Reforming Arizona Government: The Arizona Legislature

A while back I proposed a plan to reform Maricopa County government.  That plan was meant to expand representation and to make the MCSO accountable to the people of the county.  Now I turn my attention to Arizona state government.  As The Arizona Eagletarian has pointed out on many occasions, there is a foul stench coming from our state capitol and that stench carries a clear disdain for the people of Arizona.

Very clearly, the state government of Arizona is in need of some serious reform.  But as the task is so daunting, I am going to start with the Arizona Legislature, probably the branch of Arizona government the most in need of serious reform.  I will post my vision of reform for state wide elected offices in a later post.

The Arizona Legislature:

End Term Limits – If voters cannot be bothered to vote in primaries and elections, why should they be excused the consequences of their inactions via term limits?  For that is what term limits are: An excuse for voters not to do their job via the ballot box.  Term limits also have the effect of silencing moderate voices while magnifying the voices of extremism.  Thus, I call for an end to term limits.

Restructuring of the Senate – The Arizona Senate should be structured more on the U.S. Senate in that each Senator should have 6 year terms with 1/3^rd of the Senate up for election every two years.  I think the stability would allow for a more moderate tone.  As we have seen in the U.S. Senate, this is not always the case, but it is worth a try.

Ban Gifts and Non-Collegiate Scholarships – Legislators are elected to be the representatives of the people of Arizona.  Far too often though, these very same legislators see their role as to protect those who shower them with gifts and “scholarships” to attend ideologically driven conferences.  Gifts have included tickets, airfare and hotel accommodations for sporting events.  “Scholarships” have been provided by such groups as ALEC for their own conferences.  These organizations then provide “model legislation” that the legislator then proposes as their own.  This legislation tends to be pro-corporate, anti-worker, anti-consumer, anti-tax payer and anti-regulatory.

Ban Conflicts of Interest – No legislator should be able to propose, endorse, advocate or vote for legislation that directly benefits them.  State Senator Steve Yarborough is notorious for his blatant conflict of interest regarding School Tuition Organizations, of which Senator Yarborough is the executive director of one.  He has authored bills that have allowed STOs to keep up to 10% of all “donations” for expenses and to increase the tax credits for those who “donate” to these organizations.

Please feel free to let me know in the comments how you would change the Arizona Legislature or to let me know how you feel about this posting.

Hell is for Children

Every state (and some major cities/counties) has a department/agency that is tasked with helping and protecting children who may be in unstable homes or are the victims of abuse and/or neglect. These agencies tend to be severely understaffed with woefully inadequate equipment and operating under severe budget constraints.  A lot of these agencies have also had their primary mission of goal of doing what is in the best interest of the child changed into preserving the family.

Employees of these agencies are in a noble, if thankless, pursuit: The preservation of a child’s life.  These employees work long, stressful hours and are often on call 24/7 for extremely low pay.  Facing high caseloads (in Arizona, the caseload for each “caseworker” monitoring families is 31 while those monitoring children is 26 which is 60% above state standards) and heartbreaking cases, there is a high turnover rate.  Continued budget cuts only threaten to exacerbate these trends.

Legislators (especially conservatives) love to hate child protection agencies.  They see these agencies as being threats to families and specifically to parental rights.  These legislators are the one who changed the mission from doing what’s in the best interest of the child into preservation of the family.  They also see such agencies as easy targets for budget cuts.  But no matter how many constraints they put on such agencies, legislators never take responsibility for the inevitable deaths that occur.

These agencies will never be perfect, but we can work toward making them more perfect.  We can start by increasing funding to hire more caseworkers (including increasing pay and benefits).  We can also increase funding to purchase needed equipment and software for caseworkers to better access information and track cases.  More money won’t be able to do it all though.  We also need legislators to stop thinking of child protection agencies as the enemy and instead as a much needed safeguard for the least among us.

The constant demonization of child protection agencies does no one any good, especially when legislators are more at fault for an at-risk child’s death than they care to admit.  Legislators need to understand that when they cut any part of the social safety net, they put more strain on child protection agencies.  When they cut the budgets of child protection agencies on top of cutting parts of the social safety net, they set up situations where more children will die.  Children who could have been saved.

If the Arizona Republic notes, in a rare moment of conscience, that we need to “respect the problem”, you know the issue is grave.  The question is: Will the Arizona Legislature do right by the children in need of protecting or will they kick the can down the road and allow more senseless child deaths to occur on their watch?

I weep for our children as this is Arizona and our legislature is not known for doing the right thing.

Arizona Republicans: Destroying Arizona One Law At A Time

Elected Republicans in Arizona have done a lot of damage over the years.  Besides constantly cutting taxes they have:

Cut off new enrollment for adults without children in the state’s Medicaid program AHCCCS.

Voted against extending unemployment benefits to be paid for by the Federal government.

Created quasi-private “charter” schools in the name of “school choice”.

Created tax credits for those who donate to “scholarship funds” for private and parochial schools.

Enacted the infamous “living while brown” law known as SB1070.

Raided special funds of the Department of Transportation, forcing the closure of Arizona’s rest stops.

Raided special funds of the State’s park department forcing the closure of most of the state parks.

Sold off the state capital buildings in a complex lease-buy-back scheme.

Cut public school funding.

And that’s just some of the damage that elected Republicans have done to Arizona.  But Republicans aren’t content with the damage they have done.  Now that they face the prospect of losing their death grip on the Arizona legislature this November, they are hell bent inflicting even more damage upon Arizona.

One state legislator has introduced a bill requiring public schools to offer as an elective a course on the Bible and its influence on Western society.  Another legislator has introduced a bill requiring that a class devoted to the “free markets” be passed in order for a student to graduate from public schools.  Yet another legislator has proposed increasing the tax credit given to those who donate to private and parochial school “scholarship funds”.  It should be noted that the same legislator is the head of such an “scholarship” organization.

Speaker Andy Tobin is pushing to have his secretly designed redistricting maps approved by voters in a special election.  Other legislators are pushing to put up for vote the elimination of the AIRC and to allow the legislature once again to determine redistricting maps.

Now the Republicans want to strip all public employees at every level of government in the state of their right to collectively bargain.  It is not enough that Arizona is a so called “right to work” state.  No, they want to destroy the last major unions in the state, the public unions.  Firefighters, police, teachers, etc would all be disallowed from collectively bargain.  Plus, union dues could no longer be automatically deducted from their paychecks.

Elected Republicans know that any damage they do before the elections this November won’t be easily repaired or reversed, if at all.  They know that because constitutionally it takes a super majority of both house of the legislature for any tax increase, that their tax cuts will stand.  They know that because taxes can’t be reversed that their cuts to public education and the social safety net will stand.

So, the damage will continue and the future of Arizona isn’t looking so good.

Arizona Bully of 2011 Nominee: Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio

Arizona Bully of 2011 Nominee Councilman Sal DiCiccio

Being able to play nice with others is the hallmark of any good politician.  Trying to circumvent your fellow city council members who won’t agree to your demands by asking the state legislature to force the city to do what you want is the sign of a pure bully.  In 2011, Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio did just that in his attempts to have all services provided by the City of Phoenix privatized.  Councilman DiCiccio is a big fan of privatization of city services and was able to get the Republican dominated Arizona Legislature to contemplate bills requiring Tucson and Phoenix to put any expenditure over a certain dollar amount for “competitive bidding”.  Luckily the bills both died, but I am sure they will be resurrected in the coming session.

If Councilman DiCiccio’s attempts to circumvent the Phoenix City Council weren’t bullying enough, The Arizona Republic reports that Councilman DiCiccio wants to take “pay raises and bonuses” off the table for upcoming contract negotiations with city employees.  He wants to do that by voting on parts of the city’s Fiscal Year 2012-2013 budget before negotiations begin.

Congratulations Councilman DiCiccio, you are an Arizona Bully of 2011 nominee!

Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn: Expanded Thoughts

As I wrote last night, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to deny standing in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn.  The Court didn't rule in the merits of the case, as it hadn't gone to trial yet, but instead punted hard and made it virtually impossible for tax payers to bring law suits against a government for programs that they disagree with on the basis of being a tax payer.

I despise the dollar for dollar tax credit (up to $1000 for families) for those who "donate" to organizations that are supposed to provide "scholarships" to those attending private and parochial schools.  At a cost to Arizona tax payers of around $95 million a year, while funding to public schools is being slashed, its not only a waste of money but an unconstitutional subsidy to religious schools.  In Arizona it is actually part of our state's constitution that the government cannot provide funding to religious schools.

The Arizona legislature seems to have found a work around the prohibition and the U.S. Supreme Court has made sure that no one can challenge it in the courts.  So here is a question: Would the five conservative justices have punted by denying standing if the Arizona legislature was instead using tax credits to provide funding to LAMBDA Legal?  Would they even have taken the case after the 9th Circuit ruled that those bringing the suit had standing?

The 9th Circuit, in their ruling, made it very clear that the plaintiffs in A.C.S.T.O. v. Winn would most likely win the case on the merits if the suit were allowed to go forward.  But the Roberts Five couldn't allow that to happen, because then they would have to rule on the actual merits and I think even they would be hard put to find a constitutional way to support the Arizona tax credit law.  That is why they punted so hard using the issue of standing.

This ruling will also embolden the Arizona legislature to expand the tax credit program at the expense of public schools.  It will also embolden conservative legislators across the nation to mimic the program in their own states.  Public education and tax payers will be the losers and the only way to stop it is for liberals to control the various legislatures.  In Arizona, there is a better chance for Pima County to secede from the state than for liberals to take control of the legislature.  But one can hope and one can also hope that the makeup of the Court will change soon.

Arizona Legislature's Continued War on the Poor and Middle Class

The Republicans in control of the Arizona Legislature have fired another salvo in their continuing war on the poor and middle class.  According to the Arizona Republic:

If Arizona shifts to a one-size-fits-all income tax, it would raise taxes for 88 percent of Arizona filers while cutting them for the 12 percent with a taxable income of more than $100,000 a year, a legislative analysis shows.

It wasn't enough that the legislature instituted a corporate welfare plan that will cost $538 million a year while wanting to eliminate the state's Medicaid program, now they want to cut taxes for the state's wealthiest 12% while raising taxes on the other 88%.  It wasn't enough that they want to demonize those on food stamps, but they also want to increase taxes by an average of $200 on those making less than $100,000 per year.

In fact, those making less than $10,000 per year (which makes up 15% of the population) will pay $56.9 million more in taxes while those making $5 million (0.01% of the population) or more per year will see a tax cut of $67.2 million.  Couple that with the states over reliance on sales taxes, the poor and middle class will be contributing a larger portion of their incomes in taxes to give tax cuts to the wealthy.

This is just one more weapon conservatives will use in their war.  Do we need any more evidence that this is a war?  Do we need any more evidence we need to increase our efforts to vote true liberals to office?

The War On Public Education

There is a many fronted war being waged on public education here in the United States.  The war is being raged by social conservatives on school boards, in city councils and state legislatures across the nation.  The war is also being waged by those are thinking of being the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

Why is this war on public education being waged?  I believe it is because social conservatives prefer that only the privileged few should be allowed an education.  I also believe that they see public education as a danger to their warped ideology.  That is why the Texas Board of Education approved a complete rewrite of their textbooks that deemphasize or eliminate historical figures and movements that aren’t “conservative” enough in their blinded eyes.

That is why Kansas became the laughing stock of the world when its state school board made the concept of creationism take precedence over evolution in their science classes.  That is why Congressman Ron Paul, Congresswoman Michelle Bachman and the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, Herman Cain, all spoke out against public education at a convention for those show support home schooling.

That is why the Arizona State Legislature is gutting funding to public schools and to the state’s universities and community colleges while giving tax cuts to corporations.  That is why Arizona allows individuals and corporations to receive tax credits for “donating” to “scholarship funds” that benefit only private and parochial schools.  That is why Arizona State Attorney General Tom Horne and State Superintendent of Schools John Huppenthal are targeting the Tucson Unified School District over their ethnic studies classes.

Social conservatives don’t want the public to be educated, unless they can afford it.  They don’t want the public to be educated unless they are to be indoctrinated into believing in social conservative ideals.  They also know that an uneducated workforce means lower wages for the vast majority of Americans while the privileged few reap the bounty.

There used to be a time when public education was cherished in this nation.  Those days are gone and the war wages on.  A war with many battlefronts and with no possibility of truce.  No, this war must be won and it must be won by those who believe in a strong public education system.  The social conservatives cannot be allowed to win this war for should they win, this nation will become the theocratic fascist nation we all should fear.

Arizona State Senate Committee Abolishes Medicaid / AHCCCS Program

The adherents of Grover Norquist in the Arizona Senate have escalated the war on the poor and the working poor by voting to abolish Arizona's Medicaid program, AHCCCS.  After 1:00 am on Wednesday morning, the Senate's Appropriation Committee voted 8 to 5 to eliminate AHCCCS and divert the monies to the general fund for other programs.

As I have noted before, Governor Brewer would like to kick up to 300 thousand men, women and children out of AHCCCS in order to provide $538 million a year in new corporate welfare.  Now Senator Andy Biggs (R-Gilbert) has dropped a dirty bomb on the people of Arizona that will eliminate not only health care coverage for the poor and working poor, but it will also eliminate $7.5 billion in matching federal funding.  That is $7.5 billion that the Arizona can ill afford to lose.

This measure is catastrophic to Arizona.  Rural hospitals will be forced to close.  Remaining hospitals will see their emergency rooms fill up and their finances destroyed as those formally in AHCCCS will be forced to seek the much more costly alternative.  This is not to mention the businesses that will refuse to expand or move to Arizona.  Hell, we will be lucky if businesses chose to remain in Arizona if AHCCCS were eliminated.

As much as people like Senator Biggs would like to claim their elimination of AHCCCS is about saving Arizona money, the reality is that it fits their ideology like a glove.  I truly believe that they only want government for the protection of corporations and those that can afford it.  Contrary to that ideology, I believe government is there to protect all of us, especially those who can't afford it.

The Fucked Up Arizona Legislature

As I have written before, Maricopa County government is a dysfunctional mess.  I have also written about my proposal to fix the problem.  I know that I am but one voice among so many, but what the hell does the Arizona Legislature think they are doing even contemplating requiring county boards to give lump sums of tax payer monies to the departments of elected officials without any oversight authority.

Instead of dealing with the State of Arizona's budget issues, the Arizona Legislature is instead providing cover to their two favorite sons, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County and Sheriff Paul Babeau of Pinal County.  Both of these sheriffs have had budget fights with their respective county boards and both are champions of draconian anti-illegal immigrant policies.

That doesn't excuse the reckless micromanaging by county governments and it certainly doesn't excuse their total disregard of the voters.  We don't vote for the legislators to deal with county issues, we vote for county supervisors to do so.  We don't vote for the legislators to give political cover to sheriffs who can't operate within the oversight of the county boards.

What we need is real reform of our county governments, not this political mockery of the voters.  Too bad the Arizona Legislature is too fucked up to realize that.

Arizona: The Grand Nut Job State

As reported by my friends over at the Phoenix New Times, today the Arizona Senate makes war on all human beings and the United States Constitution.  Senate President Russell Pearce and his allies are bound and determined to rebrand Arizona as the Grand Nut Job State.  For you Buffy fans, think of the Arizona State House as being on the Hellmouth and Senator Pearce is the First Evil.

One bill being "debated" today will be in direct contradiction to the 14th Amendment regarding birthright citizenship.  Another bill will require employees of hospitals to become immigration agents, while another bill will force students to prove that they are U.S. citizens.  Let's not forget the bill to eliminate the state Medicaid program, ACCCHS.

Arizona has a legitimate image problem and today isn't going to help.  Of course, this is designed to divert attention away from Arizona's self-inflicted budget deficit and the fact that the Republicans only plan to "balance" the budget is on the backs of the poor and working poor while diverting hundreds of millions for more corporate welfare.

Today is going to be a dark day in Arizona that will be felt nationwide.

Stop Saying We Are Broke

Now that the Arizona Legislature has passed $538 million a year in new corporate welfare, can we stop saying that Arizona is broke?  The argument for the last few years has been that we need to cut state spending because we don't have the money to balance our budget.  In fact, that was the argument used when Governor Brewer sought a waiver to cut $540 a million a year from the state's Medicaid program, ACCCHS.

Saying we are broke is a lie.  Our state has revenue shortfalls primarily due to our over reliance on sales taxes and our constant cutting of other taxes such as property and income.  Of course, those that lie about the state being broke while shoveling out corporate welfare are the same ones who lie about tax cuts paying for themselves.  The myth that tax cuts somehow generate more revenue for the state is perpetuated by those who have sworn allegiance to Grover Norquist and his "starve the beast" scheme.

In fact, the adherents of Grover Norquist have also sworn to not raise taxes.  In Arizona that's an easy promise to make as it takes a 3/4ths majority of both house of the legislature to raise taxes and only a simple majority to cut taxes.  They keep braying that people don't want higher taxes, which is another lie, since the voters of Arizona approved a temporary 1 cent increase in the sales tax for three years to help prevent cuts in education and other programs.

No, Arizona isn't broke, its just run by a bunch of mental midgets who have sworn their allegiance to Grover Norquist and his Milton Friedman ideals.

Let Them Eat Cake - The Second Helping

You can read the original Let Them Eat Cake here.

Courtesy of Fratelli Studios

It didn’t take long for Governor Brewer and the Republican controlled legislature to strike a deal to give more subsidies to corporations on the backs of Arizona’s poor and working poor.  If you remember, Governor Brewer has proposed dropping almost 300 thousand men, women and children from the Arizona’s Medicaid (ACCCHS) rolls in order to cut $540 million from the budget.  Not surprisingly, the new corporate welfare bill will cost an estimated $538 million a year.

WHAT THE FUCK?!  Arizona can afford to give out $538 million a year in tax breaks, tax cuts and other corporate “incentives” yet it can’t afford $540 million a year to make sure that 300 thousand men, women and children don’t go without non-emergency room medical care?  Are we as a state that callous that we would throw that many people to the wolves in order to give more corporate welfare in the name of “job creation”?

Arizona already has some of the lowest corporate income and property taxes in the nation.  We are one of the most business friendly states and one of the most worker unfriendly be an “at will” and “right to work” state.  Maybe we are spending on all of this money on corporations because we can’t entice them here any other way.  I mean, why would a corporation want to invest in creating jobs in a state that doesn’t value public education, public transportation or a social safety net?

Then again, there will be corporations that will jump at the opportunity to partake in corporate welfare at the expense of 300 thousand men, women and children.  Those corporations will wallow in the state’s largesse and provide very little in return.  Those corporations will gladly say, “Let them eat cake”.

An Open Letter to Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio

Mr. DiCiccio,

I understand that being the pockets of businesses is par for the course in American politics.  In fact, its a time honored tradition.  But the latest move by you is the worst form of corporate ass kissing I have seen in a long time.  I am speaking of course about your attempt to end run the Phoenix city council by going to the Arizona Legislature to force the city to privatize most of its services and to dictate what the city can offer for wages and benefits to its public employees.  That's pretty bold for someone who wasn't even elected to the city council, but was appointed.

I understand that you believe that privatization is the most efficient way for the City of Phoenix to deliver services, but I believe privatization to be nothing more than a diversion of limited city resources and corporate welfare of the highest order.  Currently, out of an operating budget of $3.5 billion, $425 million is paid to corporations to operate certain city services such as public transit.

I am sure that you have a lot of friends who are investors, company heads or owners that would like the majority of the city's budget paid out to them.  But you have been rebuffed by the seven others sitting on the city council.  You can't help your corporate friends if your city council members won't play ball, right?  So what's a person who doesn't play with others do?  He finds the biggest bully around and gets them to do his dirty work for him, the Arizona Republican controlled Legislature.  That is what you have done and its rather shameful, because I have no doubt they will do the dirty work for you.  Too bad its the residents of Phoenix who get screwed by this deal.

Its too bad that you don't actually care about the people of Phoenix, only your corporate buddies.

Sincerely,

Phoenix Justice