PHOENIX — Legislative Democrats outlined their agenda for the new session that started Monday, hoping to make some difference despite their minority status.
Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, said restoring cuts made to public education is a top priority.
Even if voters approve Proposition 123, it remains only a first step in adequately funding schools, she said. It would provide an additional $3.5 billion for K-12 schools over the next decade. But that $300 per student per year is still less than the amount that has been cut since the recession began.
She said it “does not erase the damage that has been done.”
Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley, her House counterpart, said the money is there.
“The Joint Legislative Budget Committee has identified $218 million in ongoing funding that could be used strategically to invest in our future,” he said, cash that is expected to be there not just this coming year but for the foreseeable future. “This is on top of over $1 billion cash on hand. That includes the rainy day fund.”
Democrats also want a focus on the Department of Child Safety, which has a backlog of inactive cases. And they want to reverse a decision that limits Temporary Assistance to Needy Families to just one year, the shortest eligibility in the country.
Hobbs called it a “cruel and unnecessary cut.”
But the influence of Democrats is limited to the fact that voters have consistently put the House in Republican hands since the 1960s. The current makeup is 36-24 Republican.
Democrats have had a few turns running the Senate, but find themselves behind there, too, on an 18-12 margin. And while there have been some Democrat governors over the years, voters in 2014 chose Republican Doug Ducey over Democrat Fred DuVal.
But Meyer insisted that does not mean the Democrats are out of step with what voters want.
“The voters that I talk to every day as I’m out in my community want quality public schools they can send their kids to that are well-funded,” he said.
“They want quality teachers in the classroom, they want to reduce class sizes, they want affordable college tuition, which should be as near as free as possible as our constitution says,” Meyer continued. “And they want jobs for their kids.”
