PHOENIX — The just-completed 122-day legislative session was different than those in recent years in one significant way.
Lawmakers were not looking for places to cut spending. In fact, there was actually a bit of money available even after taking care of existing programs and the normal additions driven by formulas linked to inflation and the growth in everything from the number of students to people enrolled in the state’s health-care program.
But the fact that there were dollars to spend sent various interests scurrying to get their share.
Education
Lawmakers put more money into education, including bigger raises for teachers, than Gov. Doug Ducey requested. But the question remains whether any of that will make a difference, given the fact that four out of every 10 new Arizona teachers quit in the first two years.
Republican legislative leaders point out the $34 million in the nearly $10 billion state budget for a 1 percent raise this coming school year, with a promise of another 1 percent next year, is not the only money available for teacher raises. Schools are getting a $128 million increase in basic state aid to compensate for inflation and student growth.
Education advocates counter that those dollars also have to cover changes in the cost of everything from utilities and supplies to school buses.
There also is $38 million for “results-based funding,” awarded to high-performing schools. Lawmakers also agreed to ease the requirements for who can teach in public schools.
But the potentially biggest change is the decision to remove all restrictions on who can get vouchers of state dollars to attend private and parochial schools.
“Empowerment scholarship accounts” began in 2011 to aid students with special needs who could not get necessary services in public schools. Since then, there has been an incremental increase, adding foster children, children of the military, residents of reservations and students attending schools rated D or F.
Proponents want universal vouchers for everyone. With that politically unacceptable, they had to settle for removing all restrictions on eligibility but agreeing to a cap of about 30,000, about 3 percent of students in public schools.
There already is talk of having those caps removed. One concern is that these schools can pick and choose who attends and can charge far more than the $4,400 base voucher, potentially leaving the public schools with the children with the most needs and the lowest incomes.
Transportation
One area that came up short is in ensuring Arizona has the funds to build and repair roads.
The situation is so bad that even the trucking industry is willing to pay more in gasoline taxes rather than put up with the delays that eat into profits and the potholes that lead to repairs. And the 18-cents-a-gallon gas tax is worth nowhere near what it was when it was imposed in 1991.
Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure approved asking voters to boost the levy. But that was quashed when the bill could not get a committee hearing needed to pass.
An outright ban on photo radar and red light cameras cleared the House but faltered in the Senate. Lawmakers did agree to ban license-plate covers designed to make numbers and letters unreadable to those cameras.
Lawmakers did agree that the state’s newest drivers — those with learner’s permits or in the first six months of getting a license — should not be using any wireless communication devices for talking or texting while driving.
But to get even that, proponents had to agree to make it a secondary offense, meaning a citation can be issued only if the motorist is pulled over for another reason. And the restriction doesn’t take effect until July 1, 2018.
Law and order
It wouldn’t be a legislative session if there were not multiple efforts to make it easier for Arizonans to buy, sell, carry and use their guns.
Lawmakers agreed to ban local governments from requiring those who sell firearms to be sure that the buyers are legally entitled to own them.
Licensed dealers must do background checks. But that does not apply for person-to-person sales, even when someone is selling multiple firearms, something backers of checks call the “gun-show loophole.”
Another measure says Arizonans cannot be forced to purchase only “smart” firearms that can track where they are and do not fire except when held by an authorized user.
But gun-rights advocates failed once again to allow people who have concealed firearms permits to remain armed when entering public buildings unless there are guards and metal detectors. And legislation to ease laws making it illegal to fire off guns in city limits hit a dead end when Senate President Steve Yarbrough refused to let the measure be considered.
Separate from questions about guns, lawmakers found money to do DNA tests on new rape kits and clear a backlog.
And legislators agreed to make it harder for police and prosecutors to seize property they contend was involved in criminal activity.
Politics
Lawmakers tightened their grip on the right to write new laws.
Initiative organizers will no longer be able to pay circulators by the signature. And judges will be able to invalidate petition drives if there is not “strict compliance” with all election laws, a departure from court rulings that voters should be given the last word if there is “substantial compliance.”
While changes were advanced in the name of fraud protection, there is legislative and business opposition to what voters enacted on their own, like the 2010 vote to legalize marijuana for medical use and the voters’ decision to increase the state’s $8.05 minimum wage immediately to $10, going to $12 by 2020, and requiring at least three days a year of paid sick leave.
Both measures are the subject of referenda to force the question to the 2018 ballot. And the change to substantial compliance is being challenged in court.
But lawmakers would not hear a proposal to require those who want to propose new laws to get a certain percentage of signatures from each of the state’s 30 legislative districts, leaving intact laws that set a minimum number, regardless of where the signatures are gathered.
Also dead is a proposal to ask voters to repeal a constitutional provision that now bars lawmakers from tinkering with what has been approved at the ballot.
Health and Welfare
Lawmakers voted to spell out what doctors must do when an abortion results in a live birth, including what actions medical staff must take to try to keep the baby alive.
It proved controversial because of concerns that it will force doctors to do procedures on babies too premature or too deformed to survive, depriving parents of the minutes to bond with the child before it dies.
At the other extreme, another law is designed to protect health-care providers and hospitals that refuse to take part in assisted suicide, euthanasia or mercy killing.
Current law already exempts health-care providers from liability for failing to comply with a patient’s request or doctor’s order that violates the provider’s conscience. But foes said this will harm the ability of patients and families to work with doctors to decide when treatments simply prolong death.
Lawmakers did agree to reverse a decision limiting lifetime benefits for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families to just one year, which made Arizona the stingiest in the country. But the restoration was not complete. The legislation contains various provisions that would reduce benefits by half for a single violation of rules, including kids not attending school at least 90 percent of the time or failing to immunize a child.
Relatives who raise children who have been abused or neglected by their parents will be able to get some state money to help care for them. And it will be a bit easier to qualify for food stamps, with lawmakers eliminating a requirement for “finger imaging,” an anti-fraud provision added years ago that proved far more expensive to administer than the fraud it detected.
Economic development
Lawmakers both extended existing tax breaks and credits that were set to expire, expanded some of them and even created some new ones.
Some of these are aimed at major manufacturers, giving them additional incentives to do research and development in Arizona, with state taxpayers effectively reimbursing them for part of the cost. They also are getting new property-tax breaks on the equipment they buy.
Proponents say the foregone revenues are more than made up by the creation of new jobs, with those employees buying homes, spending money and paying taxes.
There also are more opportunities for “angel” investors to get tax credits for putting money into small businesses. But lawmakers balked at a measure aimed at getting loans to companies in rural Arizona. The package also contains a small break in individual income taxes, with the maximum additional cash in the pockets of individuals after two years being $4.54.
And legislators agreed to give businesses some protections against lawsuits for failing to promptly comply with the Arizonans with Disabilities Act.
Grab bag
Of course, the session always includes what might seem to be things that no one thought was needed legislative action. But each measure has a constituency. For example:
- In the category of “who knew that was illegal,” students attending public schools or summer camps now will be able to put on their own sunscreen without a note from home or a prescription.
- (See related story, Page C1)
- Wulfenite is now Arizona’s official state mineral.
- Moving companies that say the cost has risen from the original estimate can’t refuse to deliver household goods.
- Farmers will be able to grow hemp for industrial uses if they get federal permission.
