The Free Agenda: Whose line (item) is it anyway?
Pet projects in the budget … Toothless campaign finance laws … And a toothless teen.
The new state budget includes roughly $1.4 billion in cuts to government programs — but it’s not all cuts.
Budgeting is the art of give and take.
To garner the minimum votes necessary to send the package to the Governor’s Office, legislative leaders had to do a lot of giving.
Before the budget went up for a vote in either the House or Senate, lawmakers agreed to a big amendment making significant changes designed to generate support from a handful of crucial lawmakers who provided the votes to push it over the finish line.
The changes were made to accommodate lawmakers’ “budget asks,” or the line-item appropriations important enough to them or their constituents to make or break their vote on the budget.
Last year, Republican lawmakers and the Democratic governor navigated their partisan divides by spending liberally. Lawmakers were enticed to support the budget with a promise that they could allocate up to $30 million to whatever they wanted, assuming they voted yes.
But after overspending, that kind of high-dollar slush fund budgeting wasn’t possible this year. Yet, savvy lawmakers were still able to negotiate millions of dollars for their pet projects in exchange for their support for the budget.
Sometimes lawmakers are proud enough of their “budget asks” to tout their accomplishments and the bacon they’ve brought home for their communities.
Far more often, the negotiations that happen behind closed doors stay behind closed doors. The public never gets an explanation of why lawmakers are spending, say, $4 million to give out as a horse racing prize while also cutting more than $20 million from state universities.
Today, we’re breaking down some of the pet projects in the budget. 🐶 🚧
Make the Agenda your pet project by upgrading your subscription today! 👍
Outstanding fines: Political organizations owe Maricopa County more than $4.4 million for campaign finance violations, but the county hasn’t done anything to collect those fines for the last four election cycles, the Republic’s Sasha Hupka reports. Neither former Recorder Adrian Fontes nor current Recorder Stephen Richer referred campaign finance cases to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Last year, that responsibility was moved to the county Elections Department, which uncovered the millions in mounting fines. Some groups, like the election conspiracy spreading We The People Arizona Alliance, or Citizens for Better Education – which advocated for a 2018 school bond — owe more in fines than they report raising.
Lanyard larceny: A temporary elections employee was charged with theft after he took a lanyard with a security fob and keys from a tabulation center, per 12News’ John Tanet. The security fob was used to secure tablets during the election, and now Maricopa County has to spend around $19,000 to reprogram all the tablets. The conspiracy theories are already taking over Twitter.
Ideologies under oath: A U.S. District Court judge ordered House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen to provide sworn testimony on why they voted to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports and to overturn emails relating to the law, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer writes. The duo hired an out-of-state attorney at taxpayers’ expense to defend the law that was passed in 2022, and it’s currently blocked as the parents of two transgender girls challenge it in court. While the judge acknowledged lawmakers don’t usually have to provide evidence in cases challenging state law, she said the leaders “waived their legislative privilege by voluntarily participating in this lawsuit and putting their intent at issue.’’
Justice at last: A former University of Arizona student who shot and killed professor Tom Meixner in the fall of 2022 was sentenced to life in prison yesterday after being found guilty of first-degree murder and other charges last month, the Arizona Daily Star’s Prerana Sannappanavar reports.
“When I learned that his last words were, 'I knew you were gonna do this,' I was destroyed,” his widow, Kathleen Meixner, said at the hearing.
Financial fumbles: Uber conservative Congressional Candidate Jerone Davison is mostly known for his past as an NFL player and pastor, but he’s also deeply embedded in financial calamity with unpaid child support obligations and a recent eviction from his Tempe home, Laura Gersony reports in a wild profile for the Republic.1 Davison and his ex-wife filed temporary restraining orders against each other in 2013 after Davison got into a physical altercation with his ex’s new husband, but there are conflicting accounts on who threw the first punch. He’s one of four Republicans challenging Rep. Greg Stanton in the left-leaning Congressional District 4.
History repeats itself: The scathing U.S. Justice Department report on the Phoenix Police Department found officers often question people without first reading them their Miranda Rights. Those rights — to remain silent, to call a lawyer and so on — were established by a landmark Supreme Court case that originated out of Phoenix, KJZZ’s Matthew Casey writes. In 1963, Phoenix officers kept questioning Ernesto Miranda without informing him he didn’t have to speak to them or he could consult with a lawyer.
South of south of the border: The vast majority of unaccompanied migrant children who arrive in Phoenix come from Guatemala, Axios’ Jeremy Duda, Kavya Beheraj and Alex Fitzpatrick report. From January 2015 to May 2023, 72% of unaccompanied minors in Phoenix were Guatemalan. A recent New York Times investigation found migrant children are ending up in brutal jobs while federal, state and city leaders continue to argue over how to handle asylum seekers crossing the border.
We’re deep into debate season, and there are four you can catch tonight:
4 p.m.: The Democratic Maricopa County Sheriff candidates will debate on nearly every local TV and radio station. Here’s a full listing.
6 p.m.: The Congressional District 8 Republicans’ debate will also be available across news sites and on YouTube.
Also at 6 p.m.: The Democratic candidates for Legislative District 23, which stretches from Yuma to the west end of the Valley, will debate online.
And the Democratic candidates for Arizona’s Congressional District 1 will attend a forum at 6:30 p.m. in north Phoenix, but an RSVP is required.
You can check out our entire political calendar here. Add it to your own Google calendar here.
And send us events through this form, or email us at info@arizonaagenda.com. As long as it’s Arizona politics-related and has all the info, we’ll post it.
A Benson teenager filed a police report against his dentist for theft, the Herald/Review’s Lyda Longa reports. Samuel Vaughan even filed complaints with the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Arizona Dental Board over Dr. Ryan Barney’s transgression.
What did the dentist take? Well, Vaughan’s teeth.
But the 18-year-old is outraged over the doctor’s refusal to return the molars he extracted and instead placed in a hazardous waste bin.
Vaughan said he intends to file a civil suit after police “said there was no case.”
He is also notable for this memorable commercial he ran in the 2022 election.