Legislative Alert, March 8, 2010
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 12, 2010 @ 12:00.
The Past
Week
- HB2620; Withheld wages, written authorization,
revocation is a bill
to allow union members to revoke wage withholding agreements at any time,
it passed House COW Thursday. The Arizona AFL-CIO is opposed to this
bill.
Senate Bills
- SB1242; Employer protection, labor relations. This bill would define "unlawful picketing"
and "unlawful mass assembly" and create fines for such. It also
includes a provision to allow union members to revoke wage withholding
agreements at any time, in a manner identical to HB2620 (see above). The
bill was to be heard at the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday.
However, due to a lack of quorum the Committee recessed until Monday at
4pm. The Arizona AFL-CIO is opposed to this bill.
- SCR1009 Publicly financed
elections; prohibition. This
would repeal Clean Elections by placing a constitutional prohibition on
spending public funds on political campaigns. The measure passed the State
Senate on a party line vote. The Arizona AFL-CIO is opposed to this bill.
- SCR1013 Lieutenant Governor; Secretary of State. This bill would create the position
of Lieutenant Governor, replacing the Secretary of State. The Lieutenant
Governor would then run on the same ticket as the Governor. The bill
passed from the Senate unanimously.
- SCR1049, Judges &
Elections. This
bill would have resulted in elections for superior court judges in all
counties, failed in Senate COW on a division vote, 10-18. The
Arizona AFL-CIO is opposed to this bill.
Budget
Talks
There
are a lot of rumors swirling about the Budget. There were documents began
circulating mid-week, which leaked a plan to close the State's $2.7 billion
deficit. The proposal circulating would cut or eliminate the state government
another $1.1 billion. The remaining gap would be filled with $1 billion in new
revenue from the temporary sales tax increase going on the assumption that it
passes, and defer $450 million in K – 12 and university spending.
The draft plan
would also require cities to "contribute" $20 million in sales tax
revenue sharing to counties. This measure is meant to partially offset the costs
associated with shifting the state's juvenile corrections responsibility to
counties. This type of budget would pass the problems off to the County and
City.
The week long
budget talks are much like last year where the Democrats have been closed out
of meetings. The Democrats are claiming that the Republicans are working
behind closed doors away from the public to produce their own partisan and
phony budget that only pushes Arizona farther down the wrong track.
We are also hearing
that the legislature will be done with the budget and bills by mid April.
Yeah, we heard that last year too. One can certainly "hope".
This Week
The week gets kicked off with a special session which the
Governor called for on Friday. This will be the 7th Special Session to
iron out problems with the budget. The items to be addressed in the
Special Session are:
- Adjustments
to address the fiscal year 2009-2010 state budget, including state
employee compensation and workforce reduction.
- Enactment
of a state budget for fiscal year 2010-2011, including state employee
compensation and workforce reduction.
Antenori named to
replace Senator Paton
Rep. Antenori was named to replace Senator Paton by
the County Board of Supervisors after he won the most votes from the Precinct Committee
people. The appointment now leaves his house seat which will be filled by
yet another appointment with the same process. Representative Anternori has sponsored bad legislation such as HB 2344, which would prohibit public employees from
lobbying the Legislature and HCR 2036, which would
allow the Legislature to undo any voter approved spending.
Unemployment
Benefits Extended for 30 Days
One
Senator, Jim Bunning (R-KY), was able to stall Senate action so that the
federal extended Unemployment Insurance program expired on February 28 and
remained lapsed until after 9:00 p.m. on March 2nd. His actions put more
than 200,000 long-term unemployed people this week alone at risk of losing
benefits. While Congress was able to rectify this potential catastrophe,
it took considerable time and effort that Senators and advocates never should
have had to spend.
It is imperative that Congress votes to extend the UI federal benefit programs
through the end of 2010 so that our nation's unemployed workers and their
families do not fall victim again to partisan games in Congress.
Congressional
District 3 Update
Looks
like CD 3 has another person jumping in the crowded race on the Republican
side. The most recent addition is Steve Moak,
Sr. the chairman of Synergy Solutions.
So now the list of
running Republicans are; 1) Sen. Jim Waring, 2) Sen. Pamela Gorman, 3) Rep. Sam
Crump, 4) PV Mayor, Vernon Parker, 5) Ed Winkler, 6) Paulina Vasquez Morris, 7)
LeAnn Hull, 8) Ben Quayle and 9) Steve Moak,
Sr.
There is only one
Democrat now is Jon Hulburd who has been busy raising
money and recruiting volunteers.
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
McCain vs.
Hayworth- Update
And the Award Goes
to?..................
The race between
J.D. and McCain is really heating up. Last week McCain trotted around the
newly elected Sen. Scott Brown at the Grand Canyon University. Brown was
eager to stump for McCain and saying that he was the only Sen. to meet with him
and he was eager to return the favor.
What was really
over the top was a campaign attack ad that depicts Sen. John McCain as an
"Avatar".
The ad was an
attempt at an Academy Awards spin off where McCain is bursting out of a gold
Hollywood star, with a statuette and an envelope ...and blue war paint splashed
across his face. This was supposed to be an attempt at calling McCain a
"Nominee for Best Conservative Actor."
McCain reacted and
said that the ad was a slap in the face to Native Americans. McCain
demanded that Hayworth apologize.
No shock to anyone
who knows Hayworth, the Hayworth campaign refused to apologize; said the ad
will remain up and, in fact, expects that the controversy will increase the
campaigns visibility. They then said that McCain needed to get a sense of
humor.
With these
campaigns the only issue being discussed is a fight about who is "more
conservative". J.D. vs. McCain is more immature boys behaving
badly during the worst economic times of our lifetime.
Hero &
Villain of the Week
The
Hero for the week is Sen. Ken Cheuvront who hosted a
rally last week to show support for State Employees. Sen. Cheuvront
said, "It is time that the Arizona Legislature realizes that state
employees are more than just FTEs," referring to the acronym for full-time
equivalent generally used to describe a state employee. "They are hard
working, tax paying individuals who want to maintain
their employment like other Arizonans. State employees should not be ignored
when legislators discuss job creation and job maintenance." Thank
you Sen. Cheuvront and all the Democratic
Representatives for standing up for state workers!
The villain of the
week is Sen. Kyl who spoke up about Unemployed
workers when he should have remained silent. He stated that extending the
unemployment benefits during the worst recession of our lifetime was a
disincentive for them seeking jobs. Sen. Kyl
should know what Arizona pays in unemployment benefits. A whopping $240 a week
is enough incentive to finding employment!
Watch Sen. Kyl's speech here Watch
Sen. Kyl
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 Watch
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