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Legislative leaders have a plan to get rid of school inflation funding
Republican legislative leaders want to repeal a voter-approved law requiring that lawmakers annually adjust K-12 education funding to account for inflation, arguing that keeping up with the inflation increases year after year is unsustainable.
Senate GOP: Texts related to govt. business not public records
Arizona Senate Republicans refuse to turn over text messages between President Andy Biggs and other leaders regarding government business because the caucus does not consider the records public.
No agreement on how to make a session special
Several sources say that a special session for education funding is likely to occur by the end of the calendar year, and perhaps as soon as next month. What would be debated in that session is less clear, as sources told our reporter that Ducey and Biggs are the driving forces behind that discussion and are still at odds over what lawmakers would consider.
Douglas proposes $400 million for schools from state surplus, rainy day fund
Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas offered a plan today to pump $400 million a year into schools for teacher pay.
Superior Court judge upholds Brewer’s Medicaid expansion
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge upheld former Gov. Jan Brewer’s 2013 Medicaid expansion plan, ruling that a hospital assessment that funds the program is not subject to a provision in the Arizona Constitution that requires a two-thirds vote in the Legislature for a tax increase.
Despite pleas and promises, state can’t deliver on school funding settlement
Before leaving office, former Gov. Jan Brewer urged Arizona lawmakers to settle a nearly $2 billion dispute over inflation funding for K-12 education. Gov. Doug Ducey, in his State of the State address in January, pleaded with lawmakers to settle the case as well.
Senate President Lesko?
The career path for Lesko does not necessarily lead to the Corp Comm – at least not immediately, a Capitol railbird told our reporter yesterday. The source said there is a very short list of senators who can succeed Biggs as Senate President, and Lesko sits atop it.
Yes, you paid $250,000 for that
Biggs expressed some buyer’s remorse after reading an audit of Dept of Child Safety conducted by the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, which the Auditor General had picked for the job.
Pension reform coming, but how remains unsettled
Firefighters have been working with Biggs and Lesko on a plan to reform PSPRS, and hope to push a constitutional amendment in 2016 – the only question is whether lawmakers will send the amendment to the ballot or whether the firefighters will have to dip into their own funds to launch an initiative campaign.
With any luck, we’ll know on Monday
With the US Supreme Court’s redistricting ruling looming in Arizona’s political foreground, one railbird with knowledge of the situation said Biggs and Gowan plan to call a bipartisan joint legislative committee to start drafting maps and collecting public comment, should the court rule in the Legislature’s favor.
Absence makes the rumor mill spin faster
Farley said he suspects it was no accident that Biggs and Gowan were no-shows at Ducey’s press conference last week to announcing his land trust reform plans, and neither is their silence on the issue since the announcement
In 155 pages, Biggs fights back against conservative critics
State Senate President Andy Biggs has been called a RINO and a clown, and even compared to Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, all for opposing an Article V Convention.
