By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — The failure of state lawmakers to wrap up their business by now is going to hit them in the pockets — some harder than other.

State law gives legislators from Maricopa County $35 a day for every day of the session in what’s called “per diem.” That runs seven days a week, regardless of whether they are at the Capitol. But the law also says that drops to $10 a day after the 120th day of the session. And Tuesday is Day 121.

Out-county lawmakers used to get $60 a day. But legislators pushed through a measure in 2021 to raise that to the General Services Administration rate, the figure used by the federal government to reimburse employees on the road. That is currently $252 a day, covering both lodging and an allowance for meals.

But on Day 121, that gets cut in half.

That cut in allowance for lawmakers was designed to spur them to come to Phoenix, get their business done and go home.

It isn’t the only sign this isn’t meant to be more than a part-time job.
By rule, the session is supposed to end the Saturday of the week of the 100th day. That came and went on April 23.

Only thing is, that’s just a rule. And it takes only a majority voice vote of each chamber to ignore it.

What they cannot simply override that way is the cut in their allowance that now kicks in.

Action has slowed to a crawl in the past few weeks as lawmakers, done with most routine matters, have been meeting just one day a week, though they continue to get their daily allowance for all seven days.
So why is the session dragging on?

Senate President Warren Petersen told Capitol Media Services the blame lies with Gov. Katie Hobbs.

“We are still here because the governor has not been serious until recently about negotiating the budget,” he said. “We have been ready since late December.”

House Speaker Ben Toma agrees.

“The gov hasn’t been serious about negotiating a budget,” he said.

GOP lawmakers have complained for months that the governor has not been actively engaged in negotiations. Hobbs acknowledged last month she was waiting for new revenue projections in hopes they would show an improvement — and the need to cut less.

In fact, press aide Christian Slater confirmed, at least at this point, his boss has not been personally involved in the budget talks.

But two weeks ago she ordered state agencies to limit new hiring, though she declined to call it a hiring freeze. She also directed state agency chiefs to present her with plan to trim 4% from spending in the current fiscal year as well as a 2% cut in the new budget that begins July 1.

Part of the reason for the slow progress is Hobbs built her budget on a plan to roll back the universal vouchers, approved in 2022, that allow all parents to get state funds to send their children to private and parochial schools as well as get cash for expenses of at-home learning. That has proven to be a non-starter with the Republican-controlled Legislature.

“Budget negotiations are happening,” Hobbs said last Thursday.

“They are moving along,” she continued. “And I anticipate we’ll be able to wrap up really soon.”

Toma said he is optimistic.

“Things are finally moving along with budget negotiations,” he said. “So my hope is we will get somewhere over the next few weeks.”

Finances, however, are just part of the delay in lawmakers going home. There are some last-minute issues GOP lawmakers hope to get across the finish line.

One involves immigration. House and Senate committees are schedule to take action this week to send a measure to voters to enact a version of SB4 from Texas. That is the law that seeks to empower state and local police to arrest anyone who entered this country at anywhere other than an official point of entry. It also would allow judges to suspend prosecution of the person agreed to return to his or her own country.

Lawmakers approved an identical measure earlier this year over the objections of Democrats who said it would lead to racial profiling. They said there would be no way for a police officer who is not standing at the border to know how someone entered this country — or whether or not they actually are citizens.

Hobbs vetoed the measure, saying problems at the border are a federal issue. What will be HCR 2060 would bypass the governor and send the issue directly to the November ballot.

Whether it would be enforceable is another matter. That Texas law has been placed on hold while a lawsuit litigating its legality works its way through the federal courts.

All this comes back to the fact it is now early May, far past that self-imposed deadline of the week of the 100th day, and lawmakers are still here.

Still, even at 121 days, it is still far shorter than the 2023 session which went 171 days. And even that is less than the record set in 1988 of 173 days, a time when out-county lawmakers got just $20 a day for everything after 120 days.