STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – Senator Sean Bowie has been selected to attend two prestigious leadership
programs this summer: the Council of State Governments' Henry Toll Fellowship
Program and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation's Emerging Legislative
Leaders Program. Senator Bowie is the first Arizonan chosen for the Toll
Fellowship since 2015.
Senator Bowie
"Session may be over but that doesn't mean I'm done working for my
district. With these two opportunities, I hope to learn from both experts and
my fellow classmates how to better serve my constituents and bring back ideas
to make my district and Arizona an even better place to live, learn and work,"
said Senator Bowie. "I'm honored to be selected for these programs and I
look forward to participating in both this summer."
The Toll Fellowship, named for CSG founder Henry Wolcott Toll, is one of
the nation’s premier leadership development programs for state government
officials. Each year, the Toll Fellowship brings 48 of the nation’s top
officials from all three branches of state government to Lexington, Ky., for an
intensive five-day, “leadership boot camp.” The program’s sessions are designed
to stimulate personal assessment and growth, while providing priceless
networking and relationship-building opportunities.
The Emerging Legislative Leaders Program is designed specifically for the
next generation of leaders in state legislatures. The program is held every
July on the campus of the University of Virginia, in partnership with the
distinguished Darden School of Business.
Up to 50 of the best and brightest state legislators from across the
nation take part in 4 days of challenging classroom discussions, led by a team
of professors at the Darden School. Since 2005, over 600 legislators have
benefited from their experience at this program, and a significant number have
continued their careers in public service. Many have achieved positions of
leadership in their states.
Through this unique program, SLLF and Darden seek to broaden the
perspectives of these men and women, instilling in them a clear understanding
of their responsibilities as custodians of the public’s trust and seeking to
inspire them to meet the challenges of the future with confidence and vigor.
Since day one of this long legislative session, we have made
clear our priorities are with Arizona families, students, businesses and our
most vulnerable. We believe there is an important role for government to play
in the lives of Arizonans and poll after poll show they are willing to invest
in our shared priorities.
Democrats have always stood for our public schools. From the
recession days when classroom funding was slashed to the lowest in the nation,
through last year’s 20 by 2020 and now - we are still fighting for full
restoration of education funding in Arizona.
Arizona students are sitting in overcrowded classrooms, using
outdated textbooks and technology, and lack basic school supplies. Many
students do not have a permanent or prepared teacher and are likely missing a
nurse, counselor, or librarian.
Despite 20 by 2020 and the infusion to District and Charter
Additional Assistance that was made last year – funding for K-12 is still far
below 2008 levels. When adjusted for inflation, the state funds every student
at $947 dollars less than we did in 2008.
Our schools are still experiencing a severe teacher shortage; as
school gets out for the summer, districts are already unsure how they will fill
teaching positions before the start of the next school year.
This year alone, there were over 7,000 teacher openings – half of
these positions were filled by individuals that do not meet our standard
teacher requirements.
Our proposed budget accelerates the restoration of District
Additional Assistance by appropriating $150 million to accelerate the
restoration of DAA.
Previous cuts to DAA have significantly hampered public schools’
ability to provide up to date curriculum, materials and technology for their
students since 2009. Over that decade our economy has grown and our population
has increased by over half a million people.
Even with the $95 million that was restored in last year's
budget, the current suspension to DAA is still $193 million. Democrats are
proposing to make whole approximately 78% of this suspension by allocating $150
million in our budget.
We were encouraged to see funding for additional school
counselors in the governor's executive budget. But the need is far greater than
his proposal.
Arizona's student to counselor ratio is the worst in the nation,
with 905 students for every one school counselor. That is why we are calling
for $20 million to be allocated for school counselors and social workers,
lowering the ratio to approximately 373 students per counselor.
While this will not address all our school safety needs, this
would be a critical step in ensuring the social-emotional needs of all
children.
Arizona's tribal leaders have for years been requesting
additional help in the Office of Indian Education, which serves as a liaison
between tribal schools and outside agencies to provide resources for Native
American students to meet their educational and cultural needs.
Our budget allows the Department of Education to add four
full-time staff to its existing staff of one full-time and one part-time. It's
time we prioritize the education of our Native American students.
The allocations made towards K-12 education in our budget
represent what Arizonans have demanded time and time again: fund our schools
properly. 88% of Arizonans believe there is a need for additional funding for
our public schools and voters support investments in education.
Our budget reflects the values of Arizonans by putting education
first.
And now I’d like to introduce Senator Lela Alston to talk about
state revenues.
Senator Lela Alston
Since the Great Recession, Republicans, have enacted austerity
budget after austerity budget. Education, infrastructure and social services
have been hit especially hard by the budget cuts over the last decade.
After years of minimal funding for critical state services,
Republicans are again proposing a massive and permanent $386 million dollar tax
cut. Using the Trump tax cuts as an excuse, Republicans are cutting taxes far
more than the state would otherwise realize in increased revenue from straight
conformity.
In reality, the issue of conformity is simply a shift of tax
revenue; dollars that used to go to Washington are now paid to Arizona. These
revenues should be used for Arizona priorities like education, the homeless
crisis, infrastructure, health care and support for the elderly and disabled.
This year, Arizona has a $840 million dollars in one-time revenue in the budget.
This is due to a combination of a healthy economy and deliberate cuts to state
government over the past decade.
But rather than invest in key services like education and
infrastructure, Republicans want to permanently reduce Arizona's ability to
raise revenue.These tax policy choices
are making Arizona's revenue structure less progressive and increasing the tax
burden on the poor and middle class.
The Republican claim that this tax cut is offset by updating our
TPT statutes to the Supreme Court decision in Wayfair v South Dakota does not
pass the smell test.This is tax revenue
that is already owed to the state but is not being paid due to lack of
enforcement.
Wayfair should have been the easiest policy decision for the
Legislature to make, because it finally would create tax fairness with in-state
and out-of-state retailers.However, the
Republicans have decided to tie this policy with a gift for "Online
Marketplaces," which serve as middle-men by aggregating products offered
from multiple online retailers.
By codifying the "online marketplace" in Arizona law,
Republicans are giving away a special relief from tax liability of 8% over the
next 2 years. Additionally, any marketplaces that already operate in Arizona
will be forgiven any past tax liability for third party transactions that were
conducted through their marketplace platform. I'm sure Arizona's true local businesses would
love a similar deal.
Arizona does not need another massive tax cut.We need better schools for ALL of our
children, we need to repair our crumbling highways, roads and bridges, and we
need working locks in our prisons and funding to help our most vulnerable
populations.
The Republican budget, and their $386 million dollar tax cut,
rewards wealthy farmers, commercial real estate developers and big out-of-state
tech.
Apparently, cutting over $5 billion dollars in annual tax revenue
over the last 30 years hasn't been enough. We can't forget – in Arizona it
takes a simple majority to give away state revenue but it takes two-thirds, and
political courage, to restore it.
Now I’ll turn it over to Senator Sean Bowie to discuss the
importance of investing in Higher Education.
Senator Sean Bowie
The budget that we have put together prioritizes and makes a
critical investment in higher education – for both our public universities and
community colleges.
We believe making a commitment to fund our state universities
beyond providing "one-time" investments is the best way to ensure
tuition costs remain as low and as stable as possible.
Per student funding for Arizona universities is 56% below 2008
levels – this equates to $3,742 cut in per-student funding and has shifted
costs from the state to students and their families.
Our budget also begins to address the severe physician shortage
that Arizona faces by funding an increase in the UofA medical school's capacity
to educate students in medicine.
Arizona is the 4th fastest growing state in the country and in
order to remain competitive, we need and should do all that we can to enhance
Arizona's economic health by providing skilled workers for high-demand careers in
healthcare, public safety, IT, business and manufacturing – our community
colleges are key to building that workforce.
In 2015, along with a $99 million cut to universities, the
legislature completely zeroed out Maricopa and Pima Community College Districts
from Operating State Aid and from STEM and Workforce funding – and we have
failed to restore their funding since then
Our budget proposes a 5-year phase-in to restore Maricopa and
Pima's operating state aid, with a $15.4 million infusion every year, until
full restoration is complete.
Additionally, we are proposing to fully restore funding to
Maricopa and Pima's STEM and Workforce programs immediately.
Funding for our two largest community college districts –
specifically their STEM and Workforce state aid is vital to the keep pace with
the growth of our state
Our responsible and pragmatic budget makes a long-term investment
in higher-education that has not been seen in previous budgets because the best
way to see future economic success in Arizona is to have a highly skilled
workforce.
Now I’d like to welcome Senator Rebecca Rios up to explain the
crisis of homelessness and how our budget invests in Arizona families.
Senator Rebecca Rios
Homelessness in Arizona is at a crisis point.
Currently, there are over 36,000 homeless people in Arizona, of
which 37% are families, usually a single mom with children. In fact, the U.S.
Department of Education reported almost 25,000 public school students
experienced homelessness during the 2016-2017
school year.
That is why we are making complete restoration of the State
Housing Trust Fund a cornerstone of our budget with a $50 million dollar
deposit in Fiscal Year 2020 and $40 million annually thereafter.
Created in 1988, the Housing Trust Fund represents the only state
monies solely dedicated to Arizona's housing needs. During the Great Recession
its funding was slashed to just $2.5 million dollars and hasn’t seen an
increase since.
Arizona’s wonderful non-profits that provide critical services
and housing for our homeless rely on the Fund for grants to keep their services
going. But as the Fund was cut, so was their ability to help our most
vulnerable Arizonans.
Investing in the Housing Trust Fund both sees federal dollars
return to Arizona, it also encourages private investment in low-income housing.
In fact, according to the Arizona Housing Coalition, for every $10 million
dollars invested in the Fund, these is the potential for $23 million dollars in
economic impact and the creation of 200 jobs annually.
We must not only invest in getting our homeless off the streets,
we must also invest in our children and working families.
Relatives, usually grandparents, are the first choice of
placement by DCS. In fact, 43% of children in DCS custody are placed with
Kinship families.These kinship families
step up during times of crisis to care for often traumatized children who have
been separated from their parents.
However, despite similar expenses, kinship caregivers do not
receive the same financial support as licensed foster parents who on average
receive $700 per month.
That is why our budget appropriates almost $15 million dollars to
DCS in Fiscal Year 2020 from the General Fund to increase the Kinship Care
Stipend from $75 to $250 dollars per month and streamline the TANF child-only
application process which will provide an additional $164 dollar monthly
benefit per child in kinship care.
In addition to the Housing Trust Fund and Kinship Care, our
budget invests in Arizona families by:
•Investing
$3 million dollars to DCS for the Healthy Families Prevention Program, which
provides services to pregnant women and families with newborns who have
multiple stressors and risk factors that increase the likelihood that a child
will suffer abuse or neglect.
•Eliminating
the statutory KidsCare enrollment freeze and appropriating $1.6 million dollars
in Fiscal Year 2020 to AHCCCS to cover the reduction in federal funds,
providing over 30,000 working families affordable health insurance for their
children.
•Granting
immediate authority for DES and DCS to utilize $112 million dollars in federal
Child Care Development Fund monies to subsidize child care for low income
working families.
•Appropriating
$1.5 million dollars to DES for the development of a statewide 2-1-1
information and referral service for health care services, community services,
human services, and governmental services.
We can’t succeed as a state if we don’t ensure our children and
struggling families have the resources available to help them get back on their
feet and focus on their education and careers. That’s the only way we break the
cycle of poverty and homelessness in Arizona. And that’s why our budget makes
meaningful investments toward this noble goal.
Finally, I’m proud to introduce our Senate Democratic Leader
David Bradley to wrap things up.
Senator David Bradley
Thank you, Senators Quezada, Alston, Bowie and Rios and all the
members of the Senate here today.
In his State of the State Address on opening day of this session,
Governor Ducey announced his desire to work with Democrats on good ideas. Let
me quote from that speech:
“Leaders Fernandez and Bradley — I’m
looking forward to working together. I think we can all agree, there’s plenty
of opportunities to find common ground.
He continued:
“Bipartisanship is a word that gets
tossed around a lot. And today, it seems everyone has their own definition. So
let me be clear on the approach I intend to take. I’m not here just to work
with Republicans on Republican ideas. And bipartisanship doesn’t simply mean
working with Democrats on Democratic ideas. I’m here as governor of all the
people to work with all of you on good ideas.”
On that day as well, both Democratic Caucuses announced our
desire to work with our Republican colleagues on good ideas, and we’ve seen
some results of that good will.
Senator Bowie’s suicide prevention bill was a classic example of
a good idea that found broad bipartisan support.
Senator Brophy McGee carried our long-fought texting ban, which
will save countless lives.
And the Drought Contingency Plan was a well-researched and
thoroughly negotiated solution to an issue of critical importance to our state.
Unfortunately, that spirit of collaboration stopped, as it has
done, year after year at the budget door.
Many weeks ago our caucus broached the idea with the majority
leadership of the Senate of sitting down to craft a budget that appeals to
lawmakers of both parties and serves the best interests of Arizona.
It appears that some of our ideas were incorporated perhaps on
the premise that fulfilling a series of small requests of the Minority will achieve
our silence and consent.Placating is
not negotiating.
That is not the making of a deal.
It is an approach that fails to incorporate what the governor
himself asserted 127 days ago that bipartisanship means working together in
common cause and purpose.
We have been respectfully but consistently knocking on the closed
budget doors.We have done so without
criticism or leaking contrary documents or opinions.
We are still outside the door, ready and willing to negotiate but
we can no longer be silent and be clear we do not consent to the budget as it
was presented today.
Our Democratic budget is by no means perfect. It does not meet
every need, fulfill every request or solve every problem that has festered for
years.
Decades of tax cuts, predicated, not on thoughtful strategies,
but on faulty ideologies, that resources would trickle down to the neediest if
they could only be patient, have left much of our state unprepared for the
challenges of the new economy.
A new economy predicated on the modernization of our
infrastructure, on caring for the neediest, on innovation and channeling the
energy of our youth and the educational opportunities afforded to them.
Throughout this session I asked our caucus members to prepare for
taking over the Senate in the next term. They have risen to this request.
If the business community is looking for friends in the
legislature, look no further than those standing behind me.
If the agriculture community is looking for allies, look behind
me.
If our education community from Pre-K, through Community College
and the Universities are looking for genuine supporters, look behind me.
If our social welfare and healthcare programs and services are
seeking partners in your causes and concerns, we are here working to get you
the resources you need to lift up all Arizonans.
If you are looking for those who will protect and defend the
health and safety of Arizona's children, you need only look behind me.
If our cities and counties are looking for support of your
missions and not control of your operations. Your friends are behind me.
If our labor brothers and sisters want to know who is with them
in good and bad times, be assured those who stand behind me are with you.
If our Republican colleagues want to work together to finalize a
budget this week we are at the door, you need only open it.
We have developed and proposed a balanced, progressive and
responsible budget that we are proud to present to you today.
A weekly legislative update from the Arizona Senate Democratic Caucus
Volume 1, Issue 17 Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Top Stories
Homelessness in Arizona
Homelessness in Arizona is a serious problem. According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, there are thousands of Arizonans experiencing homelessness, including families, veterans and youth. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education reported almost 25,000 public school students experienced homelessness during the 2016-2017 school year.
The State of Arizona has a State Housing Trust Fund, which provides grants to help with everything from rents all the way to financing for the development of affordable permanent and transitional rental housing units. Much of its money goes to Arizona non-profits that do a wonderful job helping our homeless population, but for many years the Legislature has cut its funding so much that those non-profits cannot provide their desperately needed services. That's why Democrats have made it a priority that this year's budget include a sizable investment in the State Housing Trust Fund.
Watch this week's Canyonside Chat on this issue with Senator Rebecca Rios and Senator Lela Alston to learn more about homelessness in Arizona and why it's so important:
In this week's episode, Senator Lela Alston explains why homelessness in Arizona is a problem and what the state can do to help. Hosted by Senator Rebecca Rios.
“Bipartisan” bill count
The final tally of Senate bills heard in the Senate:
Republican: 311
Democratic: 27
While Democrats hold 43 percent of seats in the Senate, our bills only account for 7.9 percent of bills heard.
News Clips
New Arizona law requires teachers to get suicide prevention training The Mitch Warnock Act, sponsored by Senator Sean Bowie, requires teachers to be trained to look for the warning signs of suicide in an effort to prevent teens from taking their own lives.
"As a mother, as a legislator, I'm scared to death," Democratic Senator Rebecca Rios said. Rios said bills asking for universal background checks, closing the so-called gun show loophole and funding for more school counselors and resource officers have gone nowhere.
Mendez, a Democrat, said that there was "an insulting contrast" between the trajectories of the two student-led bills. "There's a saying, 'Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.'" he said. "It's the same way with powerlessness. It corrupts too. This contributes to why the youth are so jaded."
