The Capitol carnival

Free lunches and fennec foxes … Arizona Conflict of Interest Commission … And Lisa Borowsky is no Julius Caesar.

At the state Capitol building in Phoenix, there are snakes, and there are foxes.

No, this isn’t some deep political allegory.

It’s a lobbying tactic.

The Arizona Capitol lawn is kind of like the state’s lamest carnival — every day, groups set up tables and host events packed with attractions designed to grab the attention of lawmakers.

In this pitiful parade of public policy, the carnival barkers are lobbyists, special interests and activists, and the prizes are generally free lunches and photo ops with cute animals.

Step right up — free food and a live eagle! Don’t forget to vote for Salt River Project’s agenda!

Snuggle up for a pic with an adorable Moroccan fennec fox, sponsored by the pet store industry!

It’s not a bad strategy. Lawmakers love free food and photo ops.

You could spend the whole day just wandering around this sad circus of lobbying. And in fact, that’s kind of what we did yesterday.

The first stop, obviously, was the exotic animals — a spread of desert tortoises, boa constrictors, parrots and the most adorable little foxes you’ve ever seen.

Newspaper lobbyist John Moody outfoxes lawmakers.

The group sponsoring the event, Arizona United Animal Care and Business Coalition, represents animal breeders and pet stores that got tired of fending off attacks on their industry from animal rights groups. So they realized they had to start building relationships with lawmakers.

And what better way to do that than bribe them with cute animals?

It’s a tried and true tactic. We’ve seen everything from mini horses to full-sized donkeys on the Capitol lawn. They’re always a hit.

This year, the group successfully lobbied lawmakers to amend an animal cruelty bill, Senate Bill 1234, to ensure that animal owners don’t have to provide food “daily” to animals — a change they sought because snakes and other reptiles don’t actually eat daily.

---

Next stop is SRP’s lobbying day at the Capitol. SRP is one of Arizona’s largest companies, and it’s heavily regulated. As such, it has a sophisticated lobbying team packed with former House and Senate staffers.

Its event is one of the better lunches on the lawn each year, complete with catered food and a show (this year, the event fell on Saint Patrick’s Day, so the entertainment included a crew of school-aged Irish jig dancers). At one of the booths, SRP highlights its environmental protection efforts by showing off a juvenile Bald Eagle. Birds of prey can get caught in electrical equipment and die.

The event is worth the expense — SRP is fighting multi-million-dollar battles at the Capitol, from pushing resolutions supporting the Palo Verde nuclear power plant, which SRP co-owns, to legislation that would allow power companies to charge customers to cover the costs of retired or damaged utility assets, unrecovered fuel costs or costs from significant events like natural disasters.

Even those who generally don’t agree with SRP’s agenda will usually pop over for a quick bite of free food between hearings. Staffers are also invited since they can be critical to getting a bill heard, amended or killed.

A free lunch is a quick and easy way to get stakeholders at the table, literally, and keep them full and happy while plying for their votes and support.

---

But it’s not just lobbying groups looking for an audience on the Capitol lawn.

After grabbing a free meal, Republican lawmakers do some carnival barking themselves — assembling a gaggle of reporters to listen to their latest takedown of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ poor budgeting skills.

At most Capitol press conferences, lawmakers and staff outnumber the press.

This time, it’s the Department of Child Safety’ congregate care funding, which pays for shelters and group homes. The money will run out in a little more than two weeks, lawmakers recently learned when Hobbs requested an additional $6 million to keep the fund in the black for another month.¹

“This is another Hobbs budget crisis,” House Speaker Steve Montenegro tells what’s left of the once-mighty press corps. “Who waits until 19 days before bankruptcy to tell anyone about it? This is the peak of irresponsibility.”

More than a dozen lawmakers stand in the huddle, but they only take three or four questions before scurrying off to the day’s House and Senate floor sessions.

Nobody seems to think a budget deal is coming any time soon.

---

As lawmakers head to the House and Senate chambers to cast their votes on the day’s legislation, the lobbyists congregate in the newly reopened Capitol coffee shop, talking shop, cutting deals and keeping an eye on the TV screens showing the day’s hearings.

The gossip is mostly about whether legislative leaders will extend the deadline to hear House bills in Senate committees, and vice versa, for another week. Lobbyists are actively pushing the rumor that it may happen, hoping that if they talk the idea up enough, lawmakers might listen and give lobbyists one last chance to get their bills on a committee agenda.

However, most lawmakers we spoke to predictably don’t love the idea of dragging out the legislative carnival for another week.

Business as usual: A utility watchdog group says Arizona Corporation Commission Chair Kevin Thompson’s consulting business poses a direct conflict of interest to his role regulating utilities because his firm works with clients — including an engineering group that contracts with Southwest Gas — that could benefit from the decisions he makes on the commission, the Republic’s Joan Meiners reports. Thompson was also hit with an ethics complaint in 2023 for meeting with utility stockholders in New York. He said the purpose of that meeting was to “let them know that Arizona is a great place in which to invest.” The commission dismissed both complaints.

Closure: Arizona death row inmate Aaron Gunches is scheduled to be executed tomorrow for murder and kidnapping. It’ll be the state’s first execution in more than two years after a series of botched executions. The sister of Ted Price, the man he killed, is traveling here from the East Coast to witness the death, per 12News’ Troy Hayden.

"I feel like I have to see this through," said the sister, Karen Price. "I have to be there for Ted. Representing the family for this last action.”

At what cost?: Scottsdale is ending its Juneteenth celebrations and will no longer sponsor events for groups like the NAACP and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce after the Scottsdale City Council voted to get rid of its decades-old diversity, equity and inclusion office, KJZZ’s Katherine Davis-Young reports. All those cuts are estimated to save the city $115,000 a year.

Don’t dip our CHIPs: Arizona’s congressional delegation, including Republicans, don’t seem keen on repealing the CHIPS Act despite Trump’s calls to get rid of it, Axios’ Jessica Boehm writes. Arizona is one of the greatest benefactors of the act that provides grants and loans to semiconductor companies, and the Biden administration already solidified the agreements with most recipients here.

Federal funding under Trump is precarious, but we plan to stick around as long as you keep supporting us.

Checkups and checkpoints: Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers wants hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask patients if they’re U.S. citizens, per the Republic’s Stephanie Innes. SB1268 wouldn’t require physicians to report noncitizens, but it would require the Arizona Department of Health Services to put out quarterly reports on hospital patients' immigration status. The idea is to figure out how much Arizona’s hospitals are spending on healthcare for people here illegally.

Fur real: State Senators advanced a bill to prohibit manufacturers from selling cosmetic products tested on animals, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. That wouldn’t apply to animal testing conducted outside of the United States, and the testing would be allowed if a federal or state regulatory agency requests it.

Pick your police: The four candidates to take over as Phoenix’s new police chief will answer questions at a public forum at 5 p.m. tomorrow at Phoenix City Council Chambers, per KJZZ’s Chad Snow. Former Chief Jeri Williams retired in 2022, and one of the candidates, Michael Sullivan, has been the interim chief since then.

We told you that new Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky was sure to become a regular in our “What We’re Laughing At” section, and less than three months into her tenure, she’s not disappointing.

The Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon wrote a Shakespearean depiction of the “parkingate” drama unfolding in Scottsdale. Borowsky hosted public meetings with one of her campaign donors, David Hovey, pushing for a parking garage project that Hovey’s business came up with. The conflict of interest allegations flooded in.

Borowsky’s attorney Dennis Wilenchik then penned a 13-page letter accusing current and former City Council members of “a planned conspiracy … to maliciously damage and defame” the new mayor.

“This demand letter reads like Homer Simpson’s father yelling at squirrels to get off his lawn,” Councilmember Adam Kwasman said.

1. CORRECTION: We accidentally called it the Department of Child Services, instead of the the Department of Child Safety. Additionally, we should clarify that the request is for a $6 million transfer into the congregate care fund, rather than a new appropriation from the Legislature.