The Arizona Legislature is in a state of flux this week. The only committees in session are Rules and Appropriations. RTS is possible for these committees but RTS is largely ignored in these committees unless the specific RTS comments deal with constitutional or legal issues. A better use of your time will be to contact our Legislators directly via phone calls or e-mail to let them know your position.
Here is the contact information for our Legislators:
SENATE:
LD 6 – Wendy Rogers 602-926-3042
LD 7 – Jamescita Peshlakai 602-926-3160
President Karen Fann 602-926-5874
Majority Ldr Rick Gray 602-926-5413
HOUSE:
LD 6 – Walt Blackman 602-926-3043
LD 6 – Brenda Barton 602-926-3421
LD 7 – Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren 602-926-3069
LD 7 – Myron Tsosie 602-926-3157
Speaker Russell Bowers 602-926-3128
Majority Ldr Ben Toma 602-926-3298
CONTACT LEGISLATORS ON THESE BILLS
VOTING RIGHTS
SB1485 – OPPOSE – HOUSE– Would strip voters from the Permanent Early Voting List if they fail to vote their early ballots in two back-to-back primary and general elections, and strikes the word “permanent” from statute.
SB1593 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would make a host of voting-related changes, none of them good. It shortens the early voting period from 27 to 22 days, specifies early ballots must be received by 7 pm on Election Day, adds a second “privacy envelope,” and makes voters surrender their early ballots in order to vote in person.
SB1713 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would require voters to send their early ballots back with proof of their eligibility to vote: an early ballot affidavit with their date of birth and a copy of their ID! Clearly designed to make it harder to vote.
SB1106 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would make registering someone to vote in Arizona who has no “intent to remain” in the state a class 6 felony. Obviously designed to discourage college students from registering in Arizona.
SB1497 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would require ballots and publicity pamphlets that contain citizen initiatives to carry a “Prop 108 disclosure” that, these measures cannot be changed without a 3/4th vote of the legislature. This is a scare tactic to discourage voters from passing their own laws.
SB1713 – OPPOSE – HOUSE– Would require voters to send their early ballots back with proof of their eligibility to vote: an early ballot affidavit with their date of birth and a copy of their ID! Clearly designed to make it harder to vote.
HB2792 – OPPOSE – SENATE – Would make it a class 5 felony to send you a ballot if you didn’t explicitly request one.
SB1106 – OPPOSE – Would make registering someone to vote in Arizona who has no “intent to remain” in the state a class 6 felony. Obviously designed to discourage college students from registering in Arizona.
EDUCATION
SB1783 – OPPOSE – Would create a new “small business taxpayer” category with pre-Prop 208 tax rates. The bill would be retroactive to 2020, effectively nullifying the tax increase voters just passed in November.
SB1280 – OPPOSE – STRIKER – Gives parents who send their kids to “choice” schools $80 per month in “transportation support grants”.
SB1273 – OPPOSE – Would expand the use of School Tuition Organization (STO) tax credit vouchers to a laundry list of new expenses: extracurricular activities, band uniforms, lab materials, even out-of-state school trips. While STO vouchers have been purported to help poor children, the vast majority of the families using these programs are ones who can already afford to send their kids to private school.
HB2427– OPPOSE – Specifically bans attendance boundaries for district schools, further eroding the value of the neighborhood schools that serve as anchors for local communities. This bill simply fast tracks segregation and white flight.
SB1532 – OPPOSE – Punitive measures for teachers who use work time, resources, etc. to organize or plan school closures (i.e., sickout, walkout, etc.).
SB1456 – OPPOSE – Would ban sex-ed and AIDS instruction before the 5th grade; makes classes opt-in with written permission (rather than opt-out), and bans discussing gender identity and gender expression without parental consent.
SB1273 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would expand the use of School Tuition Organization (STO) tax credit vouchers to a laundry list of new expenses: extracurricular activities, band uniforms, lab materials, even out-of-state school trips. While STO vouchers have been purported to help poor children, the vast majority of the families using these programs are ones who can already afford to send their kids to private school.
SB1456 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would ban sex-ed and AIDS instruction before the 5th grade; makes classes opt-in with written permission (rather than opt-out); and bans discussing gender identity and gender expression without parental consent.
HB2123 – SUPPORT – SENATE – STRIKER – Would allow our state’s youngest students (grades PreK – 4) to be suspended or expelled ONLY if they’re engaged in extremely dangerous conduct on school grounds. Suspension and expulsions disproportionately affect children of color.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
SB1457 – OPPOSE – This is a multi-pronged attack on the rights and the agency of women. It gives “unborn children at every stage of development” the same rights as an actual person, and makes abortion due to any genetic abnormality, including one incompatible with life, a felony.
STATE PARK HERITAGE FUND
HB2127 – SUPPORT – SENATE – Funds the Arizona State Park Heritage Fund with $10 Million from the General Fund.
SB1384 – SUPPORT – HOUSE – Funds the Arizona State Park Heritage Fund with $10 Million from the Arizona Lottery.
CORPORATION COMMISSION
HB2248 – OPPOSE – SENATE – Would prohibit the Arizona Corporation Commission from regulating the types of electric generation used by public service corporations, retroactive to June 2020. In other words, the entity that is supposed to regulate power companies in Arizona would be left unable to require clean energy standards.
SB1459 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would subject the Corporation Commission to the administrative review process. Another attempt to prevent the Corporation Commission from requiring state-regulated utilities from getting their power from 100% carbon-free sources by 2050
GOVERNANCE
HB2794 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would make modifying any election related date in statute a class 6 felony.
HCR2037 – OPPOSE – SENATE – Would ask voters to amend the Arizona constitution to allow the legislature to call itself into session for the purpose of regulating a state of emergency. More effort to prevent governors from dealing with critical emergencies like pandemics.
SB1382 – OPPOSE – HOUSE- WENDY ROGERS – Would redefine firearms and ammunition stores as “essential businesses”, preventing the governor from closing them during a state of emergency.
SB1408 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – Would change the law retroactively to allow lawmakers to get their hands on confidential ballots by banning them from being considered privileged or confidential.
SCR1011 – OPPOSE – HOUSE – STRIKER – Urges the Federal Government to complete the southern border wall.
HB2308 – OPPOSE – SENATE – Would make it vastly more difficult to circulate recall petitions, mirroring “strict compliance” restrictions already in place for initiatives and referendums.
HB2462 – OPPOSE – SENATE– Would force people to take extensive training (80 hours +) before serving on civilian review boards. Arizona Police Association helped craft this bill. Significant impact on the adequate review of police misconduct.
HB2570 – OPPOSE – SENATE – Would ban state agencies, cities, and counties from revoking the license of a business that violated an executive order unless they can prove the business was an actual cause of transmission.
RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE
HB2808 – SUPPORT – SENATE – Appropriates $10 million in one-time funding for rural broadband grants.
PUBLIC SAFETY
SB1486 – SUPPORT – HOUSE – Would legalize test strips to detect fentanyl in drugs. This would help save lives!!
HB2770 – OPPOSE – SENATE – Would exempt businesses from enforcing mask mandates.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
HB2648 – OPPOSE –SENATE – Would exempt religious organizations from accountability for any crime committed “for purposes of religious belief” within their organization – could shield things like child abuse, negligent or reckless medical care (or withholding of medical care), ignoring basic worker protection laws, fraud, etc. A strong OPPOSE!
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