Back to basics at the Legislature

A new state Legislature takes office Monday, with many members intent on focusing on the nuts and bolts of government and showing little patience for the bills that in recent years have made Arizona a punch line for late-night comedy shows.

The 51st Legislature takes the oath of office about noon, followed by Gov. Jan Brewer's annual State of the State address.

Controversy has marked the start of recent legislative sessions, due to massive budget problems and simmering tensions over anti-federal moves ranging from Senate Bill 1070 to President Barack Obama's birth certificate. But lawmakers, so far, are not pushing those hot-button topics.

Republicans have lost their supermajority but maintain control of both chambers. Some say the narrower party margins may force more cooperation and prevent the passage of some of the more controversial measures seen in past years.

In their place, say Brewer and leaders from both parties, will be a focus on more pragmatic issues: education, child welfare, the budget and whether the state should expand its Medicaid rolls.

That doesn't mean there will be a lack of fireworks, though. Bills and competing proposals over gun control are flying in the wake of the Dec. 14 massacre of 20 first-graders and six school officials in Newtown, Conn.

And this is Arizona government, where something surprising crops up every year.

"I think it will be unpredictable," said Kim MacEachern, staff attorney at the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council, who works with lawmakers on legislation. "There are so many new people and the split between everybody is different than they've had in a while. You've got the Republican Party splits, more Democrats and more independent thinkers."

Divided leaders

Republicans ousted Senate President Steve Pierce of Prescott in favor of Andy Biggs, from Gilbert, who tends to align more with the "tea party" factions of the Republican Party.

Sen. John McComish, R-Phoenix, will serve as majority leader and Sen. Adam Driggs, R-Phoenix, as majority whip. Both are considered more moderate than Biggs and have voted against the party line on occasion. The political differences could prove a diversion as Biggs tries to push the Republican agenda with fewer votes to spare than the GOP has had in prior years. But the leaders say they see the diversity as a positive.

"Everybody in the caucus has somebody they can go to," Driggs said.

The narrower margins will also mean bill watchers will likely need to keep on their toes. One absent conservative Republican could spell trouble in situations where the moderate Republican faction aligns with Democrats to oppose an effort. Expect to see committee agendas and bill votes rescheduled more often and with little notice as leadership tries to assure enough support is in attendance.

Democrats increased their Senate numbers to 13 in the fall election, up from nine last year.

Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor, D-Phoenix, the incoming minority leader, said she hopes for a more bipartisan atmosphere and a more open process.

In the House, Republicans will have a 12-vote edge over Democrats, 36 to 24. That's down from the 40-20 split of the past two years.

Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, returns as speaker of the House and, in addition to the usual emphasis on budget and job creation, added a new element to the mix: a keen focus on water issues for rural Arizona.

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said the Democrats' pickup of four seats should give them more influence.

"There will be more opportunities for partnerships between Democrats and Republicans to stop legislation that may be objectionable to the majority of people in the state," he said.

Democrats will again push legislation to make government more transparent. Clearer and tighter rules on campaign finance are one focus; they also will target gifts and other perks given to lawmakers.

Hold-the-line budget

A lot of legislative work this session will pivot around the budget. Republicans are intent on holding the line on spending, citing the future costs of federal health-care reform and the economy's so-far sluggish recovery. They say they're interested in funding growth in school, health care and prison populations, but little else.

"Folks are looking at status-quo spending," Biggs said.

The current budget is $8.6billion; the legislative-budget staff projects $8.7billion for fiscal 2014, which begins July 1.

Meanwhile, Democrats argue that with an expected $700million surplus, plus a "rainy-day fund" of $450million, the state needs to spend some money on programs that took deep cuts when it was trying to eliminate billion-dollar budgets.

Brewer will figure prominently in this debate. She has signaled she wants a significant increase for Child Protective Services -- her director of the state Department of Economic Security is seeking $50million -- and has acknowledged the needs of Arizona's education system, especially as a new set of standards kicks in.

The temporary 1-cent-per-dollar increase she fought for in the state sales tax expires in June, and her budget will reflect her approach on how Arizona can balance its budget without the $900million a year infusion the tax provided.

Brewer has kept mum on details; some will be in her State of the State address, followed by presentation of her entire plan on Friday.

Jobs and taxes

With a package of business tax cuts still phasing in, there is little talk about further tax reductions as the session approaches.

McComish said he had not heard any early talk about tax cuts.

Rep. Tom Forese, R-Chandler, and incoming chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said he's looking west as Arizona tries to boost its employment picture.

"I'd like to aggressively target California," he said, noting that state's regulatory and taxing environment is pushing firms, especially high-tech companies, to look elsewhere.

His idea: earmark money in the state budget to go after California firms. He had no price tag for the effort, but said he thinks it would have broad support.

"We can beat each other up over issues that are partisan," he said. "But bringing jobs from California is a nonpartisan issue."

Election changes

Biggs created a committee to focus on election-related matters, responding to issues that cropped up in the wake of last fall's election as well as a citizen's research into the recall process.

"A lot of people are very concerned about the electoral process," Biggs said.

Sen. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, will chair the panel. She said she already has six bills of her own to introduce, and fellow lawmakers have approached her with a number of other ideas.

She also would like to standardize the time frames and procedures for recall and general elections; recall campaigns in Fountain Hills and of former state Senate President Russell Pearce highlighted discrepancies in election law. Reagan also wants to tighten oversight of paid-petition circulators.

When a circulator fraudulently gathers signatures, as has been alleged in recent campaigns, those petitions get thrown out. That hurts the voter who signed the petition, effectively disenfranchising them, she said.

Gun debate

Two months ago, no one would have predicted guns would be a legislative hot-button issue this session.

Pro-Second Amendment lawmakers likely would have proposed another version of past bills to put guns on college campuses or into public buildings. But two years of Brewer vetoes has given a clear signal that the governor has concerns, and efforts may be useless. There appeared to be no great groundswell for more loosening of state gun laws, particularly without vocal gun supporter Ron Gould behind the movement. Gould left the Legislature to run unsuccessfully for Congress.

But the Connecticut shooting has brought the issue to the forefront again. Expect a battle this session over arming teachers, finding more funding for school-resource officers and efforts to instill new gun controls.

Other issues

Lawmakers file more than a thousand bills each session, most of them within the first few weeks of the session. So far, about 90 have been filed. Often the most controversial are kept secret until the last minute.

The Arizona Citizens Defense League, which is behind many of the bills to loosen state gun laws, does not disclose its legislative agenda in advance. Nor does the Center for Arizona Policy, the group behind most of the bills dealing with abortion restrictions, contraception, religious-freedom issues and school choice.

Center for Arizona Policy President Cathi Herrod said the group is still working on its agenda, but predicted its list of bills may not be as robust this session as in the past, particularly in the area of abortion restrictions.

"We've gotten quite a bit done in the past four years," she said. "And the critical factor this next session is that we've got two cases on abortion pending before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Let's let those issues work their way through the courts."

The cases deal with last year's ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and restrictions on public funds for providers that perform abortions.

House Assistant Minority Leader Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, said he hopes the narrower margin between parties will prevent many of the most controversial bills from getting too far.

"This is an opportunity for us to work together to get some good, common-sense bills passed as well as kill some bad ones," he said. "We're going to come in peace. And then if we have to go to the barricades, we'll go to the barricades."

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

Posted

View the original article here