Arizona Advocacy Network's 2018 Legislative Report Card

 

Even for veterans of the Arizona Capitol, the 2018 Legislative Session was one for the history books.

Given the extra eyes on the Legislature, and an influx of media attention, Arizonans were able to see their democracy in action, including attempts by some legislators to advance democracy, and far too many attempts to weaken it.

For the 2017 Legislative Report Card, AZAN rated each member of the legislature on their work and willingness to protect voting rights, expand access to the ballot, mitigate the effects of money in politics, and ensure courts remain fair and independent.

You can read about all of them in AZAN’s 2018 Legislative Report Card

How did your legislator score? If you don’t know who your legislators are you can find out here.

Senator Steve Farley listening to our concerns. See his rating above.

- Arizona Advocacy Network

http://www.azadvocacy.org/

Do you have concerns about your healthcare? Share your story! These AZ Legislators are ready to listen...

Do you have concerns about the Affordable Care Act and repeal attempts; about the future of Medicare and Medicaid; or about access to care or the cost of drugs?

Whether you are a patient or a provider, we want to hear your medical and health insurance stories. The LD9 and LD10 Legislators are holding an open mic forum in which we listen, you talk, and we all learn.

This is a free educational community event for residents of Pima County. It’s about listening and learning from each other. Senators David Bradley and Steve Farley and Representatives Kirsten Engel, Randy Friese, and Pamela Powers Hannley have confirmed their attendance. (Rep. Todd Clodfelter was invited but has a scheduling conflict.)

In the news, we hear what politicians and big corporations think should be done with our country’s overly complicated and extremely expensive health care system. At this event, the people of Southern Arizona will have an opportunity to tell us their stories and help shape future policy.  So mark your calendars for October 29, 2017 for the 200 Stories: Tucson Healthcare Forum. 

-Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley, MPH
Arizona House, LD9 in Tucson 

200 Stories: Tucson Healthcare Forum

October 29, 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson,

4831 E. 22nd St. Tucson, AZ

Please take a few minutes to register with EventBrite by clicking here to make sure there are enough seats.

Watch Facebook and other social media for updates.

123 of Ducey's State Budget: tax cuts for corporations as schools crumble/state trust lands for prison beds/KidsCare loophole

Budget Week officially started yesterday, and I’ve got a whole lot of details to share with you, most of which clearly demonstrate Governor Ducey’s wrong priorities. Bottom line: He’s willing to shortchange universities, teachers, and families in crisis because he’s afraid to negotiate with Democrats. And he’s giving away another $107.2 million in corporate tax cuts.

And you’re not going to believe his new source of funding for private prison beds.

Governor Ducey 

> After a couple of months of wrangling amongst Republicans behind closed doors, Governor Ducey’s budget — negotiated with the legislative majority — finally came into the light yesterday. The schedule: It will be heard in House Appropriations today at 8am, and in my Senate Appropriations committee today at around 12:30pm. Extremely limited public testimony will be taken, then it will head to final votes on the floor on Thursday, with adjournment Sine Die either later that day or early next week.

They are promising no late-night sessions, but I’ll believe that when it happens. If you want to watch the proceedings live, you can tune in to the live legislative video here.

As we have traditionally done, last night we Legislative Democrats hosted a public hearing on the budget details, as laid out by the inimitable Richard Stavneak, director of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC). We invited the media and public to attend as all our members asked detailed questions and the proceedings were televised.

Here are some key takeaways:

> Our state budget — even not adjusting for inflation or population growth — is smaller than it was in 2007. Why? Massive corporate tax cuts and loopholes, which were used a a pretext for massive cuts in education at all levels, but did not deliver the job and wage growth the proponents promised. Have we learned our lesson and stopped such nonsense? Nope. There is $107.2 million in new corporate tax cuts in this year’s proposed budget, primarily in three areas: 1) corporate income tax rate reduction, 2) the increased corporate sales factor, and 3) the 20% growth in the cap on private school corporate tax credits.

> There is no sign at all in the budget of the promise Governor Ducey made in January to restore 24 months of eligibility for TANF benefits for families in crisis as they look to get on their feet again, often after a domestic violence incident. 70% of these funds go to children. You’ll recall he cut that eligibility to 12 months last year, the meanest cut in the nation.

> The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest announced last week that they are suing the state on behalf of public school boards for the billions of dollars in building maintenance funds unconstitutionally withheld by the state over the past eight years. TUSD alone lost $120 million over that time, and consequently their facilities are in danger of collapse in many schools. One classroom roof at Carrillo School literally collapsed while students were present.

There used to be a formula for “Building Renewal” for schools, but it was funded at around 10% since 2008. The legislative majority decided to “fix” the problem not by providing full funding, but by eliminating the formula. If the formula were still in existence today, it would indicate that $289 million would need to be spent to keep our kids’ classrooms safe.

The amount in this year’s budget? $17.2 million. Less than 6% of the formula. We must do better than that.

> Speaking of formula funding, community colleges in Pima and Maricopa Counties have been cut off from state funding for years, with Maricopa losing $68 million a year, and Pima losing $22 million a year. This budget creates a funding formula for Pima and Maricopa community colleges, but then refuses to fund it. Watch as Governor Ducey uses this to claim his support for community colleges.

> There is $200,000 in the budget to pay for lead testing in schools. Which is good. Except there is no money to pay for remediation of the problem if the test come up positive for lead poisoning.

> Remember back in January when Governor Ducey proposed a 0.4% teacher raise to “solve” our teacher retention crisis? We are 50th in teacher salaries in the country. This budget is now proposing 1% teacher raises this year ($18 per paycheck on average before taxes and payroll deductions) and rising to 2% the following year ($36 per paycheck on average before taxes and payroll deductions). This is not nearly enough.

But there is enough available in the budget, even after this year’s massive corporate tax cuts, to pay teachers a full 4% more, starting this year. For example, just one of Governor Ducey’s budget items is a scheme to pay high-reforming public schools bonus money and ends up giving two-thirds of its funding to schools in the richest districts. Like vouchers, it is another transfer of taxpayer money from the have-nots to the haves. Eliminate this unfair experiment, and we could go a long ways toward that 4% raise, ten times the amount Gov. Ducey proposed in his January budget.

And there are many other smaller items, that gathered together can make up the rest. Here are a couple of questionable expenditures:

> A 33% raise for the director of the Automobile Theft Authority. No other public employees receive raises in the budget.

> And here’s a fun fact, uncovered during a last night’s budget presentation: Governor Ducey hid a provision in his Prop 123 that funds private prison beds from state trust lands to the tune of $4 million per year. I think most people would agree that $4 million would be better spent for teacher raises.

The funds are available. Why is Governor Ducey fighting so hard against 4% teacher raises and $92 a month for families in crisis? Perhaps you’d like to ask him that.

> We have had for many years a GIITEM fund for law enforcement against criminal gangs, given to county sheriffs throughout the state. For many years, Republican Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio received the lion’s share of these funds due to his political connections with the Legislature.

Last year, Sheriff Joe was defeated by Democrat Paul Penzone. Not coincidentally, for the first time ever, this budget now eliminates all GIITEM funding for Maricopa County — $1.6 million. In Pima County, a Republican Sheriff replaced a Democratic Sheriff last November. This budget gives $400,000 more in GIITEM funding to Pima County. Looks like politics trumps public safety in Ducey’s Arizona.

> Remember last year when Democrats were able to convince just enough Republicans to help us restore KidsCare health care coverage to more than 30,000 children in poverty? Governor Ducey and the legislative majority found a way in one line of the budget to take it away. The line says that the program is frozen as soon as the federal match rate falls below 100%, even to 99%. I’m thinking that Gov. Ducey’s DC friends have already assured him that is their intention.

> Another sneaky line in the budget aims to stop Planned Parenthood from applying for federal grants to distribute birth control. I suppose now that Governor Ducey and the majority have taken away nearly every right to reproductive choice, going after our birth control is the next step.

> For universities, Gov. Ducey’s budget continues to short our financial aid trust fund by $20 million a year, shutting needy students out of tuition assistance, and he demands that all three universities start a new tuition-free Teacher Academy, but provides no funds. Consequently, it must be funded by the tuition of other students who are not studying to be teachers.

> And let’s not forget HURF — the money the state gets from gas taxes that are required by the Arizona Constitution to be used only for roads. Governor Ducey wanted to swipe $90 million in HURF to balance his proposed January budget. Although an improvement, this budget still swipes $60 million from the state highway fund.

Feel free to tune in or even join us live in the public gallery.

Steve Farley
Arizona State Senator, District 9, Tucson

Governor Ducey rammed SB1431 — the statewide private school voucher bill — through the legislature and signed it

I got this e-mail from Friends O'Farley…

Last Thursday sent a shockwave through students, teachers, and parents — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike — all over the state. After politically threatening holdout Republicans, Governor Ducey rammed SB1431 — the statewide private school voucher bill — through the legislature and signed it into law that night.

The first people to tweet congratulations to the Governor were Jeb Bush and President Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It’s clear that, in privatizing our public school system, Doug Ducey is serving his DC friends, not AZ kids.

This is marks the beginning the wholesale privatization of our public school system, which can only be reversed by unseating the Governor and the legislative majority at the next election.

Read on for the details of this disastrous policy. Here is my floor speech, delivered last Thursday during the debate over SB1431:

Governor Ducey, I know you are listening, so I'm talking to you.

You call yourself an education governor. But you first came to prominence in our state as the leader of a successful effort to slash a billion dollars a year from our public schools.

Then you swooped in with a plan to save our public schools from the financial hole you originally created for them - Proposition 123.

Prop 123 took money from the future that was already set aside for schools in order to pay for the present desperate needs that you had created. It amounted to 70% of inflation and enrollment growth.

Which had already been ordered by voters 17 years ago to be paid and had not been paid since 2008.

Even with Prop 123 in place, our per pupil state support for K12, adjusted for inflation, has been slashed by 21% since 2008.

And I see the results in my daughter's school, Tucson High.

> 10% of the classrooms are locked away because they are hazardous to inhabit and there is no money to fix them.

> The average age of computers is 12 years old, and there are not enough for more than one third of the students. Because of lack of computers, AZMerit testing is a logistical nightmare and students not being tested are attending three-hour classes while others test.

> There are six counselors for 3,200 students.

> Teachers with eight years experience and a masters degree are earning $37,000 a year.

> 44% of Arizona teachers leave after two years.

Our entire system is in crisis.

Throughout the Prop 123 campaign, Governor, which I supported because it was all you left for us to support, you kept saying you were committed to Step 456. You never said exactly what that was.

Now we have before us your Step 456, and it is utterly shocking. You are proposing the wholesale privatization of our public school system.

This is nothing less than a tax of $5,400 a year on each public school student, redistributed as debit cards to the parents of other students who are rich enough to afford the extra $10,000 to $15,000 a year in tuition to attend a private or religious school.

Governor, you may say that this is about choice. But currently, 94% of Arizona parents choose to send their children to public schools.

Once you have gutted those public schools through your education policies, capped off by this one, those of us who have chosen to send our kids to public schools will be left with no good choice.

Either leave our kids at a neglected school with decaying resources, or beg, borrow, or even seek predatory lenders to scrape up the rest of the tuition to try to send our kid to a private school, which can turn away kids for any reason and will be filling up to capacity with students fleeing from the public schools you have gutted.

With this bill, on top of your other education policies, you are paving the way toward this dystopian future of dwindling opportunity and a widening chasm between the haves and the have nots.

Governor Ducey, you have resorted to wielding intense pressure and political threats to members of this body who have stood strong up to this point and voted their conscience. That is wrong.

You are ignoring the outcry of millions of Arizona citizens who need a foundation for the future and parents who choose public schools for their children. That is wrong.

You are dismantling the most effective tool we have ever built for lifting people out of poverty and delivering opportunity. That is wrong.

You are pushing a bill that will destroy Arizona public education as we know it. That is wrong.

I urge you, Governor Ducey, and urge all the members of this body, to reject SB1431.

—> Sadly, the Governor did not take my advice. SB1431 bill passed by the bare minimum of 16 votes in the Senate and 31 votes in the House, then was signed by Governor Ducey to cheers from his DC friends and jeers from AZ parents.

Several of the Republicans who had previously stated opposition to the statewide voucher scheme hadflipped after the Governor threatened to veto their bills and leave nothing for their districts.

One of the holdouts, Senator Bob Worsley, negotiated a cap of no more than 30,000 children eligible for the vouchers by 2022. That won his support. But as I pointed out on the floor, the cap could disappear with a one-line provision in the upcoming budget in the middle of the night, or at any other time.

Sure enough, before the ink was dry on Governor Ducey’s signature that very night, the right-wing Goldwater Institute sent out a fundraising email where they bragged, “There is a cap at 5,000 new kids per year; we will get it lifted."

Boom.

While the speed and brazenness of this braggadocio was breathtaking, it was hardly surprising. The Goldwater Institute has eliminated caps and restrictions on these voucher programs each of the 11 years I have served in the Legislature. This program was characterized at the start as just a tiny program to help a very limited group of severely disabled kids. Several steps later, all 1.1 million students in the state are now eligible — presuming their parents have the cash to pay for the rest of the tuition.

The Goldwater Institute’s stated goal is the complete privatization of public education. They are now well on their way.

It’s time for change in Arizona state government.

—> On another vitally important topic, health policy, Governor Ducey is struggling with his understanding of the issue. He came out with this amazing statement yesterday on the Mac and Gaydos show on Phoenix’s KTAR radio:


"Nobody wants to be on government healthcare. We want to transition people to the private sector. We do things at the Medicare level a lot better than we do things at the Medicaid level."

A) Medicare is "government healthcare" last I checked.

B) Medicaid in Arizona is called AHCCCS and is run by the state government. Which is run by the Governor.

Perhaps we could use a governor whose understanding of health policy goes beyond simply attacking Obamacare?

Steve Farley

Senator, District 9, Tucson