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! Your participation is needed – all affiliated are invited to join the weekly lobbyist meeting to collaborate efforts and plan strategies & tactics. The weekly meeting is every Friday @ 1:00 at IBEW Local 640 ~ 5808 N. 7th Street. The next meeting will be Friday, May 8, 2009.
The Week Ahead
Once again we are hearing rumors that the budget may pass this week. At this point what happens is a guessing game. Last week they canceled the appropriations meeting ½ hour prior to the meeting.
Superior Court Judge Throws State Workers Under the Bus
A Superior Court Judge in Maricopa County this past week rejected a request by state workers to reverse a the massive layoffs in 2009 that were prompted by extreme budget cuts.
The judge argued that the severity of the cuts required agencies to conduct layoffs without going through the proper protocols of a five-day notice. Though the future of the case is now uncertain, representatives of the workers claim that no matter what it has made state agencies think twice about how they handle their employees
Poll Shows Most Arizonans Support Tax Increase
A new Cronkite/Eight poll released this week showed massive support for a temporary sales tax increase to balance the state budget. 60 percent of those surveyed said they would support an increase, versus 35 percent against. Five percent stated they had no opinion.
The poll also showed that Arizonans are deeply opposed to cuts to education and believe it is important to fully fund all-day kindergarten. Hopefully the Republican Leadership will take the hint and start pushing for a sensible budget that people want. To read more about the poll go to http://www.azpbs.org/horizon/poll/2009/4-28-09.htm
We Do Have Options – They are as Easy as ABC
There is a broad group of community civic leaders to organize the Arizona Budget Coalition and the Arizona AFL-CIO has signed on. The coalition agrees, there are many options available to balance the budget without cuts to jobs, education, health, and human services. These alternatives include budget and revenue options as well as taxes that are fair. The coalition is urging Governor Brewer and the legislature to balance the budget through a comprehensive approach so that Arizona can save jobs and build its future. You will receive more information on the coalition shortly. We must remember that the last budget cuts already went to far and now they are trying to cut an additional 3 billion dollars. The is a better way to come up with a fair budget.
The principals that coalition members agree to are:
1. Transparent budget process
2. Restore massive cuts
3. Do no further harm
4. Use all available options
5. Keep people working
6. Create a fair tax structure
7. Keep state revenue sharing
For More Information on the Coalition go to http://www.arizonabudgetcoalition.org/
Hero's and Villains of the Week
Hero of the week is not in the legislature but he is a Hero indeed. In a letter to Senator Tester, President Shirley wrote, "On behalf of the Navajo Nation, I write to clarify that not all tribes are opposed to passage of the EFCA. As President of the Navajo Nation, I would like to inform you that the Navajo people, through our tribal council and leadership, not only support the EFCA, but years ago enacted similar legislation for Navajo Nation employees that grants automatic union certification upon proof of majority sign up. Hopefully, with the passage of this Act, all American workers will be able to enjoy the type of fair and just choice of representation that certain Navajo Nation employees have today. I sincerely hope that you will not only support the EFCA as written, but will provide the leadership needed in our party by becoming a co-signer. Thank you President Shirley for consistently standing up for workers and not standing in the way of freedom to join a union.
Once again Pamela Gorman is our Villain of the week. In a press release Sen. Gorman stated, "I am outraged at members of the education community for their blatant deception and hypocrisy. They have launched huge attacks against cuts to education to balance the budget, while they hid the fact that they were sitting on hundreds of millions of your taxpayer dollars," declared Sen. Pamela Gorman, R-Anthem. What she failed to mention is the $330 million is money expected to be in districts' regular "carryforwards" at the beginning of the next fiscal year. There's also $100 million of unspent money provided by the state for repairs and maintenance. Some of the reserved money may be intended to pay bills early in the next fiscal year. Other money could be reserves set aside for emergencies or bound for debt payments, special utility projects and other allowed purposes. Senator Gorman really should get her facts straight before getting so outraged is the education community.
You Won't Believe They Said That
Pamela Gorman. "We're faced with the reality that government has created a dependent class of people. That growing class has become accustomed to receiving ever increasing amounts of taxpayer dollars, regardless of the taxpayers' ability to pay. The entitlement class is scared, motivated, and loud. And, they have a lot of time on their hands while most of us are at work." And who is this class of people she is referring to with a lot of time on their hands. Maybe kids who are only in school 4 days out of the week rather than 5? The unemployed looking for work, as if finding a job is not a full time job? State workers or teachers who lost their jobs, the list goes on and on.
To prove to you we are not making this stuff up, read her entire Op-Ed at http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/01/gorman_arizona_tax/
Here We Go Again, Budget Released then Pulled
Last Tuesday, House and Senate Republican leaders officially released a "Joint Draft Budget Proposal" that includes an overall reduction in K-12 public education funding of around $1 billion dollars. In addition, the proposal includes tax shifts and a permanent repeal of the $250 million school equalization tax.
The Republican leadership has excluded the Democrats in the development of the budget proposal and it appears that more and more members of the Republican caucus are distancing themselves from this "cuts only" approach to the budget. In the meantime, Governor Brewer has shown very little leadership on the budget process and only issuing a 5-point plan that includes an unspecified and temporary $1 billion tax increase to help balance Arizona's $3.4 billion budget deficit. If Arizona is going to close the budget gap, we are going to need leadership and none seems to be emerging.
Republican Lawmaker May Be Removed for Violating Clean Elections
Republican State Representative Doug Quelland is finding himself in a lot of hot water this week, as the Clean Elections Commission began looking in to whether or not to remove him from office for violating campaign finance laws. Quelland is accused of paying a consultant 15,000 dollars for campaign related activities.
Quelland claims that he hired the consultant for business related expenses, and that the only campaign activities he participated in were on a purely volunteer basis. Todd Lang, executive Director of the Clean Elections Commission called for immediate action and recommended removing Quelland from office or other sanctions. The commission expressed their disappointment in all the "lying" that seemed to be going on in the case, and decided to postpone final judgment for a May 16th meeting.
The Republican Budget Proposal "Cheat Sheet"
The Arizona Senate Democrats have created this helpful glossary so you can see what the Republican budget will really do to working families. Enjoy! (More can be found at AzSenateDemocrats.com
Annualization: Everything we cut in the last budget is going away forever. We have concluded that you did not really need it after all.
Inflator, Education 2 Percent: We are trying to make ourselves look good by giving $8 million to public schools. We hope you will not figure out that according to the law that you voted for, it should really be $110 million.
Lost Federal Funds: We do not even talk about this because we do not want you to know that by cutting state money from programs as we propose, the state also loses federal money. Our current budget will cause the following:
*30% increase in deadbeat parents who don't pay child support.
*8,000 older Arizonans forced out of their homes.
*10,000 fewer homeless shelter beds.
*9,000 abused women and children with no place to go.
*3,000 families unable to pay utility bills.
*Childcare assistance lost for an additional 30,000 families.
Lump Sum: This is where we hide cuts we do not want to tell you about in advance because we do not want to hear you whine about it.
Reduce Childcare Funding: Eliminate childcare assistance for 4,000 children and give up $33 million in federal stimulus money. Children will be left in unsafe situations and parents will lose jobs.
Reduce Children's Support Services: These services are supports for families involved in the CPS system and reunification services for families who have had a child removed from the home. More children will go into foster homes because 10,000 children will lose these in-home services.
Sweeps, University Tuition and Fee: Not only are we raising tuition; we are also sweeping $90 million in existing tuition and fee revenues, so you will have to pay higher fees and more for textbooks, too!
TANF Recipients: Children. Seventy-five percent of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families caseload is children.
TANF Recipients, Drug testing: We want to save money by testing your children for drugs.
Watch State Legislature In Action
Just a reminder, Cox Cable recently began broadcasting AZ CapitolTV 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 http://azleg.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3
Link to this post online: http://www.azaflcio.org/?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=125857&page=Legislative20Alerts21
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