What Did the Arizona Legislature Do in the First 100 Days of 2022? (video)

Phoenix

The Arizona Legislature has a 100 day target for the length of each session. With more than 1000 bills proposed and more than 300 signed into law each year, the Legislature rarely finishes in 100 days.

April 19, 2022 is day 100 for this year. We are lurching slowly toward a budget, with more than 100 bills waiting to be heard and a few large projects — like education funding, the proposed Water Authority, and a potential “repeal and replace” revival of the Flat Tax — hanging in limbo. As I write this note, it is  Wednesday, April 13, and the Arizona House is temporarily adjourned until Monday, April 18. This is a repeat of last week, when we gaveled in for business on Monday, April 4 and promptly adjourned until Thursday.

NOBODY wants a repeat of 2021.

Continue reading What Did the Arizona Legislature Do in the First 100 Days of 2022? (video)

Podcast: Rep. PPH Capitol Updates: ‘PC Bill’ Drama, Wasting Time & Anti-Worker Bills

A View from the Left Side podcast

Season 2, Episode 6 of A View from the Left Side is a compilation of Legislative Updates from Arizona House member Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley. These updates were recorded during March 2022. They range in topic from the social media drama around HB2839 (the PC Bill) to wasting time in the Legislature, anti-worker bills and remembering Senator David Bradley.

There is a link to this podcast below. You can also subscribe to A View from the Left Side on multiple podcasting services such as iTunes, SpotifyStitcher RadioI Heart Radio and others. The original Legislative update videos on these topics can be found on my YouTube Channel.

Continue reading Podcast: Rep. PPH Capitol Updates: ‘PC Bill’ Drama, Wasting Time & Anti-Worker Bills

Republicans Push to Expand School Vouchers … Again (video)

Rep. Pam Powers Hannley on school vouchers.

In 2018, more than one million Arizona voters said NO to expansion of private school vouchers (AKA empowerment scholarships). That inconvenient truth means nothing to Arizona Republicans. They get their marching orders from right wing “think tanks” like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Rep. Shawnna Bolick’s strike everything amendment to HB2803 is ALEC model legislation.

Continue reading Republicans Push to Expand School Vouchers … Again (video)

I Am the Most Independent Voting Democrat in the #AZHouse: Here’s Why (video)

Rep. Pam Powers Hannley

I am the most independent-voting Democrat in the Arizona House and perhaps in the Arizona Legislature. How did that happen? When I first ran for office in 2015, I said I would look at every bill and ask myself, “How does this help the people of Arizona?” And if it didn’t broadly help people OR if it was a carve-out for the connected, there was no reason for me to support it.

Continue reading I Am the Most Independent Voting Democrat in the #AZHouse: Here’s Why (video)

Podcast: Fight for $15 in a Right-to-Work State (video)

Rep. PPH Podcast

Forty years ago, in the fall of 1981, when I told my Dad that I was leaving Ohio and moving to Arizona, the first words out of his mouth were, “Well, you know Arizona is a ‘right to work state,’ don’t cha? That means ‘right to work for less.’”

I grew up in a union household. Dad was a Steelworker for most of his work life. During the 1960s and early 1970s, he was in the thick of the struggle for better wages, better benefits, and better working conditions for factory workers in Northern Ohio. Technically, I knew what “right to work state” meant, but at the time, I had no idea how moving to a right to work state would affect my career and my children’s future opportunities.

My last job in Columbus was as a professional photographer working for a swanky graphic and product design agency. (It was a really cool place to work, and over the last 40 years, particularly when I a wage slave at the University of Arizona, I often wonder why I left!)

At my first job interview in Tucson at a much smaller advertising and graphic design agency, the owner asked about my salary history. I had more than six years of experience in design, photography, and printing production. I told him that I was making $8 per hour in Columbus (and as far as I was concerned, I was worth every penny!) He literally laughed in my face and said, “You’ll never make that kind of money here in Tucson!”

Continue reading Podcast: Fight for $15 in a Right-to-Work State (video)

Podcast: Labor Day, How Unions Are Organizing Arizona

Rep. PPH's podcast

Work has changed dramatically in the past 40 years.

In the 1980s, President Reagan busted the air traffic controllers’ union, corporations began closing factories and offshoring American jobs to countries with cheap labor, and trickledown economics dictated tax cuts for the rich and the dregs for the rest of us.

It the 1990s, banking deregulation paved the way for the Wall Street crash of 2008 by eliminating financial protections enacted after the Great Depression.

During the Great Recession, which dragged on for years, almost 9 million Americans lost their jobs. Unemployment hit its peak at 10% in 2009. Although, many governors tout robust recoveries from the 2008 Wall Street crash, the jobs Americans have today are dramatically different from jobs in the 1970s – before union busting, offshoring, and tax cuts for the rich became commonplace. Before politicians cared more about fundraising and getting elected, than about the people they claim to serve.

Continue reading Podcast: Labor Day, How Unions Are Organizing Arizona