In May 2022, within 10 days of each other, there were two mass murders in the US.
On May 14, 10 black people were gunned down and three others injured in a neighborhood grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
On May 24, 2022, 19 children and two teachers were murdered and 17 wounded inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
When will the United States take meaningful steps to curb gun violence in this country?
Continue reading When Will the US Take Meaningful Steps to End Gun Violence (video)
The Arizona Legislature surpassed Day 150 this week. You’ll remember that the target length for a session is 100 days. That shipped sailed in mid April.
Season 2 Episode 8 of A View from the Left Side is a compilation of Legislative Updates recorded between April 18, 2022 and May 31, 2022.
Three of these updates focus on the stalled budget process. The House Republican Caucus is fractured and there is no collaboration between the House and Senate leadership teams.
There are rumors of another Republican budget but no bills have been dropped, and recent leaded spreadsheet likely doesn’t have the votes to pass.
Libertarians don’t want to spend money on anything — despite great need in the state and a $5 billion surplus.
Democrats aren’t likely to support a budget that doesn’t include a significant investment in public education. Prop 208, which the Republicans took down in court, would have provided $900 million in revenue for public education by assessing a fee on excessive income over $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for couples.
Continue reading Podcast Rep. PPH Capitol Updates: Back Story on the Budget
For more than a month, the Legislature hasn’t done much except pass a few bills and take random days off. The current glacial pace is the result of multiple feuds within the Republican Caucus of the Arizona Legislature.
The budget appears to be going no where. For weeks, the Republican leadership has been stuck between a rock (pleasing their Libertarian wing) and a hard place (negotiating with the Democrats). The Republican austerity budget died on a bipartisan vote in the House Appropriations Committee in late April. (Check out my late April blog post and video on that subject.)
Libertarians don’t want to spend money on anything — even to save lives. This is unrealistic and cruel when our state has $5 billion in the coffers and chronic poverty. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership wants to continue their tradition of not negotiating with the Democrats on the budget. Our ideas are not extreme; we have common sense spending proposals (like funding public education, basic healthcare, affordable housing, and infrastructure).
Continue reading Divided Republican Party Delays Budget & Drags Session Out (video)
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)
The Arizona Legislature has been ignoring our state’s affordable housing crisis for years. When I got to the Legislature in 2017, I was told that “we just need more supply” because demand was so high.
The sole solution present in 2017 was tax credits for developers. To which I asked, “Is making the rich richer the only way to help the poor?”
In 2022, I am answering my own question. No, tax credits and business incentives are not the preferred path to affordable housing. I proposed eight housing bills this year. My bills fall into two primary categories: 1) ending preemption of local ordinances that will allow the cities to innovate and 2) keeping people housed.
Not surprisingly, bills passed over the last 10 years — since the Tea Party takeover — have made Arizona’s housing crisis significantly. When you’re in a hole, stop digging! There are many bad bills that should be repealed. That’s where we should start, rather than focusing on new laws.
Preemption Laws to Repeal
HB 2193 state law; local violations; repeal (Rep. PPH) repeals the worst preemption bill in the US: SB1487 from 2015.
HB2446 local planning; residential housing; repeal (Rep. PPH, sponsor) repeals the preemption of inclusionary zoning. Inclusionary zoning allows municipalities to designate a certain percentage of a new housing project be affordable or low income.
HB2401 rent regulation; state preemption (Rep. Solario, sponsor) repeals the preemption of rent control.
HCR2006 short-term rentals; vacation rentals (Rep. Butler, sponsor) repeals the original deregulation of short-term rentals in Arizona. Arizona municipalities that are tourist designations (like Tucson) are being overrun by corporate-owned short-term rentals. Taking affordable rentals off the market squeezes residents who are renters.
Keeping People Housed
HB2794 landlord; tenant; fee disclosure; waiver (Rep. PPH, sponsor) is my Truth in Renting bill. It brings transparency to leases, protect tenants from unnecessary fees and traps in leases and helps prevent some evictions. It sailed through the House Commerce Committee in 2021 and through the House but was stopped by politics in the Senate. It was never heard in 2022. Helping people stay in their homes and apartments is more cost effective and humane that throwing people on the street, breaking up families and trying to put some of those people and families back together again later.
HB2792 landlords; tenant’s marijuana use (Rep. PPH, sponsor) says that any substance that is legal to use in the state of Arizona is legal to use in apartments in Arizona. Corporate leases exclude cannabis use in the apartments even in states like Arizona where cannabis is legal. This is an entrapment policy with no exclusions. Even medical marijuana patients with cancer can be evicted in Arizona for any cannabis use. That’s not fair.
HB2793 rent increase; limitations; substantial remodel (Rep. PPH, sponsor) says that year to year rent increases cannot exceed 10%. Arizona is a deregulation state. There are no restrictions regarding raising rent. Corporations are churning the apartment rental market in Phoenix by buying and selling giant apartment complexes and raising the rent every time. There are far too many stories of renters being forced to move because of 50-100% rent increases. Corporations make big bucks in fees when they force people to move.
HB2522 property taxes; elderly assistance fund (Rep. PPH, sponsor) helps low-income seniors pay their property taxes and stay in their homes, particularly if the area has been gentrified. (A Republican also sponsored a similar bill this year.)
HB2195 housing trust fund; unclaimed property (Rep. PPH, sponsor) would fully fund the Housing Trust Fund in Arizona. This fund historically was funded at $40 million per year until the dark days of Governor Jan Brewer and Senate President Russell “SB1070” Pearce when those funds were routinely swept to pay for tax cuts and other Tea Party priorities.
The Arizona Legislature created the current housing problems with 10+ years of bad Legislation. Let’s repeal these bad preemption laws, challenge cities and towns to innovate and keep people housed.
Check out my video for the details behind my housing bills and others that I support. This video was originally recorded on February 28, 2022. All of my video updates are available on YouTube and Facebook.
Arizona House Republicans have at least five bills that will make it easier for people under 21 to possess firearms: HB2414, HB2448, HB2489, HB2447, and HB2610. Four of these bills expand the presence of weapons in K-12 schools or college campuses. More weapons in educational institutions will create more fear among the students and instructors. We want our children and grandchildren to learn in a safe environment. These militaristic bills create the opposite scenario. More guns in schools won’t make anyone safer.
Continue reading More Guns in Schools & on Campuses Won’t Make Us Safer (video)