I will finish out the month of June in San Diego, leaving behind a state without a clear future.
Today showed how chaotic and non-transparent this whole session has been. Over 400 public education supporters met at the capitol to hold a last minute rally and to protest the bad budget proposed by the governor and Republican legislative leadership.
The people who showed up between 8:00 and 9:00 am were in good spirits and ready to talk to any legislators who would listen. The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to hear all of the budget bills at 9:00. We planned on packing the room.
9:00 came and went.
Approps was moved to 10:00, then 11:00. It convened a little after 11:30 once Representative Rich Crandall (R-19) arrived from New York via plane. At that point, chairman John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) felt he had enough votes to proceed.
When the educators first tried to enter the House chambers, the security there panicked a bit and locked the doors. The size of the crowd seemed overwhelming (I assume), but after a bit of talking they re-opened the doors so the citizens could watch their legislature in action.
And watch we did... for over 5 hours.
It became clear that hardly anyone sitting on the committee knew what was in the budgets. Only the leadership of both the House and the Senate and the governor (about 3-5 people) had been working on the budget items. Now the committee would hear them (hundreds of pages of financial data and policy changes they had been in possession of since the evening before!) and vote.
It was pretty one-sided, with the Republicans voting for the budget proposals-- cutting hundreds of millions from education, reducing business taxes, permanently repealing the county education tax, and institution a flat tax (which would cost the state an estimated $450 million in additional revenue)... and the Democratic members voting against the measures.
Chairman Kavanagh, however, suddenly ended the meeting before hearing the controversial flat-tax measure. It quickly became apparent they did not have enough votes to support passage.
It would be hard to say with certainty that the rally prevented all of the bills being passed out of the House. I will say this. When the morning began, every lobbyist there thought the bills would be heard in committee in the morning and in the House COW (Committee of the Whole) in the afternoon, then passed over to the senate for the same process to occur on Monday.
But that didn't happen.
When nearly 500 people show up on a Saturday morning, march around and chant "Save Our Schools," sign up in opposition to a bunch of bad bills, and pack the committee hearing room-- sometimes the good guys win.
There is another protest set for Monday. If you can make it, maybe you can help advocate for students and schools. Maybe... we CAN make a difference after all.
It sure beats sitting still and taking it.
Here are some images from the protest:
Today showed how chaotic and non-transparent this whole session has been. Over 400 public education supporters met at the capitol to hold a last minute rally and to protest the bad budget proposed by the governor and Republican legislative leadership.
The people who showed up between 8:00 and 9:00 am were in good spirits and ready to talk to any legislators who would listen. The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to hear all of the budget bills at 9:00. We planned on packing the room.
9:00 came and went.
Approps was moved to 10:00, then 11:00. It convened a little after 11:30 once Representative Rich Crandall (R-19) arrived from New York via plane. At that point, chairman John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) felt he had enough votes to proceed.
When the educators first tried to enter the House chambers, the security there panicked a bit and locked the doors. The size of the crowd seemed overwhelming (I assume), but after a bit of talking they re-opened the doors so the citizens could watch their legislature in action.
And watch we did... for over 5 hours.
It became clear that hardly anyone sitting on the committee knew what was in the budgets. Only the leadership of both the House and the Senate and the governor (about 3-5 people) had been working on the budget items. Now the committee would hear them (hundreds of pages of financial data and policy changes they had been in possession of since the evening before!) and vote.
It was pretty one-sided, with the Republicans voting for the budget proposals-- cutting hundreds of millions from education, reducing business taxes, permanently repealing the county education tax, and institution a flat tax (which would cost the state an estimated $450 million in additional revenue)... and the Democratic members voting against the measures.
Chairman Kavanagh, however, suddenly ended the meeting before hearing the controversial flat-tax measure. It quickly became apparent they did not have enough votes to support passage.
It would be hard to say with certainty that the rally prevented all of the bills being passed out of the House. I will say this. When the morning began, every lobbyist there thought the bills would be heard in committee in the morning and in the House COW (Committee of the Whole) in the afternoon, then passed over to the senate for the same process to occur on Monday.
But that didn't happen.
When nearly 500 people show up on a Saturday morning, march around and chant "Save Our Schools," sign up in opposition to a bunch of bad bills, and pack the committee hearing room-- sometimes the good guys win.
There is another protest set for Monday. If you can make it, maybe you can help advocate for students and schools. Maybe... we CAN make a difference after all.
It sure beats sitting still and taking it.
Here are some images from the protest:
The crowd surpassed 200 quickly.
It became pretty warm by mid morning, but everyone found shade and cold water.
A steady stream of citizens poured into the House chambers, filling four hearing rooms in addition to the room the Appropriations Committee was meeting in.
Several speakers came in to talk to about the budget process (and lack thereof) while we waited for Appropriations to begin.
This is about an hour before the committee finally met. Don't let anyone tell you the crowd was disorderly. They waited patiently two hours in the sun and another 90 minutes inside.
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