The Daily Agenda: Today is the big day(?)

Politicians say they struck a deal ... Horne goes all Hoffman on us ... And you cannot, unfortunately, eat the memories.

As longtime observers of Arizona’s political scene, we’ve seen plenty of unlikely deals miraculously come together at the last minute and plenty of sure things blow up for no good reason. 

But what we’re seeing with the Prop 400 extension plan is more like a sure thing that appears to be miraculously coming together at the last minute.

Lawmakers are returning to the Capitol tomorrow to — maybe, depending on who you believe and how much you believe them — pass a compromise deal to approve a restructured Prop 400 extension. 

The exact details of the plan are still sketchy and subject to change. But Bob Christie has a good breakdown of the current finer points for Capitol Media Services. Essentially, Republicans got more money for roads and freeways and less for the Light Rail. 

And as we predicted, moving the Light Rail stop away from the Capitol is a key component of the alleged deal. Never underestimate how much politicians’ petty personal annoyances drive public policy. 

https://arizonaagenda.substack.com/p/the-daily-agenda-lets-make-a-deal

Another key provision of the proposed deal is a quid pro quo between Hobbs and Republican leaders: If they put the Prop 400 deal up for a vote, she has to sign a bill to prohibit cities from charging rental taxes. The bill would save renters in Phoenix about 2%, assuming landlords actually pass on that savings to renters. But it would cost cities somewhere around $150 million in taxes.¹

The deal, if it can be called that, has been a long time coming. 

It has been more than a year since Gov. Doug Ducey issued a surprise veto on a bipartisan proposal that would have sent an extension of the Maricopa County sales tax for transportation to the ballot. That tax is critical, not only to the Valley but to rural Arizona, since without it, the greater Phoenix metro area would have to rely on the same federal grants that prop up rural Arizona infrastructure. 

But with turnover in the Governor’s Office and the Legislature, simply sending the bill that Ducey had signed back to Gov. Katie Hobbs wasn’t an option. 

Instead, lawmakers this year attempted to extract more concessions, including sending more money to freeways and less to public transportation, including the Light Rail, and a bold move attempting to kill off Light Rail funding entirely by splitting the tax extension into two separate questions on the 2024 ballot — one for freeways and one for Light Rail. 

Essentially, business Republicans were in the driver’s seat when negotiating for the 2022 measure, and this year, the Freedom Caucus types have been leading the charge. And as a result, negotiations have largely been stuck in the mud — until, perhaps, now. 

Legislators, the Governor’s Office and stakeholders have been sending mixed signals about whether the deal is actually a done deal or not. Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen has been the most bullish, while others are apparently less convinced a real deal is imminent — Hobbs’ office and House Speaker Ben Toma declined to comment to the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl Saturday. 

Democrats still don’t know much about the deal, but they say they’re on board if their constituencies are okay with it, but the Freedom Caucus is stirring up discontent online in an attempt to kill the proposal, announcing they’re individually somewhere between a “strong no” and a “hell no.” And with some expected absences in the House and Senate on Monday, Democrats will need to be in lock-step to get any proposed deal to the Governor’s Office.²

Anything that lawmakers approve still needs to go to the voters at the 2024 ballot. But extending Prop 400 is incredibly popular, a pair of recent polls show. Even among Republicans, the largest plurality support extending the tax. 

Because let’s face it: While nobody likes taxes, roads, freeways and public transit are still pretty important. 

What’s old is new again: A seemingly major breach of data in Arizona’s school voucher program may have led to the quick exits of two of the program’s top administrators last week. The Department of Education’s vendor, Class Wallet, says the breach was caused by a “permissions settings error” but also that it wasn’t their fault. Gov. Katie Hobbs is demanding answers from Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who says the breach is no big deal. Ironically, a similar breach happened under former Superintendent Kathy Hoffman, which Horne’s allies did think was a big deal.

Don’t they all do that?: Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego got slapped with an ethics complaint for sending out campaign fundraiser emails that touted legislation he sponsored that would add extreme heat to the list of emergencies for which FEMA could be called in, blurring the line between his campaign and his official office, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust alleged, per the New York Post.

If your contract can’t stand the sunlight: Fontomonte, the Saudi Arabian firm at the center of the water-pumping controversy in northwestern Arizona, fired its lobbyist, Chad Guzman, after the Republic and Yellow Sheet Report reported on Guzman’s other venture with Hobbs consultant Joe Wolf. It also cut ties with its spokesman, Matt Benson, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger reports.

If we don’t meet our goal of 40 paid subscribers this month (just two more to go!), we’ll probably put our paywall right about here, which means our nearly 7,000 free readers will miss out on everything below this.

She’s just that charming: Election officials have been meeting behind closed doors to debate policies they’d like the Legislature to enact next year, but the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl just waltzed into the room and reported on their latest meeting, in which they gave initial approval to pro-elections policies, several of which Republican leaders at the Legislature are almost certain to hate. 

Cleaning up our act: The Environmental Protection Agency is opening a new field office in Flagstaff that will focus on investigating and cleaning up abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo Nation, the Daily Sun’s Adrian Skabelund reports. It hopes to clean up 110 mines by 2030. Speaking of cleanup, Yuma residents are trying to derail a plan to let a local waste company start managing hazardous materials, Cronkite News’ Ole Braatelien reports. The city has become a toxic waste dumping ground for California, which has stricter environmental laws, as CalMatters reported earlier this year. County Supervisors are expected to consider the proposal on August 7.

“We don’t want to put into risk any of our agricultural base, which is who we are primarily,” County Supervisor Jonathan Lines told Braatelien.

Lock him up: Racist and obnoxious internet and real-life personality Ethan Schmidt-Crockett is finally facing potential jail time for one of his many jail-worthy stunts: harassing a Scottsdale synagogue with his anti-Semitic trash. The Phoenix New Times’ Katya Schwenk reports that prosecutors are seeking jail time on his misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing. 

Tents gotta go: The owners of Capitol sub shop Old Station, who sued to make the City of Phoenix clean up the Zone, are pretty happy with the progress so far, they tell KTAR. And while Phoenix is cleaning up tents in the Zone, Tucson is no longer cleaning up the big tents that surround Tucson’s annual gem and mineral show. Much like tents for homeless people, the leftover gem show tents are hurting curb appeal, which is already lacking in the city, the Daily Star’s Tim Steller writes. 

“I guess having so much media on my restaurant, they finally cleaned up my street, which is wonderful … I’m also happy for the homeless because, I think they’re going to be moving them to a stable place where they can get water and facilities and help for the mental illness and the drugs,” owner Joe Faillace told the “Mike Broohmead Show.” 

It could be worse: That heat you’re feeling on your forehead might not just be the sun, considering the number of cases of Valley Fever is spiking in Phoenix right now, KJZZ’s Katherine Davis-Young reports.

Vote in primaries: Tomorrow is Election Day for Tucson’s city council primary. If you haven’t voted yet or lost your mail-in ballot, here’s a list of places where you can cast your vote tomorrow. 

We’ve never much cared for Durant’s, the quasi-ritzy steakhouse that is a regular haunt for Capitol lobbyists and the lawmakers they wine and dine. 

But talking smack about the 73-year-old Phoenix landmark is basically heresy in a town where a dingy steakhouse counts as a cultural institution. 

So we got a kick out of Dominic Armato’s takedown of their mediocre steaks and dingy red lighting in the New Times. We only regret not being brave or talented enough to write it ourselves.  

“One needn’t grow up with Durant’s to grasp how special it is. That much is self-evident the moment you walk through the door. But Durant’s is no longer selling food. It’s selling nostalgia. And $150 a head is awfully steep for nostalgia, even if it comes with salad and a baked potato,” Armato writes. 

1. Lawmakers already passed another version of the rental tax repeal bill, but have refused to send it to Hobbs until a deal was cut. 

2. As Pitzl has noted, Maricopa County is the only county that needs both a bill and voter approval to raise taxes, thanks to an obscure amendment on a 1999 bill.