Last Week at the Legislature
March 24, 2024
Hi Friend,
Welcome to Last Week at the Legislature, my weekly report to you on what's happening in your State House and how I'm representing our community.
At this point in the session, we have completed all our committee meetings except for House Appropriations, which is one of the committees where I serve. This Monday's meeting is called "Trash Can Approps" because it's the last chance for a bill to be heard, so we hear all kinds of bills, whatever the topic.
Going forward, the focus will be on crafting a budget. It will be especially challenging since we went from a $2 Billion surplus last year to a $2 Billion deficit this year because of a) the Ducey tax cuts for the wealthiest Arizonans that have now taken effect, b) the almost $1 Billion in un-budgeted expenditures this year alone for ESA vouchers that use taxpayer money to fund private schools, and c) the hundreds of millions of dollars in last year's budget that went to Republican pork projects like the Prescott Rodeo. So much for fiscal responsibility.
In the meantime, here's what happened last week. It's truly an honor to serve you. Please contact me anytime.
Judy
Representative Judy Schwiebert, LD2
jschwiebert@azleg.gov, JudySchwiebert.com, 602-935-0468
This will be the last week for candidates to get enough signatures to qualify for this November's ballot. Please participate in our democracy to help candidates qualify. Just have your driver's license handy and use this link to learn who is running in your district - as well as statewide. Check here for some easy directions.
Center for the Future of Arizona
For those of us who understandably may feel fed-up with politics, I want to share the nonpartisan Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA)'s website. It's one of my favorite resources. In these divisive times, my belief in the unity of our community is re-affirmed by their statewide surveys of Republican, Democratic, and independent voters that show that all Arizonans agree on more issues than we disagree. For example, more than 70% of us want
Every school to have the resources necessary to deliver quality education that prepares every child for the future, no matter their skin color, background or zip code.
Everyone to pay their fair share of taxes to ensure that the state can continue to meet its core obligations including in education, public safety, transportation and other critical investments.
Arizona to do something to protect our water future and secure our long-term water supplies.
State leaders to do more to make sure that housing options are affordable and available to middle and low income earners.
(Find more survey results here.)
We just need to get involved to help elect legislators and other state and federal officials who are listening to the priorities we share.
Education Bills Last Week
Sadly, we actually heard no bills in the House Education Committee that would ensure public schools have the resources they need to provide every child with a quality education. In fact, this past week we heard just two bills in our final meeting for the session. I spoke out strongly against both of them.
SB 1151 (Kern-R) school classrooms; Ten Commandments; posting
As my constituent Rivko Knox wrote to me in her email urging a NO vote on this bill: "allowing the posting ....of the 10 commandments in AZ's public schools is a clear violation of the First Amendment's Church State separation,"
I explained my NO vote in committee saying, "this bill represents another example of using religion for political gain and purposes. Although passage might be politically expedient, it harms religion, making it yet another pawn in the political process. This is exactly the type of behavior that the drafters of the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause tried to prevent." I voted NO, but it passed along party lines.
SB 1583 (Wadsack-R) school admission; annual parental disclosure
This bill would require public district and charter schools to send a prioritized annual notice to all parents informing them that it is their right to choose a private school, list those private schools in the area, and help parents enroll them in private schools. I voted "hell no", but it passed along party lines. You can view my entire No vote explanation below, but here's a portion of it.
It's so telling that a Republican majority that CLAIMS to prioritize parent choice has passed bill after bill DISRESPECTING the parents of over a MILLION students every year who choose our public schools for the quality education they provide, despite the legislature's best efforts to undercut them.
While the hundreds of Dem-sponsored bills that WOULD support the choice of the 90% of parents go unheard, we instead are presented with THIS bill that requires public schools to divert funds from the needs of their students to instead ADVERTISE for COMPETITORS. It's like making the locally owned burger joint spend their revenue to send their customers to go buy their burger and fries at the place down the street where they don't even have to tell you what's IN their food.
A Republican majority that CLAIMS to believe in a FREE MARKET would never require any other business to advertise for a competitor. Yet this bill says the quiet part out loud: the current Republican majority will stop at nothing to KILL the ACCOUNTABLE public schools that ensure that EVERY student gets the quality education they - and all of us deserve. I stand with parents, students, teachers, schools and employers in voting "Hell, NO" on SB1583.
This final House Education Committee meeting was an emotional goodbye for our "Teacher Caucus". I have been so honored to be a part of our tight-knit group of current or former teachers who have worked so strategically and hard. Since three of the four of us are moving on to other things next year, this was our last committee together. We are Rep Nancy Gutierrez (LD18), Rep Laura Terech (LD4), our intern Emma, our Education Policy Advisor Mykelin Myers, Rep Jennifer Pawlik (LD13) and me (LD2).
Election Bills Last Week
While I don't serve on the Municipal Oversight & Elections committee, here are some bills that represent many others being heard that reveal Republican priorities.
SB1286 (Hoffman-R) elections; voting centers; polling places
This bill requires that voting centers may only be established in addition to specifically designated polling places, and requires that district schools close on every primary and general election day so their gymnasiums can be used as polling places. It further requires that districts provide in-service trainings on that day and prohibits teachers and staff from using them as personal or vacation days
SB1375 (Bolick-R) ballots; categories; count; identification number
This bill would require every ballot to bear a unique identification number. I believe it would violate our freedom to cast a secret ballot. It passed 5-3 along party lines.
Other legislation this session seeks to completely eliminate the voting center model that allows registered voters to cast their ballot at any voting center in the county and instead return to local precinct voting for not more than 1,000 voters. However, I hear from county officials that they already have significant problems finding polling places - as well as volunteers or even paid workers to work the polls.
Another Republican bill would dis-allow the use of mail-in ballots, the voting method used by 85% of Arizonans to cast their ballots votes.
Meeting with ASBA
It was such a pleasure to share breakfast with folks from the Arizona Small Business Association. Our local businesses are the backbone of our community, so I really appreciated hearing from them about the greatest challenges they face and how we can address them. Thank you in particular to Debbie Hann, the Chief Operating Officer at ASBA.
Mayor Gallego and Me
It was wonderful to spend some time with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego this week at a House Party in the northern part of our Legislative District 2. I'm so proud of the great work that she and the city council continue to do to make our community a better place for all of us - and so humbled to be partnering with her in that important work.
Visiting Chandler's Intel Plant
It was such an honor to be invited by Mayor Kate Gallego to join folks from across many industries and interests like Bill Ruiz from the Carpenters' Union and Rep Jennifer Pawlik from Chandler to hear from President Joe Biden on Thursday at the Intel plant in Chandler.
Thanks to his bipartisan CHIPS Act, the president announced an $8.5 billion award to Intel that will help unlock over $100 billion in private investment and create nearly 30,000 mainly union jobs—in construction and manufacturing. This investment will help re-establish American leadership in semiconductor manufacturing.
During the pandemic, our supply chain was severely interrupted, largely because of the fact that the microchips so much of manufacturing depends on were not available from overseas. America invented the semiconductor, but today only makes a small fraction of them. Because of investments like the one President Biden announced yesterday, that is changing. Semiconductor manufacturing is growing, and semiconductor jobs are making a comeback.
Judging the Regents Cup Free Speech
State University Competition
It was such an honor to be a judge at the Regents' Cup Free Speech Competition this year. It's an annual event that rotates between ASU, U of A, and NAU, but this year was held at the downtown Phoenix ASU campus in the Sandra Dan O'Connor College of Law and the Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management.
Storytellers shared stories about events that illuminated what justice in real life actually looks like - or does not. Debaters presented affirmative or negative arguments on questions including
Should federal judges have term limits?
Should we retain our system of using a jury to decide the outcome of a trial?
Every student who participated was extremely well-prepared, articulate, and nimble in their thinking. As judges, we shared that we generally separated the top debaters and storytellers by just a point. It was a truly inspiring day that renewed in us the belief that our future is in good hands.
I was proud to serve as a judge alongside these and many other community leaders including Eileen Klein, Monica Villalobos, Keith Allred, Francis Najafi, and Sybil Francis.
The best part of the day was getting to meet and get to know some of our outstanding students. We had many questions for each other, and it was so inspiring to get to meet and learn about them. Our future is in great hands.
Celebrate With Us! (Woo-hoo!)
Thank you to everyone who has helped us gather signatures to get on the ballot! Because of you, this Wednesday Stephanie and I are turning in over 1500 signatures EACH to the Secretary of State's Office to qualify for November's ballot (more than 3 times the minimum).
Whether or not you gathered signatures, though, we want to celebrate with you! Please join us for our Volunteer Party this Thursday, March 28 from 4-6 pm at our new LD2 Office at 1524 W. Bell Road (next to the Liberty Tax store)
We'll have pizza, chips, sodas and veggies. See you there!
We need YOU! Please join us at...
The Swing Left Maricopa County monthly meeting--A Zoom C.A.L.L. (Candidates, Actions, Learning, "Light a Fire"). March 26th, 5:30-6:30 pm featuring my running mate Stephanie Simacek and me, as well as Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools candidate Laura Metcalfe with an education theme. Hope you can join us. Here is the Mobilize link where you can sign up to attend https://www.mobilize.us/swingleft/event/613847/. If you would like to join the Swing Left Maricopa County group. Here is the link https://swingleft.org/group/maricopaco
A House Party in the Norterra area at the home of my good friend Pam Petersen on Saturday, March 30, 2-4 pm. RSVP here and we'll send you the exact address the day before the party.
Nominate a Community Builder!
As a lifelong member of our community, I'm so grateful to the many people and local businesses who make it such a great place to live. That's why I'm excited to be partnering with the Bell Road Business Alliance and Stoke Interactive to recognize many of the local Community Builders in our neighborhood.
We need YOU to make this happen, though! Check out our website at LD2NPCB.com to learn more about past recipients and nominate your favorite locally owned businesses or nonprofits in LD2 to thank them for the vital role they play in making our community the safe, thriving, unique place it is.
Be Part of the Team To Win for Everyday Arizonans
Volunteer For Our Campaign
We're already hard at work contacting voters in our community about what's at stake in the race for our Legislative District 2 House and Senate seats: a new majority that's listening and working for everyday Arizonans. But no one can do it alone.
The two most important things to do right now are
Join a Community Canvass. We're knocking doors and getting petition signatures to qualify for the ballot as we listen to fellow voters who want a legislature committed to addressing our shared priorities. Use this link to find a day and time that works for you. We'll buddy you up with someone experienced. We need door knockers and drivers.
Donate to our campaign. We need everyone's help to pay for the staff, literature, and other advertising that are essential to winning this competitive race.