Monday, November 23rd, 2009...12:55 pm
Who Knew Counting to 16 Would Be So Hard?
The Senate was supposed to convene at 10 AM, but no dice. Marszałek Senatu Bob Burns brokered a deal with Jorge García and Albert Hale which would have allowed schools on reservations to use impact aid for things like exces utilities. There is a sound policy reason for this: schools on reservations can’t depend on turning to local taxpayers the way other districts can, and this would have granted them an exemption to some of the cuts in state aid that off-reservation districts have to endure. Whatever the policy merits of the deal, this didn’t sit well across the courtyard with Kirk Adams. Adams objected mostly because he doesn’t want any deal that involves taking cuts out to satisfy Democrats. I’m sure that Adams also didn’t want his members coming up with reasons why their local school districts should be exempted too.
(By the way, Adams unwillingness even to allow the other chamber to cut side deals doesn’t bode well for either chamber being able to cut a true bipartisan compromise.)
Y’all remember that last special session where Burns was poking at Adams for being some sort of imcompetent that couldn’t get the job done? Well, it’s Adams’s turn to poke back. Last week, Burns passed some bills dealing with agency fixes as well as some legislation dealing with realtors and banks. But, he recessed before transmitting these bills to the house. Adams calls his members in for today thinking he could pass these bills, but he couldn’t because of that detail. Adams ain’t happy with calling in his members on Thanksgiving week with nothing to do. I’m not a big fan of the either the banking or realtor bill (which are special interest gifts as far as I’m concerned), so if they get stopped by incompetence, so be it.
NB – “Arizona Bill” designed by Bob Richards.
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