Arizona Senate President Steve Pierce, Senate Minority Leader Dave Schapira, political consultant Bob Grossfeld, and political consultant Barrett Marson talk about the most recent legislative session. They touch on the budget, education, redistricting, and various bills.

Pierce says the most recent legislative session focused on finding a place between moderate and conservative decisions. The budget concentrated on putting money back into programs and maintaining a balanced budget, but Pierce says it’s important to have a rainy day fund just in case. He says the money is there for a time of greater need, and if that time never comes the money will still be there to spend. Pierce says he also made sure to hold some bills back to prevent controversy and do what’s right for the people of Arizona.

Schapira says there were some crazy bills that still made it through the legislature, but Pierce was still more reasonable than his predecessor. Marson says that Schapira’s definition of what a crazy bill is doesn’t necessarily match up with everyone else’s, and that this session was much better than last session. Grossfeld says that the real problem is the legislature operates based on an economic theory that doesn’t work, they’ve put money back into education but it’s not nearly as much as they previously took out.