AZ Policy Wonk

The bill moratorium is over, but senators still filed fewer bills this year than they did last year.

This year, 443 bills were filed in the Senate before the Feb. 1 deadline. The House still has another week before representatives are cut off.

That’s down from the 469 bills that were filed in the before the Senate’s deadline last year, while Senate President Bob Burns was enforcing a ban on non-budget bills. The moratorium was lifted this year, but it was replaced by a stern warning to introduce only bills that were of the highest priority.

Apparently, the senators listened.

Normally, the bill totals in the Senate are around 500. In 2008, for instance, 505 bills were filed before the deadline.

Everyone knows, however, that the bill deadlines don’t mean much. Bills that aren’t going anywhere can be re-written as strike-through amendments, and that happens quite a bit. And the Senate president or speaker of the House can give special permission to file bills after the deadline, which happens often when budget bills are introduced.

In any case, lawmakers were more prolific in at least one category this year: They’ve filed more memorials and resolutions than normal. This year, there are 70 memorials and resolutions in the Senate. That compares to the 52 miscellaneous bills filed last year and the 51 miscellaneous bills in 2008.

The Senate is back in full gear today, trying to make up for lost time on non-budget bills. After working the past two Fridays, the chamber seems intent on finishing work on at least some of the measures that have sat idle for the past five months. Something like 80 bills up for third-reads today.

Also, the House is planning to COW and third-read a bill this afternoon that would allow Tucson to create a special taxing district to pay for spring training facilities, which would allow the city, presumably, to continue hosting pre-season baseball. But the bill might not mean diddly since the Rockies and Diamondbacks both have indicated they want to leave Tucson and are pursuing options with other host cities.

Then, there’s the deadline for the governor to file her arguments to the Arizona Supreme Court by the end of the day. The Legislature waited until the last minute before it’s deadline Friday to file its arguments, and the governor is likely to do the same. So, we’re planning on getting our hands on that paperwork late this afternoon. What her office files, however, probably won’t surprise anyone, since Gov. Brewer already has outlined her arguments to the public.

That’s some of what’s on tap for the rest of Monday. As for tomorrow, we hear there’s likely to be discussion in the House Government Committee on a measure sponsored by Sen. Jack Harper that would permit the state to send a recommendation to Congress that the United States should pull out of the United Nations. Should be interesting, anyway…