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Welcome
to the weekly legislative update brought to you from the Arizona
AFL-CIO. Your participation strengthens the union
movement at the state legislature and beyond! All are invited to join
the weekly lobbyist meeting to collaborate efforts and plan strategies
& tactics. The weekly meeting is every Friday @ 12:00 at 5808 N. 7th Street.
The next meeting will be this Friday, March 5, 2010 @ 12:00.
Bills that Moved that will Impact Working Families
Monday,
February 22nd
- S1444:
Campaign Finance; Independent Expenditures, and its
counterpart in the
House H2788 were heard. These bills will
bring Arizona
into compliance with the Supreme Court's Citizens' United ruling on
campaign spending, by allowing for previously restricted independent
expenditures by corporations and unions. However, the bill also
introduces new, steeper reporting requirements on these Independent
Expenditures along with new fees for violations. The bill passed
Senate Judiciary 7-0. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed.
- HCR2057:
Phase out Business and Property Tax; just as
the name suggests this would phase out the business personal property
tax. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed. The bill passed the House Ways &
Means Committee 5-2-1.
Tuesday,
February 23rd
- H2395;
Schools, Payroll Deduction; Union Dues.
This is the teacher paycheck deception bill and it appeared on the
House Government Committee. Unlike other paycheck deception bills, H2395
specifically targeted teachers. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed. This bill
is discriminatory and would be harmful to teachers unions. After a
long hearing and strident opposition from teacher's groups and us, the
bill passed House Government 6-1-2.
- HCR2039:
Temp Suspension; Voter- Protected Funding; this is a
temporary suspension of voter protection for funds and spending enacted
by voters. The bill would allow the legislature by majority vote to
divert up to 50% of any fund created by a ballot measure and also
would also allow the legislature to supersede any measure requiring
state spending. Given this bill's potential to allow the state
legislature to ride roughshod over the will of voters, the AZ AFL-CIO
is opposed. The bill passed House Government 6-2-1.
- HCR204:
Funding Ballot Measures; Reauthorization.
This requires periodic reauthorization of ballot measures approved by
voters, and would bring all measures older than 8 years back to the
ballot in 2012. This bill is a drastic "solution" to the
state's budget crisis that shirks the legislature's responsibilities
to voters and would create an avalanche of ballot propositions in
2012. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed. The bill passed out of the House
Government 6-2-1.
- H2344:
Public Employees; Lobbying; Political Activities.
This prevents state employees from lobbying or engaging in political
activity while "on the clock." The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed to
this bill. It attempts to take away the voice of state workers while
state agencies continue to pay lobbyists to represent management's
interests. The bill passed House Public Employees and Retirement 5-3.
Wednesday,
February 24th
- SCR1032-
Schools; Classroom Instruction Expenditures- this is
the "65% deception" proposal, having passed out of Senate
Appropriations, was scheduled to be heard in Senate Education, but was
held. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed.
- H2226 – School Districts; Personnel Decisions.
This would have repealed amendments to the Education title made during
special session last year and then reenacted them. The provisions were
wide ranging and largely detrimental to teachers and school districts.
The bill was held in House Appropriations, having been withdrawn
earlier from the House Education Committee. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed.
- H2620-
Withheld Wages; Written Authorization; Revocation.
This would allow a union member to terminate his or her wage
withholding agreement at any time, ultimately making contracts between
unions and members easier to terminate than any other contract. The
bill is preempted by the Taft-Hartley Act. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed.
The bill passed from House Appropriations 6-4-3.
- H2632-
Immigration; Law Enforcement; Safe Neighborhoods. This is
an omnibus anti-immigrant bill. In short, the bill prohibits cities
from restricting their police agencies from enforcing federal
immigration. Moreover, the bill gives broad discretion to police
officers to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants, while allowing
any government employee the prerogative to ask for a person's
immigration status. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed. This bill passed out of
House Military Affairs 5-2.
Thursday,
February 25th
- H2788 -
Campaign Finance; Independent Expenditures - This is
the House version of SB1444, and passed from House Judiciary 8-0.
- S1232 –
Outsourcing; State Services Positions; Prohibitions.
This Amendment would bring the state into compliance with changes to
the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, adding more specificity to the state
statute's definitions. The AZ AFL-CIO supports this bill, which passed
Senate Government unanimously.
- HCR2051-
Unicameral Legislature; Non Partisan Legislate Elections.
This would amend the state constitution to establish a nonpartisan,
unicameral legislature. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed, and the bill failed
in the House Judiciary Committee 3-3-2.
- SCR1009 –
Publically Financed Elections; Prohibition.
This is a ballot referendum to ban publicly funded elections, passed
Senate COW. The AZ AFL-CIO is opposed.
This Week
There
will be no committee meetings this week. The legislature will be
working on the budget all week.
Senator Jonathon Paton Replacement Buzz
As
we mentioned last week State Senator Jonathon Paton resigned to run in a
crowded Republican Primary for Democratic Representative Gabrielle
Giffords. Republican precinct Committee members will vote on three
and submit those names to the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Most
likely they will vote as soon as tomorrow, March 2nd. The three
potential names are Rep. Frank Antenori, former
state Sen. Randy Graf and Ted Vogt, the 37 year old Republican Chairman of
District 30. At the election meeting on Sunday, Antenori
won 71 of 77 available votes.
Pima
County Supervisor Ray Carroll said he will support the number one vote
getter among the precinct committee person, we’ll see if the others follow.
Congressional District 3 Update
Phoenix
Mayor Phil Gordon has announced that he will not run for the CD 3 seat. So
now the list of running Republicans are; Sen. Jim Waring, Sen. Pamela
Gorman, Rep. Sam Crump, PV Mayor Vernon Parker, Ed Winkler, Paulina Vasquez
Morris, LeAnn Hull and Ben Quayle. The lone Democrat now is Jon Hulburd and he is proving to be a strong candidate and
looks like he is in it to win it in a clean calm demeanor.
Seems
that Sen. Jim Waring has forgotten he is in a Republican primary.
Just last week he was blindly attacking the "liberal left"
or really whom he thinks is the liberal left in a McCarthy like style. He
sent out an email to supporters saying that Gordon was polling on how to
beat him (Gordon was really seeing how he would do if he ran as an Independent).
Seems that Waring may need to check the polling within his own party, as
poll was just conducted and it had Ben Quayle, Vernon Parker and Jim Waring
in a statistical dead heat. He forgot to mentions this poll in his
email to supporters. Who would have thought watching the race for
this open seat would be a spectators sport?
McCain vs. Hayworth- Update
Battle of the
Endorsements
 As we all
remember in the 2008 election John McCain attacked Barack Obama with many
negative campaign ads, one in particular was the "Obama is a
celebrity" ad. The ad opens by calling him "the biggest celebrity
in the world" and showing Obama's speech in Berlin with 200,000 people and quick images
of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Why is this relevant you might ask;
because now McCain in some sense has gained his own "celebrity"
because of the presidential race last year and the fact that Hayworth is a
attempting to bash him at any cost. It's pretty
ironic that McCain who mocked Obama's knack at getting endorsements in the
election is now vying for as many as he can get for his senate race.
McCain's current endorsements are from; Bob McDonnell (R-Virginia,
Governor), Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, Jan Brewer and the
Arizona Fraternal Order of Police. While Hayworth endorsements
include Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Chris Simcox (Minutemen Founder), and ALIPAC (an Anti
Immigration Group). So it's safe to say that McCain has the political
"celebrity" endorsements going for him, while Hayworth has
extreme right on his side. What will the Arizona Republicans want?
White House Healthcare Summit
On
Thursday, February 25th, President Obama brought Democrats and Republicans
together to work on a final health care proposal. AFL-CIO President
Trumka released the following statement, “It has been 13 months since we
began debating health care, and the process has been painstaking and
tough. But comprehensive reform is now more urgent than ever—you need
look no further than the unconscionable price increases being pushed onto
consumers from insurance companies, such as the 39 percent increase
recently levied by Anthem Blue Cross in California.
The
reforms on the table from the President are not perfect. They do not
add up to the bill we would have written. We will keep working with the
Congress to improve them until health care reform is signed into law—and
afterwards. But we are within sight of real health care reform that
will bring down out of control health costs, begin to hold insurance
companies accountable, and help ensure that no one in America
goes without the health care he or she needs. This can be a great
achievement for America's
working families, and we are proud that our strong grassroots work has
strengthened the proposals in important ways and brought us closer than
ever to enacting comprehensive reform.
It is
inexcusable that the insurance and drug companies, who have made billions
in profits off the backs of working families, are fighting these common
sense reforms.
America's working
people are waiting. It is time to make health care reform law.”
If you
would like to see highlights of the summit please go to
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/meeting-highlights?video=1
Save the Date: March 25th, Arizona
AFL-CIO Lobby Day|
Arizona AFL-CIO Lobby Day at the Capitol
When: March 25th 10:00am – 2:00pm
Arizona State
Capitol, 1700 West Washington
House Basement Conference Room 35/38
There
will be two workshops:
- Grassroots
Lobbying
- Social
Media Training Tools for Advocacy
−
Must RSVP (Space is limited)
− Must be a member of a union affiliated w/ the Arizona AFL-CIO
Please RSVP to Wylie Timmerman, Legislative Intern, (602) 631-4488
ext. 230 / intern@azaflcio.org
Hero & Villain of the Week
The
Hero of the week is the ASU Young Democrats for mobilizing for action
regarding HB 2939 the Young Workers Minimum Wage Bill which would lower the
minimum wage of workers 22 and younger by 25%. These young students organized emergency meetings, made flyers,
placed calls and emails and educated other students around an issue that
would impact them. Rebekah Friend stated, "I am proud of these
students for educating and organizing other students around an issue and
how it would impact them. They are also using the issue to register
students to vote and to sign up for the Early Permanent Voter List.
It is great to see students take action. We are optimistic that they will
use these tools for other advocacy efforts around working families in the
2010 elections."
The
Villain this week is Rep. Judy Burges for authoring the “Birther Bill”.
This bill would require a Presidential candidate to show the Arizona
Secretary of State proof that they are a United States citizen. Rebekah
Friend stated, "If it wasn't bad enough to have a sitting elected
official author the bill, over half of the Republican legislature sponsored
the bill. 40 legislators are co-sponsors. To add insult to injury the
bill was written about on the Huffington Post. This is not the
National attention Arizona
wants." Click her to read for yourself Huffington
Post
Tell the U.S.
Senate to Pass the FAA Reauthorization Bill
While
the House passed its version of the FAA reauthorization legislation (H.R.
915) last May, the Senate version has been stalled in the Senate Finance
Committee for months and it looks like the bill may finally be
moving.
The
Senate has yet to pass its version of the FAA reauthorization bill (S.
1451). We are hearing it is on its way to the Senate floor. Please
contact your U.S.
Senators, Kyl and McCain and urge them to VOTE
YES on S.1451. The Senate is finally moving on its long-stalled
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization, with Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., presenting the bill as a way to create thousands
and thousands of jobs. All indications point to S.1451 having a vote on the
Senate floor within the next two weeks. Your Senator needs to hear from
you! This is a key aviation safety bill, which is long overdue and needs
immediate action. It is absolutely critical that your Senator hear from you
NOW! Additionally, once you have taken action by emailing your Senators,
PLEASE forward this link to friends and family asking them to do the same.
A fix to Title 49 is within our reach. Let your Senator know you need
S.1451 to pass NOW! For more information go to More Info
Watch State
Legislature in Action
Just
a reminder, Cox Cable recently began broadcasting AZ Capitol TV from the
Arizona Legislature on Channel 123. This channel is a CSPAN style
channel featuring events of the Arizona Legislature and other state
programming of interest such as Statehood Day. Also, the Arizona
Legislature now has an online video archive. View and hear live and
archived hearings and meetings using the State of Arizona's live and video
archive at:
http://azleg.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3
Join Us on Face book
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30350411298&ref=ts
Follow Us on Twitter
http://twitter.com/ArizonaAFLCIO
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