The Daily Agenda: $10k is $10k

The limitations of reality in a divided government ... UA finally takes some responsibility ... And the spoon is with Carl, we're sure of it.

The Arizona House yesterday gave tepid initial approval to a bill to hike teacher salaries by $10,000, though it probably doesn't matter anyway since the proposal appears to have little chance of making it into the budget. 

But the politics behind House Bill 2800 are interesting enough that it merits a closer look.

The bill was a central plank of freshman Republican Rep. Matt Gress’ campaign for the Legislature in a swing district in central Phoenix. The former gubernatorial budget director helped craft former Gov. Doug Ducey’s 20x2020 teacher pay increase plan. But just like with 20x2020, Democrats are trying to kill HB2800. 

Arizona House Democrats @AZHouseDems

House Democrats will fight for educator pay raises in a negotiated bi-partisan budget. But the GOP’s unworkable HB2800 is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing…a headline without a story.” Teachers Caucus members @lauraforAZ @Jennifer_Pawlik @nancygforAZ & @JudyForAZ break it all down.

Democrats have a litany of problems with the bill. Let’s start with the legitimate complaints: It could potentially leave schools in a worse fiscal position in the event of an economic downturn and more legislative cuts to school budgets, due to the provision stating that schools shall never drop salaries below what it will be post-raises. As we saw through the Great Recession, Republican lawmakers are more than willing to gut school funding when the times get tough.

Democrats also argue the bill has been loaded up with “school accountability” measures that are unnecessary, burdensome and have little to do with the underlying intent, other than to seemingly ensure that it can earn some level of support from the far-right flank of the Republican caucus, which is skeptical of awarding any funding to schools. And just like 20x2020, the plan only includes “teachers,” not other employees like nurses, bus drivers and counselors who are essential to schools.

But many of the Democratic complaints are contrived or disingenuous, more akin to political talking points than legitimate reasons to oppose a $10,000 teacher raise. 

For example, Democratic Reps. Judy Schweibert and Nancy Gutierrez, a former and current teacher, respectively, wrote in an opinion piece for the Arizona Capitol Times that the bill doesn’t provide ongoing funding — it only provides two years of money with an intent clause saying it should be ongoing funding. They noted that the bill doesn’t lift the school spending cap and that the state doesn’t have enough money to pay for the $700 million increase because Gress didn’t identify a funding source or cuts. 

Instead, they point to their own bill, HB2779, which would provide a $1.2 billion increase to school base funding for one year. However, just like Gress’ bill, HB2779 states the money should be ongoing, though the bill doesn’t identify a funding source or cuts. And just like Gress’ bill, HB2779 doesn’t lift the school funding cap.  

AZ Education Assoc. 🍎🏫 @ArizonaEA

AZ State House debating #HB2800. @nancygforAZ nails it: there is NO ongoing funding to pay for HB2800. When the budget surplus disappears, the funding for these supposed raises will disappear too. This bill is a political stunt, not a serious effort to raise pay.

It’s a rehash of criticisms of 20x2020. Back then, the RedForEd movement and teacher strikes pushed Ducey from the 2% raise he originally sought, and the 4% raise Legislative Democrats wanted, into championing a 20% raise. But the school groups and Democrats were never going to praise Ducey for the huge increase. That’s just politics. They instead claimed it was a bait-and-switch or critiqued the proposal’s sustainability, arguments that have not aged well.

“Without a new, dedicated and sustainable revenue source, this proposal for a pay increase for educators will not be sustainable through 2021,” Rebecca Rios, the House Democratic leader, said at the time. 

Back then, just like now, Democrats wanted more. That’s understandable. Our education system faces huge challenges, including recovering from a decade of financial starvation brought on by Republican lawmakers. They’re fighting for more in the budget.

But Democrats are not in control at the Capitol, and more is not realistically on the table this year. Gress’ plan is likely the best proposal for teachers, schools and students that could actually stand a chance at the Capitol. It’s not perfect, but it is a huge raise. Even if you believe that the money won’t be there in three years, it’s hard to imagine working teachers balking at a $10,000 increase for the time being.

Far-right Republicans, of course, are also trying to kill the bill. Without Democrats’ support, it almost certainly won’t make it into the budget. And when the Democrats, the teachers’ unions and school groups start aligning with the MAGA crowd that doesn’t want to fund schools at all over the flank of the GOP that wants to give teachers a $10,000 raise, it’s probably time to reassess their positions.

Damning: An outside report showed that the University of Arizona missed multiple opportunities to prevent the fatal shooting of professor Thomas Meixner on campus last year, 12News’ Kevin Reagan reports. The investigators suggested 33 ways to improve safety, which the university said it will work to implement. Meanwhile, Meixner’s family filed a notice of claim, a precursor to a potential lawsuit, seeking $9 million for the professor’s death, citing the university’s failure to intervene to protect Meixner in the leadup to the shooting, Arizona Public Media’s Paola Rodriguez reports. 

Sure, but how?: A Maricopa County judge sided with business owners over the City of Phoenix in a lawsuit brought by the businesses near “The Zone,” the homeless encampment in downtown Phoenix. Judge Scott Blaney said the city had failed to maintain peace and order in the area and arbitrarily enforced laws, creating a hazard to residents. The judge’s order calls on the city to “abate the nuisance” in the area, though it’s not clear how. The city can’t legally enforce anti-camping laws because of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, since there aren’t enough shelter beds here. The judge also said the city can’t order a business in the area, Phoenix Kitchens, to remove its weird dinosaur sculptures until the Zone is cleaned up. The city has until July 10 to show improvements.

“The City of Phoenix shall maintain its public property in the Zone in a condition free of (a) tents and other makeshift structures in the public rights of way; (b) biohazardous materials including human feces and urine, drug paraphernalia, and other trash; and (c) individuals committing offenses against the public order,” Blaney wrote.

The facts behind the tweet: Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh, who’s still fighting his electoral loss in court, spread a story claiming a voter had been unable to cast a ballot in Maricopa County. It turns out that voter was actually registered in another county, which triggered his registration in Maricopa County to be canceled, Votebeat’s Jen Fifield reports. The incident shows how voters can confuse their registration status because of a 2020 settlement that changed how the state manages voter registration when people get new licenses. 

Jeanne Casteen @JeanneCasteen

I want a legislator who presents legislation that will allow me to claim my dog as a dependent.

Unintended consequences: An attempt to limit gubernatorial powers by asking voters to require lawmakers to approve a governor’s emergency declarations every 30 days would affect dozens of ongoing disasters currently under a declaration, Bob Christie writes for Capitol Media Services. There are now 41 open declarations, and half of them are more than a decade old. They cover topics like drought, search and rescue issues and the border crisis. In some cases, the statewide emergency declaration is tied to federal funding for a disaster. 

New trade offices just dropped: Arizona will open trade offices in Taipei, Taiwan and Seoul, South Korea, adding to the trade offices now in Mexico, Israel and Germany, the Arizona Capitol Times’ Nick Phillips reports. Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the new offices last week, saying they will help build and maintain relationships between the state and Asia in the tech sector. The semiconductor business in Arizona, in particular, is booming, with Taiwan-based TSMC’s expansion. Another company, South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, just announced plans to quadruple the size of a battery factory here, the New York Times reports. 

Last year’s problems: The Arizona State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers is set to expire at the end of this month, though it’s not clear where the board’s duties will land, leaving consumers and the funeral industry without oversight, the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl reports. A bill ended the board last year after audits found problems with its work, but last year’s Legislature didn’t set up a place for those duties to exist going forward. One bill this year would put the jobs under the Arizona Department of Health Services, but it’d be months before that could legally happen, if the bill even passes. 

Ray Stern @raystern

Arizona Sen. Wendy Rogers and her former staffer, Michael Polloni, have settled a wrongful termination lawsuit Polloni launched in '21 after claiming he "was bullied, harassed, and humiliated during his employment by Sen. Rogers." Polloni, his lawyer & Rogers aren't talking.

Warn first: The newly appointed Department of Public Safety director said using tear gas on protestors is essentially a “use of force,” so anything else to disperse people should be used first, according to the Arizona Capitol Times’ Wayne Schutsky. Jeff Glover made the comments while discussing an incident last year where DPS used tear gas on abortion rights protestors after the Dobbs decision without first warning them to leave. Glover said DPS had reviewed that incident but he would take a look at it again himself.

Everyone has an opinion: After the owners of Old Station Subs were profiled in the New York Times for facing endless struggles with their business’ proximity to the large downtown Phoenix homeless encampment, the Republic’s editorial board asks whether city and state elected officials would actually work to do more to address homelessness if their livelihoods were tied up in the area. Elsewhere in the editorial pages, columnist Phil Boas opines that marijuana should not ever be considered medicinal.

New name, same historic site: Phoenix’s Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, an outdoor area with important sites for the Hohokam people and their irrigation systems, was renamed to S’edav Va’aki, an O’odham name, KJZZ’s Matthew Casey reports. The name “refers to the large platform mound (Va'aki) that is preserved at the site, and the central location of this ancestral village within the Salt River Valley and to the extensive canal system created by these exceptional engineers before Euro-Americans moved into the region,” the city said. 

Shafeeq @Y2SHAF

i still think people are too casual about the fact that parrots can talk

Rage against the roads: Two meetings of the Scottsdale City Council this month erupted with “road diet rage” from drivers who opposed plans to shrink city streets to add more bike lanes, ideas that are supported by transportation advocates but inspire heated opposition from people who hate the idea of “road diets,” the Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon reports. 

Big money: The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee plans to spend big on key races in the Arizona House and Senate next year in hopes of flipping the chambers to Democratic control as part of its nationwide strategy to defend and expand Dems’ influence in statehouses, Politico reports. DLCC’s strategy memo for 2024 can be found here, and the group says it’s aiming for a $60 million cycle.  

A pattern: The charges against George Alan Kelly for shooting and killing a Mexican man near the U.S.-Mexico border call to mind other instances of similar shootings along the border over the years, which “show how violence has been part of the border going as far back to the Mexican Revolution,” the Republic’s Daniel Gonzalez and José Ignacio Castañeda Perez report.

The reporter on the bus goes round and round: The Arizona Daily Star’s Tim Steller rode the city’s now-free buses around town, interviewing other riders about the potential that the Tucson City Council will end the funding that made the free rides possible since the beginning of the pandemic. Fares only make up about $9 million, or less than 10% of Sun Tran’s budget, but the city is having trouble talking the University of Arizona or other partners into paying for it.