And They're Off!

The special session began shortly after 1:00pm today with both chambers of the legislature meeting shortly.

The senate reportedly had 23 members and the House had 38. Both were enough for a quorum (50% of members +1) so they were able to conduct business.

There were over 100 AEA members in attendance (below) as we continue our Heat Wave efforts into July! Our members and supporters filled up one of the hearing rooms to standing room only as we hold the legislators accountable to passing a budget which will not harm our schools.



The entire Arizona legislature immediately met on the House floor for a Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) briefing. You can read a copy of it in PDF format here.

They plan to first work on public education and medicare as without a budget they are in jeopardy of losing billions of federal assistance from the ARRA.

So far it has been fairly ugly. House Speaker Kirk Adams (R-Mesa) has called Governor Brewer (R) "reckless" and her veto "budget vandalism".

It was also reported via the Arizona Capitol Times that Senator Jay Tibshraeny (R-Chandler) became upset when he felt Senate President Bob Burns (R-Glendale) was not listening to his call for the legislature to attempt to work with the governor.

Regardless of the in-fighting, the Republican legislators are saying they will hammer out a 'new" budget to address the possible loss of federal dollars by 7:00pm and then come back a few weeks later to address everything else.

So, in six months they could not come up with a credible budget, but now they promise one in six hours.

Now THAT's leadership.