
This toxic partisanship is nothing new, but it’s continuing even though, in electing Gov. Hobbs and a Republican legislative majority, Arizona voters chose divided government. It was a clear directive to work together, but the Arizona House GOP obviously hasn't gotten that memo. (Before you ask, unfortunately, it’s even worse over on the Senate side.)
We at CEBV hold no illusions that the situation at 1700 West Washington will magically improve, or that Arizona’s Republican legislative majority will decide to honor the democratic process (and their oaths of office) by heeding the voices of the majority of Arizona voters. Change will require our effort — an effort you are making by reading this and taking action.
We also won't give up working for change. It's still early in session. Gov. Hobbs still wields her powerful veto stamp. And lawmakers have yet to tackle their one constitutionally mandated duty: passing a budget. Truly, anything can happen — and our focus and involvement are tools that can shift the tide.
As promised, we’ve been hard at work on a list of good bills you can uplift using RTS My Bill Positions, which we’ve fondly nicknamed “RTS 2.0.”Wait no more: that list of good bills is here. Please click through and take a few minutes to ask lawmakers for the policies we want. You’ll be glad you did.
Lawmaker Turnover
Jevin Hodge was sworn in on Friday to the seat formerly held by Athena Salman (D-8), which has been vacant since December 31. (In appointing him, the Board of Supervisors called out Arizona’s massive budget deficit and "toxic partisanship" as challenges he would face.) But, as of this writing, the House is still missing three lawmakers, all of them Democratic.
The drama with Leezah Sun (D-22) and the House Ethics Committee concluded with her resignation Wednesday, after lawmakers had already drafted the resolution for her expulsion and were all set to kick her out. Just moments later that same day, Amish Shah (D-5) announced his resignation effective Thursday, February 1, to focus on his crowded Congressional primary. His seatmate Jennifer Longdon (D-5) resigned earlier this session. This leaves voters in LD5 without any representation in the House. Democrats from LD5 will meet on Monday to select three potential replacements for Longdon and Shah, after which the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will select the appointees.
A live view of our bill researcher preparing this week’s report
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⏰ If you have 20 minutes: Use RTS 2.0 (formally “My Bill Positions”) to lift up the 25 good bills that legislative Republicans aren’t giving hearings. That list is here.
⏰⏰ If you have 20 minutes: Use Request to Speak to oppose the bad ballot referral bills in committee this week.
⏰⏰⏰ If you have 30 minutes: Also use RTS to lift up the good bills below.
⏰⏰⏰⏰ If you have 45 minutes: Also use RTS to weigh in on all bills below. It’s important that we make the dearth of support clear for these terrible ideas.
⏰⏰⏰⏰⏰ If you have 60 minutes: Join us on Zoom at 4pm on Sunday for our next CEBV Happy Hour conversation. This week’s featured guest is a panel of mayors: Becky Daggett from Flagstaff, Jerry Bien-Wilner from Paradise Valley, and Regina Romero from Tucson. Stay on in the second hour for our Civics 102 presentation on some of Arizona’s most powerful governing bodies: the Central Arizona Water Conservation District board, the Corporation Commission, and the State Legislature. We’ll meet every Sunday at 4 PM through the end of session. Sign up in advance here.
When that bill is introduced, we’ll be asking for your rapid response. Watch our social media (Twitter and Threads) for more.
It’s not clear if Gov. Hobbs will call a special session. Right now it appears lawmakers are counting on getting a two-thirds supermajority so the bill can go into effect immediately. A special session would allow the fix to pass with a regular, simple majorit, and could can happen concurrently with the regular session; as with the last time this happened in 2018, lawmakers would simply gavel out of one and into the other on the same day.
Issue 2: Keep Garbage off the Ballot
This week’s agendas collectively advance a whopping eight ballot measures. That’s more than all the measures that made it through the entire process and onto the ballot in 2021 and 2022!
SCR1013, Kavanagh (R-3), banning trans kids from using the school bathrooms, changing facilities and “sleeping quarters” that align with their gender identities
SCR1015, Kern (R-27), & HCR2040, Smith (R-29), banning spending public funds on a laundry list of ludicrous culture-war conspiracy theories, which will undoubtedly be weaponized against public schools if implemented
SCR1020, Mesnard (R-13), automatically extending the previous year’s state budget so lawmakers never have to compromise
SCR1027, Mesnard (R-13), restricting Prop 123 funds to “eligible teachers” only
SCR1034, Hoffman (R-15), a complex and poorly crafted funding distribution for Prop 123
HCR2027, McGarr (R-17), labeling state House seats as seats “A” and “B” and requiring lawmakers to run for one or the other
HCR2042, Bliss (R-1), stiffening sentences for child sex traffickers even though that doesn’t work
We’re wondering: did Republican legislative leaders tell rank-and-file lawmakers, “We want to flood the November 2024 ballot with as much nonsense as possible, so introduce all your ideas and we’ll hear them – no idea is too bonkers”?
If you use RTS on nothing else this week, please do so on these 8 bills. See “Bills in Committee” below for full descriptions.
Issue 3: This Week’s Good Bills
As before, we’re highlighting the few good ideas moving this week:
SB1455, Bennett (R-1), allowing public school tax credits to continue to be used for broader purposes like capital items, school meal programs, consumable health care supplies, playground equipment and shade structures. SUPPORT.
SB1465, Bennett (R-1), reducing onerous requirements on certificated teachers by making the required K-5 literacy endorsement voluntary. SUPPORT.
HB2593, Carbone (R-25), requiring recipients of public records requests to acknowledge the request and give an expected date the request will be processed. SUPPORT.
See “Bills in Committee” below for full descriptions on these. Please support them with your RTS!
Monday
SB1112, sponsored by Sonny Borrelli (R-30), would preempt cities with over 50,000 residents from regulating most zoning for single-family homes, including lot sizes, square footage or dimensions, lot coverage, accessory structures, and design, architectural and aesthetic elements. In our profit-driven free-market economy, blanket deregulation simply won’t work without also including tenant protections like subsidized housing and rent regulation measures (or mandating construction of actual affordable dwellings) to ensure those who need it most have realistic options. Mirror bill HB2570. Scheduled for Senate Finance and Commerce Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1131, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would force a "do-over election" for any non-statewide or federal election that shows a less than 25% turnout. The results of the low-turnout election would be void, and the election would have to be repeated on a date when a statewide or federal office is also on the ballot. Many school bond and override elections suffer low turnout, but cancelling an election is not the solution. It disenfranchises the voters who bothered to show up and may present constitutional issues. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1187, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would require public schools in a district that has a bond or override election on the ballot to be polling places "only if other nearby appropriate government buildings are unavailable," voiding the available space and child safety exemptions currently in statute. No external entity knows better for local schools than their own staff; state lawmakers should not be mandating this decision for them. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1190, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would create a special license plate for community college enrollment. Arizona currently has 101 special plates, with a portion of each purchase going to a different cause. Not only does having so many plates create difficulties for law enforcement, but some of the plates raise money for political groups, such as the hate group Alliance Defending Freedom and the anti-abortion Arizona Life Coalition. Arizona added 8 more plates just last year. When will it stop? Scheduled for Senate Transportation, Technology & Missing Children Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1213, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), penalizes cities such as Flagstaff and Tucson for voting to set a higher minimum wage than the state’s. It allows individuals and corporations to deduct from their taxes some of the difference between the local and state minimum wages. These tax credits would then be deducted from the revenues the state is supposed to share with cities. Any unused tax credits could be rolled over for five years. Depending on how many companies take the credit, it could deplete a community’s entire state funding. This aims to punish cities for providing a living wage for their residents, as well as preempting local authority. The sponsor introduced a similar bill last year, which failed to pass and would have cost cities $127 million in FY 2026. Scheduled for Senate Finance and Commerce Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1240, 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 — just another example of conspiracy theorists’ endless, fruitless quest for election wrongdoing. The sponsor introduced the same bill last year, which Gov. Hobbs vetoed . Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1286, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would require all district schools to close on primary and general election days, and district schools (but not charter or ESA voucher-funded schools) to offer their gymnasiums as polling places. Teachers would be required to attend inservice training and banned from taking a vacation day, presumably to keep them from working the polls. Arizona and the nation are already struggling to find enough election workers; it makes no sense to legislate a ban on teachers doing their patriotic duty — to say nothing of the disruption this would cause to families. Similar to a bill from last year that Gov. Hobbs vetoed. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1288, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban “electronic vote adjudication,” or the process of resolving ballots that may include things like write-in votes, overvotes or marks in the margins. Currently the process is used sparingly, and there’s no good reason to say elections officials can’t use it. The same bill failed to pass last year. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1357, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would move the signature affidavit on an early ballot to be inside the envelope for “privacy purposes.” The bill does not contain an appropriation for the cost of redesigning ballot materials, which would be substantial. Voting rights officials have not indicated the current setup, which is also used by multiple other states, poses any problem. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1360, sponsored by Frank Carroll (R-28), would ban Arizona elections from using artificial intelligence or learning hardware, firmware, or software. Motivated by a conspiracy theory that this technology can be used maliciously to mix up signatures and register dead voters; there’s no proof that’s ever happened. Elections officials in Arizona don’t use it, making this bill unnecessary. The sponsor introduced the same bill last year, which Gov. Hobbs vetoed. Scheduled for Senate Elections Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1455, sponsored by Ken Bennett (R-1), extends the deadline for the public school tax credit to be used for broader purposes, including capital items, school meal programs, consumable health care supplies, playground equipment and shade structures. The current deadline is June 30, 2024. Having the flexibility to determine what needs attention most will benefit local schools. Scheduled for Senate Finance & Commerce Committee, Monday. SUPPORT.
SB1495, sponsored by J.D. Mesnard (R-13), would more than double certain business property tax exemptions, from $207,366 to $500,000 per taxpayer. With a projected deficit of more than $1.7 billion caused in large part by oversized tax cuts, now is not the time to give away even more state revenue via tax cuts! Scheduled for Senate Finance & Commerce Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1556, sponsored by Ken Bennett (R-1), is a tax cut for out-of-state remote sellers. Arizona has required out-of-state sellers to pay sales tax since 2019 following a US Supreme Court ruling (South Dakota v. Wayfair). Since then, far-right factions have been trying to undo or limit the law. This would hold long-term, negative and potentially disastrous impacts for the state general fund (which is already running a $1.7 billion deficit) and would negatively impact state services from public safety to public schools. Scheduled for Senate Finance & Commerce Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1639, sponsored by Frank Carroll (R-28), would establish a study committee on gold and silver currency, whether this state should invest state resources in gold and silver, prudent investment practices for this state related to gold and silver, and fiduciary management of gold and silver in an investment portfolio. Related to a bill from last session based on beliefs that our banking system is imploding, the federal government is conspiring to cause a central banking crisis by controlling your money, and the end of Western civilization as we know it is imminent. Scheduled for Senate Finance & Commerce Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SCR1001, 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. Gov. Hobbs vetoed a similar bill last year, but because this measure would head directly to the ballot, Gov. Hobbs cannot veto it. This bill failed its committee hearing on 1/22 thanks to Frank Carroll (R-28) joining all Democrats in voting no. The bill is once again scheduled for Senate Transportation, Technology and Missing Children Committee, Monday — an indication someone is pushing Sen. Carroll to change his vote. OPPOSE.
HB2121, sponsored by David Marshall (R-7), would preemptively ban the sale or production of lab-grown meat, and would allow anyone whose business is “adversely affected’’ by their sale (such as ranchers) to sue for up to $100,000 in damages. Lab-grown meat is produced by cultivating animal cells directly instead of raising and slaughtering animals for food. Cultivated meat uses significantly fewer resources, reduces pollution, and lowers food-borne illnesses. It’s not yet commercially viable on a wide scale, but scientists are working on it. Previously scheduled for House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee, back on an agenda for Monday. OPPOSE.
Tuesday
SB1387, sponsored by Lela Alston (D-5), would gradually raise the monthly stipend for kinship foster care parents (those related to the child) to the same $600 per month that every other foster parent gets. Kinship foster parents are often grandparents raising grandkids; the bill sponsor, who has been working for parity for these families since 2019, says some families must send the children back to the state because they cannot afford to take care of them. The sponsor has been working to pass this policy for many years. Scheduled for Senate Health & Human Services Committee, Tuesday. SUPPORT.
SB1406, sponsored by Janae Shamp (R-29), would require the Arizona Medical Board to give licenses to practice medicine to international graduates who have not completed an accredited US residency. Currently, this is not allowed anywhere else in the US. Doctors’ groups oppose the bill as a safety and quality issue. Libertarians in Arizona have long degraded professional standards in the name of “cutting red tape”; last year, Koch-backed libertarian group Americans for Prosperity pushed a similar bill, which failed to pass. Scheduled for Senate Health & Human Services Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1020, sponsored by J.D. Mesnard (R-13), would ask voters to amend the state Constitution to automatically extend the previous year’s state budget if lawmakers don’t pass one in time. This would remove the only real motivation for lawmakers to work together and avoid shutting down our state. Lawmakers' only constitutional responsibility is to pass a budget by the start of the new fiscal year (no later than June 30). The same bill failed to pass last year. Scheduled for Senate Appropriations Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2545 and HB2546, sponsored by Rachel Jones (R-17), would exempt all vehicles manufactured after 2018 from vehicle emissions testing. The bills are virtually identical except that each uses a different attempt to exempt the changes from federal EPA air quality requirements, neither of which will stand up in court. The EPA says vehicle inspection and emissions “help improve air quality by identifying cars and trucks that may need repairs.” They also save consumers money on fuel in the long run. Scheduled for House Natural Resources, Energy & Water Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2699, sponsored by Teresa Martinez (R-16), would require that students grades 5-12 receive internet safety instruction beginning in the 2024-25 school year, including on opioids and fentanyl, online predators, online communication and gaming, and app privacy. The topics are well-intended, but the bill does not come with any appropriation, making this another unfunded mandate for educators. Please include a request for resources in your RTS comment. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
Wednesday
SB1166, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would force schools to notify parents within five days if their minor child asked a teacher to use a preferred pronoun or name different from their biological sex or given name. It would also allow teachers to refuse to comply with that request, effectively greenlighting the misgendering of students. The sponsor says he’s compromised to try to get it past Gov. Hobbs’ veto stamp by making this year’s bill more “permissive” than last year’s, which required teachers to obtain written parental permission before they could respect a student’s identity. He dismissed the idea that requiring disclosure of a student’s gender identity would effectively amount to a ban for students with hostile families, saying that’s a matter for Child Protective Services to handle. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1182, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), is a shower-only version of last year’s “bathroom bill” that would ban trans kids from using the showers at school that align with their gender identities. Anyone who “encounters” a trans person in a shower area 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. Gov. Hobbs vetoed last year’s bill. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1195, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would ask voters to ban Arizona, its cities and counties, and its state universities and community colleges from spending public funds to promote a laundry list of culture-war conspiracy theories. These include reducing meat or dairy consumption or production, eating insects, walking or biking more, taking public transit, reducing air travel, limiting the number of articles of clothing a person may buy or own, recycling water for drinking, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, limiting the increase of global temperature, producing or adopting a climate action plan, replacing private ownership, furthering Marxist ideologies, or implementing mass surveillance systems to monitor motor vehicle travel. The “Marxist ideologies” line alone could usher in a McCarthy-level witch hunt in public schools. Mirror bills SCR1015 and HCR2040 are also in committee this week. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday.
SB1231, sponsored by Janae Shamp (R-29), would make it a state crime to cross a federal border without the required documentation and give local police immunity arrest migrants crossing the border, and institute for police enforcing the law. The bill, which carries echoes of Arizona’s notorious SB1070, could conflict with a 2012 US Supreme Court ruling that said Arizona has no right to enforce federal immigration laws. Scheduled for Senate Military Affairs, Public Safety & Border Security Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1279, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban “any method of representing or honoring Satan,” including memorials, statues, altars or displays, from being displayed on public property. The bill appears motivated by a case in Arkansas. Honestly, don’t these lawmakers have anything better to do? Someone should tell them about Arizona's $1.7 billion deficit. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1280, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would make those who are subject to registration as a sex offender ineligible to serve on public school boards. The bill does not mention ESA voucher-funded private schools. (Do these lawmakers think there are no predators at private schools? There are; here are several specific examples.) Please ask in your RTS comment that ESA voucher-funded private schools be added to the bill. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1287, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban district and charter schools from exposing minors to so-called "sexually explicit materials." The incredibly broad description includes text, audio and video that references sexual contact, sexual excitement, and even physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed buttocks. This would ban many classic works of literature, from Shakespeare to Maya Angelou. Violations would be a class 5 felony, punishable by up to 2 years in jail. Arizona law already covers this subject. Gov. Hobbs vetoed the same bill last year. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1369, sponsored by Shawnna Bolick (R-2), would require each school district and individual public school to post on its website information on students’ race, color, national origin, sex, disability, and age that is meant for the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Schools would also have to complete a newly created survey from the Arizona Department of Education on bullying, fighting, harassment and other school safety issues, which ADE would post on their website. Public schools are already subject to many laws covering discrimination and bullying, making this an excessive overreach. Meanwhile, bills to expand these protections to kids at ESA voucher-funded schools are going unheard. Use your comments to mention that! Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1370, sponsored by Shawnna Bolick (R-2), would ban cities from requiring businesses run by youth under 18 to be licensed or pay sales taxes if they make under $10,000 per year. The problem? While no one wants to stifle entrepreneurship for our young people, this bill would prop up for-profit fairs that are closely tied with Arizona private schools and pro-voucher lobbyists. Removing requirements for licensure opens the door to exposing kids to predatory practices or exploiting kids whose parents receive state tax dollars to spend on their kids’ businesses, often in lieu of school instruction. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1461, sponsored by Ken Bennett (R-1), would restructure the state charter board by removing the governor’s responsibility to appoint four of its members and dividing that responsibility between the speaker of the house and senate president instead. There is no good reason for this change. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1465, sponsored by Ken Bennett (R-1), would make the required literacy endorsement for certificated K-5 teachers (passed in 2021) voluntary. Teachers must do all of this on their own time and with their own money, meaning these onerous requirements are encouraging many educators to leave the classroom. Making it voluntary would level the playing field a bit between highly regulated certificated teachers and other, less regulated types of educators. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.
SB1583, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would require each public school in Arizona to give parents an overview of the ESA voucher program, including award amount and approved expenses; a list of charter schools located a “reasonable distance” from the school; and several pages of information on “Arizona’s school choice options” for the parent to sign. The school would be required to keep a copy of the signed disclosure in the student’s file and to assist any parent who wants to switch schools after reading the pamphlet. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1013, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would ask voters to 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. Gov. Hobbs vetoed a similar bill last year; this one goes to the voters, so she can’t veto it. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1015, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would ask voters to ban Arizona, its cities and counties, and its state universities and community colleges from spending public funds to promote a laundry list of culture-war conspiracy theories. These include reducing meat or dairy consumption or production, eating insects, walking or biking more, taking public transit, reducing air travel, limiting the number of articles of clothing a person may buy or own, recycling water for drinking, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, limiting the increase of global temperature, producing or adopting a climate action plan, replacing private ownership, furthering Marxist ideologies, or implementing mass surveillance systems to monitor motor vehicle travel. The “Marxist ideologies” line alone could usher in a McCarthy-level witch hunt in public schools. Mirror bill HCR2040 is also in committee this week, upping the danger level. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1027, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would ask voters to put a new version of Prop 123 in the state Constitution that restricts funds to “eligible teachers” only, rather than the many and varied needs of public schools as the expiring version of Prop 123 allows. Individual schools are best suited to determine their own needs, and don’t need a top-down mandate. Use your RTS comments to encourage Republican lawmakers to work with the governor and their Democratic colleagues to craft a bill that has the support to pass. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1034, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ask voters to set the actual salary schedule for Prop 123. Normally the legislature does this internally in case anything needs changing, but sending it to voters makes it impossible to tweak later. It directs funds to classroom teachers only, expecting the strapped general fund (which is currently running a $1.7 billion deficit) to somehow backfill the current $257 million for general school funding. It bars district and charter schools from reducing teacher salaries below the FY2024-25 amount, even if the prop fails to direct the necessary funds to schools. It restricts funds to only certain types of teachers, which is like buying a new transmission for a car but not replacing its four flat tires. Putting two measures on the ballot in an already crowded year is a clear indication that this is just for talking points and legislative Republicans don’t much care if it succeeds or not. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2389, sponsored by Alexander Kolodin (R-3), would ban the sale of any motor vehicle in Arizona if it can be remotely shut off by someone not the owner of the vehicle who does not have a physical key. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is working to develop "passive" driver alcohol detection, using sensors that measure alcohol in a driver's skin or breath, as potential new standard equipment in new vehicles to prevent alcohol-related accidents and deaths. Alcohol-related crashes kill over 10,000 people every year nationwide. Opposition to the plan seems to center on the misbelief in a right to drive while drunk. (Driving is a privilege; the US Constitution guarantees a right to travel, but not the right to drive.) Scheduled for House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2405, sponsored by John Gillette (R-30), would allow county recorders to make a person’s voter registration inactive if they have reasonable cause to believe the voter provided fraudulent or incorrect registration information. This circumvents processes which are already working and could violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Scheduled for House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2483, sponsored by Barbara Parker (R-10), would require public K-12 schools and universities to disclose their admissions criteria and would regulate any supposed discrimination, preferential treatment and “traditional academic success factors.” Are lawmakers trying the classic "look over there!" technique because of all the bad press on ESA vouchers? Lawmakers should add ESA voucher-funded private schools (which are notorious for discrimination) to the bill. Scheduled for House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2588, sponsored by Tim Dunn (R-25), would require notaries to get a valid fingerprint clearance card, provide their thumbprint with each notarization, and notify the secretary of state via certified mail if they change their email address. Many private citizens become notaries to assist with citizen initiatives; this unnecessary red tape would stifle citizen participation in democracy. Scheduled for House Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2593, sponsored by Michael Carbone (R-25), would require state agencies and other organizations that receive public records requests to acknowledge the request and notify the requester of the expected date the request will be processed. Willful or bad-faith noncompliance would be subject to civil penalties of up to $5,000. The public records process is rife with red tape and often stacked against private citizens; this would help. Scheduled for House Government Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.
HB2658, sponsored by Joseph Chaplik (R-3), would ban pedestrians from soliciting donations on a painted or raised traffic island or median. The penalties escalate, with a third offense carrying a penalty of up to six months in jail. Panhandling bans purport to be about safety, but in actuality criminalize homelessness, making the problem less visible rather than tackling the underlying social issues. It would be more productive to fund social housing or shelter beds instead. A similar bill with constitutionality issues failed to pass last session. Scheduled for House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2703, sponsored by Alexander Kolodin (R-3), would give the Board of Supervisors 14 calendar days to make an appointment in the event of legislative vacancy. The clock would start ticking after the state party chair submitted the 3 candidate nominees chosen by legislative district activists. The bill appears motivated by the long decision process at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to replace expelled election denier Liz Harris; that process involved getting legal advice as to whether the board was legally bound to nominate one of the three choices (all election deniers). Scheduled for House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2719, sponsored by Michael Carbone (R-25), would require school bond and override measures to have 60%+ approval from eligible voters — not just voters who turn out — in order to pass. In effect, this measure would stop school districts from ever getting bond or overrides passed again. The measure also applies to cities, counties, cities and community college districts. Scheduled for House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HCR2027, sponsored by Cory McGarr (R-17), would ask voters to change the state Constitution to label state House seats as seats “A” and “B” and require lawmakers to run for one or the other. This would disrupt the single shot strategy and make it harder for voters to change their representation in districts where the House lawmakers represent different parties. Scheduled for House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HCR2040, sponsored by Austin Smith (R-29), would ask voters to ban Arizona, its cities and counties, and its state universities and community colleges from spending public funds to promote a laundry list of culture-war conspiracy theories. These include reducing meat or dairy consumption or production, eating insects, walking or biking more, taking public transit, reducing air travel, limiting the number of articles of clothing a person may buy or own, recycling water for drinking, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, limiting the increase of global temperature, producing or adopting a climate action plan, replacing private ownership, furthering Marxist ideologies, or implementing mass surveillance systems to monitor motor vehicle travel. Mirror bill SCR1015 is also in committee this week. Scheduled for House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HCR2042, sponsored by Selina Bliss (R-1), would ask voters to send child sex traffickers to prison for life sentences with no possibility of parole. The National Institute of Justice says Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime; the certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent. Lawmakers should dedicate resources to enforcing existing laws and reducing caseloads rather than clogging up our ballots with ineffective measures like this one. Scheduled for House Judiciary Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
Thursday
SB1189, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would ban cities from prohibiting or regulating gun shows within their boundaries. Unregulated gun shows can be a magnet for traffickers to obtain large quantities of weapons without background checks. Guns purchased at gun shows are much more likely to be used in criminal activity. Two years ago, California became the first state to ban the sale of guns and ammo on state property, putting an end to gun shows at county fairgrounds there. The sponsor ran the same bill last year, which Gov. Hobbs vetoed. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday. OPPOSE.
SB1198, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would prohibit universities and community colleges from banning anyone with a concealed weapons permit — not just students — from possessing, storing, transporting guns on campus. College campuses and guns are a deadly combination, increasing the risks of suicide, homicide and sexual assault. Even our founding fathers believed guns had no place on college campuses. Getting a concealed-weapons permit in Arizona is ridiculously easy. This is at least the third straight year for this bill. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday. OPPOSE.
*NEW* SB1221, sponsored by Sine Kerr (R-25), would create new rules for BMAs (Basin Management Areas), the geographic areas containing water-storing aquifers, and add a variety of bureaucratic rules that would make it more difficult to challenge groundwater overpumping. The bill requires that 10 “index wells” be designated around the proposed basin, and that all 10 wells demonstrate an accelerated decline of 10 feet or more in the aquifer over the preceding 5 years and also that land subsidence is endangering property or potential groundwater storage capacity in order to begin the BMA designation process. Water usage would be granted by mandate to existing residential and industrial users at the highest of their last 5 years of usage, and agricultural users at their average or median usage amounts over the preceding 10 years. These plus numerous other bureaucratic hurdles added for modifying current or future usage make the bill an unworkable mess. Scheduled for Senate Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee, Thursday. OPPOSE.
SB1307, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would require the Board of Regents to fire employees and expel students at Arizona’s three state universities for “individual conduct that materially and substantially infringes on the rights of other persons to engage in or listen to expressive activity.” Last year an ASU director alleged that she lost her job after bringing Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA and Dennis Prager to campus for an event. The university says the director’s division shut down because the funding donor pulled his financial contribution, but Sen. Kern announced his intention to defund ASU, saying, “Hate speech is really free speech.” Scheduled for Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday. OPPOSE.
SB1344, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would expand Arizona’s first-degree murder statutes to include deaths by fentanyl if the drug can be traced back to a specific individual. The bill’s broad language could subject friends or family of overdose victims to prosecution that includes penalties of life in prison or the death penalty. Cancer patients, for example, use fentanyl patches for pain management, and accidental overdoses by children have become common. Law enforcement should focus on high-risk offenders, expand rehabilitative programs, and work to reduce prison populations, rather than further criminalizing drug use. The same bill failed to pass last year. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday. OPPOSE.
SB1475, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would specify that a presidential candidate can be a civil criminal and a felon and still run for president. The bill is likely motivated by legal challenges to remove Drumpf from the ballot due to his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday. 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 an These bills will proceed to caucus (separate partisan meetings of all Democrats and all Republicans) and from there to a full floor vote. Contact your senator for Senate bills, your representatives for House bills.
SB1037, sponsored by TJ Shope (R-16), would allow Arizona’s Medicaid program, AHCCCS, to cover primary and preventative dental care for adults. This would help maintain overall health and wellness, and would save money by helping people avoid serious dental problems. Research shows that gum disease (which is preventable with routine care) may play a role in the development of a number of other conditions, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, and respiratory disease. Currently, adults on AHCCCS get only emergency dental care; exams, X-rays, cleanings and other preventive dentistry is not covered. The same bill has been sponsored by Democrats for years and has failed to become law. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. SUPPORT.
SB1058, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would require Arizona students to pass a half-credit personal finance course, beginning with the class of 2028, in order to graduate from high school. Our students don’t need another graduation requirement (personal finance is already required to be taught in high-school economics) and our educators definitely don’t need another unfunded mandate. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1066, sponsored by Sonny Borrelli (R-30), would require counties to charge a 12.5% royalty on profits from solar farms that sell electricity commercially and divide the money up among residents. The effort is aimed at companies that use private or state-owned lands to generate electricity to sell to out-of-state utilities. Solar companies are investing billions of dollars in Arizona and creating thousands of jobs. Critics say the proposal is “a trade war starting, anti-business kind of thing that Arizona would lose,” and argue the costs would get passed along to customers when the taxed states decide to retaliate and charge taxes on out-of-state energy Arizona buys, such as from New Mexico wind farms. It might also run afoul of federal laws regulating interstate commerce. See also HB2281. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1092, sponsored by Warren Petersen (R-14), would allow people to deduct losses in foreign currency trades and from cryptocurrency off their taxes. Spurred in part by a false narrative that the government plans to control its citizens through US currency. Losses in crypto can be very substantial; bills like this encourage wild financial speculation at taxpayer expense. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1125, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would require “age and identity verification” for companies that provide “material harmful to minors” over the internet to use are at least 18, or be subject to civil penalties. Similar legislation has been passed in at least 7 other states and has been introduced in Arizona in previous sessions. A district court blocked a similar law in Texas on grounds that it violates First Amendment rights and is overly vague. Rogers’ bill does nothing to ensure people’s privacy; the court stated, "People will be particularly concerned about accessing controversial speech when the state government can log and track that access." See HB2586, also moving this week. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1127, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would ban cities and counties from imposing any tax or fee on anyone running a blockchain node (aka, mining crytocurrency) in a residence. Cryptocurrency is incredibly environmentally destructive: each Bitcoin transaction consumes enough electricity to run an American home for 6 weeks. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1128, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would allow state agencies to accept cryptocurrency as payment for anything from taxes and fees to fines and assessments. Cryptocurrency is an environmentally destructive bubble that is already popping and a playground for the mega-rich. Even the Wall Street Journal says crypto should be banned, calling it “a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house.” Rogers introduced a similar bill last year, which failed to pass. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1129, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would require law enforcement to immediately remove any "transient occupant" of private residential property and charge them with trespassing. State statutes already exist to cover this behavior, making this bill unnecessary. The bill does not include solutions for housing or shelter. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1145, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would fine the Bar and the state Supreme Court for “infringing” on “political speech” of lawyers. The bill would aid Arizona lawyer and freshman lawmaker Alex Kolodin (R-3), who was disciplined by the State Bar for filing bad-faith lawsuits over the 2020 election, as well as the sponsor himself, whose own lawyers were ordered to pay $75,000 in legal fees after filing a frivolous lawsuit over his role in the 1/6/21 insurrection attempt. The State Bar and the Arizona Supreme Court both say there’s no problem needing to be fixed. The same bill failed last year. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1153, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would restrict Arizona agencies from creating rules that would increase regulatory costs by more than $500,000 over 5 years after implementation. The Legislature would instead be required to enact legislation to ratify the proposed rule into law. Although the far right says it will "rein in unelected bureaucrats," this shortsighted measure would kneecap Hobbs and Mayes' ability to regulate unaccountable, wasteful spending. A prime example is Arizona's universal ESA voucher program; parents who use the program are complaining about the payment processor, ClassWallet, and a different vendor could cost easily that amount or more. Gov. Hobbs vetoed this exact bill last year; in committee, the sponsor could not answer how many rules this would impact but said "it shouldn't matter." Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1155, sponsored by Janae Shamp (R-29), would limit those serving lifetime probation for a sexual offense from asking the court for relief until 10 to 20 years had passed (depending on the type of conviction). Read this excellent Twitter thread from a public policy advocate on why mandatory minimum sentences are a terrible idea. The sponsor introduced the same bill last year, which failed to pass. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1167, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would ban banks from “discriminating” against people or businesses for holding right-wing views. The bill specifically calls out “race, diversity or gender preferences,” associations with “firearms and ammo” or “oil and gas” companies, and “refusal to assist with abortion or gender reassignment.” This is even more ludicrous than typical anti-ESG bills (see our Substack explainer on ESG). Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SCR1006, sponsored by Warren Petersen (R-14), would ask voters to approve county or city property tax refunds for property owners if the county or city “declines to enforce” existing laws that criminalize common activities for people experiencing homelessness, and if the property is “reduced in fair market value or the property owner incurs expenses” as a result. The activities mentioned include illegal camping, obstructing public thoroughfares, loitering and panhandling. The State Treasurer would be required to withhold state funding for the refunds claimed, even though cities are currently constrained by a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling barring them from criminalizing homelessness. Because the measure would go straight to the ballot, Gov. Hobbs cannot veto it. Backed by the Goldwater Institute. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday, where it was HELD on 1/29. OPPOSE.
SCR1010, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), like SB1197, would exempt virtual currency from taxation. Because the bill would go directly to voters, Gov. Hobbs cannot veto it. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
SCR1012, sponsored by Anthony Kern (R-27), would ask voters to restrict Arizona agencies from creating rules that would increase regulatory costs by more than $500,000 over 5 years after implementation. The Legislature would instead be required to enact legislation to ratify the proposed rule into law. See SB1153 above for more info. Scheduled for Senate Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2095, sponsored by Barbara Parker (R-10), would expand the school tuition organization (STO) voucher program to students in foster care. STOs, or "Arizona's first vouchers," are dollar-for-dollar tax credits to private schools that result in significantly less money for public schools. The bill is estimated to cost the state half a million dollars annually (these estimates historically run low). Since the STO voucher program's creation, Arizona’s general fund has lost out on over $2.1 billion in revenue. Meanwhile, our state's public school funding remains in the bottom 5 nationwide, even after recent investments. Gov. Hobbs vetoed this bill last year. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2328, sponsored by Kevin Payne (R-27), would relax regulations on food trucks. Payne, who owns a food truck, sponsored the same bill in 2019 and again in 2023 (when Gov. Hobbs vetoed it). The bill could lead to nuisances such as noise, along with gray water, trash and grease, being dumped in neighborhoods. The legislature’s extremely lax conflict of interest rules say that, if more than 10 people would benefit from a law, there is no conflict. That means a lawmaker like Payne can sponsor a bill about food trucks and vote on it. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2404, sponsored by John Gillette (R-30), would ban county recorders from providing a voter registration card to someone whose mailing address is out of state, except for military and their family. This change would negatively impact a wide variety of groups, from retirees and winter visitors to college students. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2442, sponsored by Steve Montenegro (R-29), would ban emergency use immunizations from being required for school attendance. There are no scientific grounds to justify this bill; in fact, scientific reviews praise the emergency use authorization process. Gov. Hobbs vetoed the same bill last year. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2471, sponsored by Cory McGarr (R-17), would insert the legislature into the agency rulemaking process by requiring the legislature give final approval for agency rules via a majority vote. This absurd overreach would prevent our state agencies from effectively doing their jobs. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2472, sponsored by Cory McGarr (R-17), would give any elector access to our physical ballots, ballot images, early ballot envelopes and registration records if they allege “the chain of custody is broken” or that “early votes present inconsistent signatures or personal information.” The damage this could do to our safe and secure elections is hard to overstate. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2474, sponsored by Alexander Kolodin (R-3), would make it harder to circulate petitions to form a new political party, including putting time limits on signature validity and requiring petition circulators to register with the Secretary of State’s office. The No Labels and Green parties recently qualified for the Arizona ballot; the Patriot Party recently failed to qualify by just 3,000 signatures. Unaffiliated voters are now Arizona’s largest registered political bloc; making it harder for these voters to form like-minded organizations threatens our two-party structure. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2570, sponsored by Leo Biasiucci (R-30), would preempt cities with over 50,000 residents from regulating most zoning for single-family homes, including lot sizes, square footage or dimensions, lot coverage, accessory structures, and design, architectural and aesthetic elements. In our profit-driven free-market economy, blanket deregulation simply won’t work without also including tenant protections like subsidized housing and rent regulation measures (or mandating construction of actual affordable dwellings) to ensure those who need it most have realistic options. Mirror bill SB1112. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2586, sponsored by Tim Dunn (R-25), would require “age and identity verification” for companies that provide “material harmful to minors” over the internet to use are at least 18, or be subject to civil penalties. Similar legislation has been passed in at least 7 other states. A district court blocked a similar law in Texas on grounds that it violates First Amendment rights and is overly vague. Rogers’ bill does nothing to ensure people’s privacy; as the court stated, "People will be particularly concerned about accessing controversial speech when the state government can log and track that access." See SB1125, also moving this week. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2629, sponsored by Ben Toma (R-27), would require schools to include at least 45 minutes of instruction in high-school American Government class on "the history of communist regimes around the world and the prevalence of poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence and suppression of speech under communist regimes." State lawmakers shouldn’t be mandating curriculum; that’s the job of educators who are trained in curriculum development. Republican lawmakers have tried in past sessions to ban “ideologically biased curriculum”; doesn’t this qualify? Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2661, sponsored by Ben Toma (R-27), would bar the sale of computers, smart phones and tablets in Arizona if they don’t include a filter that would block children from accessing “obscene content.” The bill would hold the manufacturer criminally liable if they fail to do so, with fines ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Under the bill, Arizonans would automatically see a filter, and those who turn it off would be legally liable if a minor accessed content on their device. The measure appears to be the brainchild of an anti-LGBTQ activist who is most famous for trying to marry his laptop in protest of same-sex marriage. Obscenity filter bills have been filed in at least 8 other states; a similar bill was also introduced in Arizona in 2022. Scheduled for House Rules Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
2024 Session Timeline
Monday, 2/5 House bill introduction deadline (yes, that's this week!)
Friday, 2/16 Last day for a bill to get out of committees in its originating house
Monday, 2/19 Crossover Week begins (most committee hearings are suspended)
Friday, 3/22 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, 4/16 100th Day of Session (the stated end goal; can be changed)
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