Happs at the Cap

by: Mark Brodie

May 06, 2005

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( Phoenix, AZ ) Happs at the Cap is a weekly inside look at, well, happenings at the state capitol.

There’s an old story from Washington, DC, that you could always tell when something big was going down in the world when the pizza delivery guy showed up at the White House. Using that standard, Arizona might as well have been getting ready to declare war on New Mexico around 7:00 on Thursday night; let’s just say the pizza places in the downtown area did pretty well for themselves.

Without giving away the total number of games of computer solitaire played, suffice it to say much of the day and night was pretty boring. A brief (and not totally complete) timeline:

2:30 pm: House and Senate are scheduled to go to the floor

2:30 pm: Neither chamber is on the floor

4:00 pm: Republicans and Democrats in both chambers are scheduled to hold caucus meetings

4:00 pm: Not happening

7:00 pm: Broadcast news reporters go to get their pizza

9:50 pm: Still nothing happening. Several reporters question what’s for breakfast.

The Senate finally went on the floor at about 11:45, and the House followed suit a few minutes later. And, when all was said and done, the legislature had passed a budget that the governor is expected to sign. For the record, all was said and done on Friday morning at about 3:30….more than 12 hours after they were scheduled to start. Cold pizza, anyone?

The new medical school in Phoenix ($7 mil) and expanded all day kindergarten ($17 mil) have been getting all the budget headlines, but the $8.2 billion dollar spending plan has a lot more to it. Some highlights: corrections officers will get about a $1400 pay raise, as will Department of Juvenile Corrections officers. Lawmakers restored funding to Dine College on the Navajo Reservation, and the Governor’s Office of Equal Opportunity. The rainy day fund will keep the $63 million lawmakers proposed taking out in the first budget. And, there will be a series of tax breaks and credits, including reducing the business property tax, tax breaks for movie companies that shoot in the state, and the corporate tuition tax credit.

The next question is when will it all end. The session, that is. Now that the budget is more or less done, many lawmakers are optimistic they can adjourn soon, maybe by the end of the week. That means they’ll overshoot their target 100 day session by about 20 days.

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