Log in

Government

Budget battle continues amid flurry of changes

Series of bills feature host of new entries

Posted 6/22/21

PHOENIX — Efforts to enact a new $12.8 billion budget and plans for $1.78 billion in tax cuts that mainly benefit the most wealthy sputtered Tuesday as House Democrats refused to come to the …

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue.

Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here

Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

To Our Valued Readers –

Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.

For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.

Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.

Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.

Sincerely,
Charlene Bisson, Publisher, Independent Newsmedia

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor
Government

Budget battle continues amid flurry of changes

Series of bills feature host of new entries

Posted

PHOENIX — Efforts to enact a new $12.8 billion budget and plans for $1.78 billion in tax cuts that mainly benefit the most wealthy sputtered Tuesday as House Democrats refused to come to the floor, leaving the Republican-controlled chamber short of a quorum.

The maneuver came as Majority Leader Ben Toma, R-Peoria, said he had finally lined up all 31 House Republicans to support the modified plan.

Only thing is, four GOP lawmakers are absent. And while House rules allow them to vote remotely, Toma said the Arizona Constitution mandates there be 31 people physically in the building to get a quorum in the 60-member chamber.

House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding, D-Laveen, is not suggesting Democrats have the votes to block the plan.
But he told Capitol Media Services that Republicans presented some new amendments just 90 minutes before the session. And Bolding said that didn’t give Democrats enough time to fully understand what the majority was trying to push through at the last minute — and without sufficient public oversight.

That maneuver also hobbled any attempt by Democrats to research those last-minute changes and offer objections or alterations of their own.

House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, claimed the maneuver puts operations of the state at risk.

While the new budget year doesn’t start until July 1, the current payroll period ends this week for checks that would be produced next week.

But he claimed that if there’s no budget in place by the end of this week, that could mean that state employees won’t be paid for what they do next week. And that, he said, leads to ripple effects as government would have to be shut down.

“So if you’re planning on a July Fourth weekend at a state park of your choice, that won’t be available,” he said.

Gov. Doug Ducey dismissed questions of what happens if the budget stalls, saying he is confident that it will pass — eventually. But he was a bit more guarded when pushed on the question of having a contingency plan to ensure basic state services, such as prisons and public safety, continue after July 1 if there is not approved budget.

“We do have a backup plan,” the governor said.

“You present that plan when you need a backup,” he continued. “Right now it’s full speed ahead.”

Even if the House approves the budget, there may not be the votes in the Senate.

Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, said Tuesday it is “up in the air” whether she will support the spending and tax-cut plan. And with no Senate Democrats willing to vote for the plan, Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, needs her vote.

In the meantime, the Senate gave the plan preliminary approval Tuesday on a voice vote, something that defers actually putting Townsend on record.

But the Republican-controlled Senate first beat back a series of amendments offered by Democrats.

For example, Rep. Kirsten Engel, D-Tucson, proposed that inmates who serve fighting fires or clearing vegetation earn additional “release credits” that could cut their sentence. It was defeated.

Engel had no better luck with a proposal to create a Natural Resources Resiliency Planning Group of people from various industries and organizations to study the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and develop a plan to help Arizona survive climate change.

And GOP senators rejected a proposal by Rep. Sally Ann Gonzales, D-Tucson, to have the state’s health care program for the needy provide dental coverage for pregnant women.

The most controversial part remains that tax cut.

As originally crafted, it would have collapsed the state’s four tax brackets, with rates from 2.59% to 4.5%, into a single 2.5% levy. But that developed opposition even among some Republicans amid concerns that move, coupled with relief for Proposition 208 for wealthy taxpayers, would permanently reduce state revenues by $1.9 billion a year.

Some lawmakers question whether the state has an artificially inflated surplus due to federal COVID-19 grants. At the same time, they said if the state does have extra money, some of that should be used to pay down debt on which the state is paying interest.

The new plan cuts the immediate size of the tax cut to $1.3 billion. But it’s not that simple.

As approved by the Senate, it would create two tax brackets next year of 2.55% for earnings below about $54,000 a year and 2.98% for earnings above that. Then, if revenues hit $12.78 billion, the rates decline to 2.53% and 2.75%, going to that flat 2.5% rate once revenues hit $12.98 billion.

And that would take the tax cut to $1.78 billion by 2025.
But the budget has been loaded up with other issues, too.
One of those would effectively put an end to “civilian review boards” to oversee the activities of police. It not only requires certain training but spells out that members must be currently or previously have been certified by the state Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.

“In order to be part of a civilian review board, you essentially have to be a police officer,” Bolding said. And he complained this would cover not just the state but override existing local policies.

“As cities and towns make policies that work for their communities, the legislature continues to interfere,” Bolding said.

The governor defended the provision.

“We see in so many other parts of the country and hear from people that sit on city councils here in Arizona some of these wrongheaded ideas like ‘defund the police’ and we need less police officers,” he said. “I think we need more police officers.”
And he brushed aside questions about having only current and former officers on these boards.

“I want to make sure that these oversight boards that are being brought to the fore are ones that can add value, can provide accountability, are not folks that want to defund the police,” he said.

Then there’s COVID-19.

One Republican amendment requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to employees whose “sincerely held religious beliefs, practices or observances” preclude them from taking the vaccine.

The same provision also bars the health department from requiring school students be immunized with any vaccine that has only “emergency use authorization” from the federal Food and Drug Administration. For the moment, that means COVID-19.

Fann inserted language into a bill about funding of K-12 education to ban the teaching of anything that suggests one race, ethnic group or sex is superior to another, is inherently racist or oppressive, or that an individual bears responsibility for the actions of others of his or her same race or ethnic group.

It also would subject those who violate the law to be lose their teaching certificates.

And, on the subject of COVID-19, the same measure bars school boards from requiring students and staff to wear masks.
Also tucked into one bill is a measure changing the legal definition of what is a “newspaper.” That is crucial because Arizona law requires certain notices of things like meetings and requests for bids be published in newspapers.

John Moody, attorney for the Arizona Newspapers Association said this is a new version of what he said has been “anti-newspaper legislation” promoted in the past by Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley. He said it would permit local governments to publish the required legal notices not only in startup publications but also “flyers, circulars, advertisements, newsletters, bulletins and catalogs.”

Finchem denied he was the one who put the verbiage into the amendment.

It is unclear when the Senate will seek a final roll-call vote on the tax cuts and spending plans. And much of that depends on Townsend. She is holding out because she wants Ducey to rescind his executive order giving him emergency powers.

She pointed out that if lawmakers approve the budget, they will adjourn for the year. And that, Townsend said, leaves the governor with broad unilateral authority to enact restrictions and even effectively alter state laws, with the legislature not around until next January to try to countermand his actions.

Townsend also is balking at providing tax relief for the most wealthy to counter Proposition 208, which imposes a 3.5% surcharge on earnings over $500,000 a year for married couples.

She believes an audit will show that the measure did not pass. And Townsend questioned the need for legislation that makes sharp reductions in tax rates for the most wealthy if it really failed.