The Daily Agenda: They're baaaack!

A short primer for a short workweek ... Not your grandpa's dirty tricks ... And setting the record straight 32 years later.

Lawmakers are back in town for a brief, two-day workweek that is supposed to herald a deal to extend the critical Prop 400, an expiring sales tax for roads in Maricopa County.

But that doesn’t look likely. 

Instead, we may get a revival of the “tamale bill,” a fix to the water situation in Rio Verde Foothills, a compromise on housing and a whole bunch of sure-to-be-vetoed bills. Then we get to look forward to doing it all over again in August. 

But there’s going to be a lot of action packed into these two days of lawmaking. 

So today, we prepared a primer to the first epilogue of Arizona’s 56th Legislature’s first regular session. 

Here’s what you need to know:

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Prop 400

Lawmakers and Gov. Katie Hobbs are now sniping at each other online and in the press as negotiations appear to have fully broken down on an extension to Prop 400. 

Perhaps all this fighting will lead to a breakthrough, but we’re not holding our breaths. 

Over the weekend, Republic columnist Laurie Roberts got the scoop on the governor’s¹ latest offering: Adding more money for freeways while stripping any money for extending the light rail (but keeping a small percent for maintenance). That formula change is among the “30 concessions made in an effort to get the legislative go-ahead to put the proposal on the ballot,” Roberts notes. 

After Republican leaders rejected that proposal, Hobbs fired up the Twitter machine, accusing them of holding the state’s economy hostage, which sparked a round of trash talking from Republican leaders. House Speaker Ben Toma told the Republic’s Ray Stern that he doesn’t appreciate the governor’s tone and said the House is “prepared to move a more efficient alternative on Monday."

"It'll either happen Monday or Tuesday, or it won't ever — at least not in this session," Toma told Stern.

Housing

The kind of sweeping housing reform that Sen. Steve Kaiser envisioned at the beginning of the year isn’t happening, but a watered-down compromise package should be coming to a vote Monday that advocates say will help reduce the skyrocketing cost of housing in Arizona. 

The deal allows for more backyard tiny homes, some density incentives for developers who include affordable housing along the light rail, and it would require cities to create zoning for duplexes, smaller lots or mobile homes if they don’t already allow them. It would also reform state laws that require city councils to get a supermajority vote to approve a project if at least 20% of neighbors object, the Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie reports. The new rules only apply to cities with populations above 50,000. 

And although these reforms are rather milquetoast compared to the ones Kaiser originally proposed, they’re broadly popular, according to new polling from a pro-reform group. 

Ethics

The House Ethics Committee delivered its report on #BibleGate on Friday, unanimously concluding that Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton engaged in “disorderly behavior” by hiding bibles as a prank and/or protest. 

Lawmakers will likely give her a censure when they return. But don’t expect much more than a slap on the wrist — expelling her would take two-thirds of lawmakers in the House, and it’s highly unlikely nine Democrats would vote to kick her out. 

Meanwhile, we won’t be surprised if the Ethics Committee has a new complaint to deal with upon the Legislature’s return. House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci’s shady land deal has surely caught the attention of some of his colleagues.²

Water

A bill to allow Nestle to pump more groundwater by earning water storage credits for treating its wastewater at its planned massive plant in the West Valley is back on the agenda after stalling out this year. 

And Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin believes his bill to bring relief to residents of the “wildcat” division of Rio Verde Foothills may get a vote after Hobbs vetoed another attempt to fix the problem and said she preferred Kolodin’s bill instead. 

Tamales

Hobbs was reportedly none too pleased with Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez after the governor vetoed the “tamale bill.” Hernandez was one of the loudest Democratic voices criticizing the governor during the national news-making debacle.  

But after a lobbying firm took the duo out to dinner this weekend, it appears they’ve reached a deal on a new food deregulation bill, though it’s not clear if that’s coming this week. The tamale ladies and the right-wing think tanks that lobbied for the bill will be pleased. 

Future Vetoes

But mostly, the legislative calendars are packed with more future veto material: A bill banning taxing electric vehicles based on miles traveled (to replace gas taxes), a bill to allow counties to count elections by hand rather than machines, and a bill to curtail the governor’s authority to declare emergencies. 

Political spies set sights on Kelly: The FBI thinks a Wyoming-based political spy ring designed to infiltrate progressive groups targeted Sen. Mark Kelly and other politicians, the New York Times reports. Two years ago the Times first revealed the spying operation, which started in 2018 with some former Project Veritas employees, and now two people are facing subpoenas.

The answer is always more electioneering: Some judicial candidates in Arizona’s biggest counties may form campaign committees for the next election, as election denialism and political polarization rise, Kiera Riley reports for the Capitol Times. 

“Voters often pass through the list of judges running the length of the ballot without much thought, or often no thought at all, as evidenced by the Judicial Performance Review’s slogan ‘Finish the ballot.’ But the 2022 election saw a small handful of coordinated campaigns to oust judges over ideological differences. And some were successful,” Riley writes.

Semi-secret list of bad officers: Maricopa County Attorney’s Office keeps a second, internal list of police officers with histories of misconduct besides the county’s Brady List,” ABC15’s Dave Biscobing reports. MCAO calls it a “Tier 2 list” but defense attorneys call it an attempt to slow down the release of police misconduct records, Biscobing writes.

“(T)his is sensitive information and, as you know, it may be relevant in some cases and not in others,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell told Biscobing. 

The party of the Rule of Law: When the New York Times wrote about how “Trump Supporters’ Violent Rhetoric in His Defense Disturbs Experts,” Kari Lake took the top photo slot, thanks in part to a speech at a state Republican convention in Georgia declaring that if law enforcement officials want to get to Trump, “you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And … most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.” Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs declared on Twitter that we are in a “war phase” and the correct response is “an eye for an eye.”

Nailed it: Lake included a voter’s signature in a court filing, prompting lawyers for Maricopa County to scramble to keep it sealed, AZ Law reported. The county did it to protect Lake and her lawyers from criminal liability.

The final score: Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne’s hotline seeking anonymous complaints about teaching critical race theory in schools netted 30,000 crank calls and four potentially legitimate complaints that the superintendent could cite, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports.  

Gift is a state of mind: Arizona consistently gives away millions of dollars in the state budget to bolster horse racing, including $1 million in this year’s budget to Turf Paradise, raising questions if that violates the state constitution’s “gift clause,” the Republic’s Ray Stern writes.

Everyone’s belt is tightening: Scottsdale’s “road diet” construction on 68th Street has one local bakery on a “staff diet,” and it fired two people, its owner told the Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon. Construction is scheduled to be completed in October after it began early at the bakery owner’s request.

Paging Alfred Hitchcock: Hawks have recently attacked at least four people in southern Arizona, KVOA reports. The Arizona Department of Game and Fish warns that Cooper Hawks are feisty this time of year because their chicks are just being born, so give them some space.

It’s never too late to correct the spelling of your own name. 

Journalist Christopher Clarey tells the story about his first byline in the New York Times 32 years ago, and he finally corrects the record.

“Yet however flawed we, and journalism, may be, this churning, round-the-clock quest to get things right remains a worthy endeavor, especially when a powerful person does not want us to look into those things,” he writes.

1. Because of the unique set of laws surrounding Maricopa County referrals, the governor has veto power over the proposal before it goes to voters, which isn’t the case with most referenda.

2. Now seems like a good time to mention Biasiucci’s 2009 felony charges for computer tampering after he got fired from a hotel and erased their reservations. He ultimately pleaded it down to a misdemeanor with probation, which he later got wiped from his record.