One thing to do right now!

Do  not wait! Right NOW email John Kavanagh. On Tuesday April 15th the Senate Appropriations Committee will vote on SB1734. The bill is a bad partisan attempt to fix the funding crisis facing a Disability program.

To paraphrase the info in the April 14th Weekly by Melinda Iyer: The program to be cut as soon as May 1 allows qualified vendor agencies to hire trained parents as direct care workers to provide extraordinary habilitation services and attendant care to their severely disabled children. This is happening because there aren’t enough existing direct care workers to go around. The bill’s proposed reforms would cause incalculable harm to the nearly 59,000 families across Arizona who rely on DDD.

John Kavanagh is Chair of the Appropriations Committee. Please email Kavanagh   JKavanagh@azleg.gov   Put SB1734 in the subject line. Message should be to vote NO and seek a clean bill that will not jeopardize the program and harm children and families. Identify yourself as an LD3 constituent.  You may also RTS on SB1734. Thumbs DOWN. A clean striker amendment will be offered by Sen Kuby which is a pure continuation. In RTS comment block as for a yes vote on a clean funding striker .

The same bill is being voted in the House with bill HB2945. You may RTS on this bill. Our two representatives are not on the House Appropriations Committee.  A “striker” amendment is being offered in the House Committee by Nancy Gutierrez-D which would make it a clean bill. Unlike HB2945, as written,  the striker to be offered does not reduce the program in the future or take needed money away from other programs.  Please use RTS for HB2945 with a Thumbs DOWN but add a comment to amend the bill with the Gutierrez striker. Please check out the full explanation on these two bills in The Weekly. 

Did you know? 

Statute already prohibits local jurisdictions from enacting regulations pertaining to firearms that are more prohibitive than state law. But that is not enough for our 2nd amendment rights lawmakers on firearm steroids. SB1705 seeks to put a $5,000 civil penalty on the individual agency head who would dare to try to keep their local jurisdiction safer than required by state statute. The bill also prohibits public funds  be used to defend the agency head. At issue are the state laws on transportation, possession, carrying, transfer, storage, licensing, registration or use of firearms.

The bill wants to make sure those working for any state jurisdiction (local governments, agencies) know they have no say in keeping their community safe and wants to personally penalize anyone for trying to do so.  The bill will be up for a floor vote in the House this week where Kolodin and Chaplik will vote.

It is already illegal for a physician to perform irreversible gender reassignment surgery on minors.

SB1586 makes healthcare professionals personally and strictly liable for costs and damages related to detransition procedures for minors who underwent gender transition and allows affected individuals to bring a civil action for compensation. This bill’s intent is to deter physicians willingness to perform any gender related surgery.

LD3’s two House representatives made a big show of pretending to advocate for Scottsdale’s voters to decide on zoning changes. Both Chaplik and Kolodin tried to look like they believed in representative government by voting against HB1543. The bill was written specifically to prevent Scottsdale voters from taking zoning changes for the Axon plant to voters after collecting sufficient signatures to put the issue on a ballot for voters to decide. The vote to pass was strangely bipartisan. At issue is not only changes to zoning restrictions, allowing for a large number of apartments to be built on an Axon campus, but also the fundamental issue of Scottsdale voters exercising their right to take a referendum to the voters. The razzle dazzle show both Chaplik and Kolodin put on in opposing the bill would be comical if not so hypocritical. They have voted against all other bills encouraging local jurisdictions to make local rules.

Rep. Kolodin did not miss an opportunity to go waaay off topic in his floor speech on SB1543. He used his time to throw barbs at Adrian Fontes who could be Kolodin’s opponent for Secretary of State in 2026. Another embarrassing Kolodin moment, among many.