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Arizona: Sen. Ron Gould

August 13, 2009 - 09:18 am
NEWS FEED: Blog for Arizona

Special Session Update: After six weeks, it's back to the "fatally flawed" July 1 budget

By AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It appears that the "Sham-Wow!" budget deal from last Friday is now officially dead, taking with it Sen. Jack Harper's four amendments (one of which would have screwed Tucson out of its Rio Nuevo funding). The Senate has killed the decoupled sales tax referral measure and the linked personal and corporate income tax cuts to lure votes for the sales tax referral in the Senate. The remainder of the budget as passed by the House last week was approved by the Senate on Wednesday.

An effort to finally enact a compromise plan to balance the state budget blew up Wednesday as Senate Republican leaders could not line up the votes for the key provision demanded by Gov.

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August 4, 2009 - 01:38 pm
NEWS FEED: Arizona Republic

Gorman steps down; Gould wants in

Senate Majority Whip Pamela Gorman is stepping down as the Senate's #3, citing "ideological and philosophical differences" on taxes and spending.
The Anthem Republican's departure caps weeks of tumult as she clashed with Senate President Bob Burns and Gov. Jan Brewer over the sales-tax referral that leadership had agreed to.
Her resignation drew a prompt response from Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, who is telling fellow Senate Republicans that he would like to step into the post. The whip is elected by members of the Senate GOP caucus.
In her resignation letter to Burns, Gorman cited the seemingly irreconcilable tax issue.
"(T)his ...

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There have been 25 comments posted in response to this story.

August 4, 2009 - 10:41 am
NEWS FEED: Blog for Arizona

Special Session Update: Come back next week

By AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Tuesday kicks off the fifth week of the Special Session with a pledge and pray session, followed by Senate President Bob "Bluto" Burns trying to find two more Republican senators to get to 16 votes for the GOP budget in the Senate. Burns has stated that he will continue to try to pass the GOP budget with only Republicans, shutting out Democrats from any budget negotiations. What a swell guy.

Burns will not get his votes this week. As previously reported:

Two of his expected "yes" votes for the budget are on vacation this week: Sen. Jim Waring, R-Phoenix, and Majority Leader Chuck Gray, R-Mesa.

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There have been 20 comments posted in response to this story.

July 31, 2009 - 01:23 pm
NEWS FEED: Blog for Arizona

Special Session Update: Sen. Jack Harper will trade his vote to stick it to Tucson; will Sen. Al Melvin and Sen. Jonathan Paton betray Tucson and its business community?

By AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: OK, Here's what we do know. The Arizona House has already passed the 10-bill compromise budget with 32 Republican votes. Half the dirty deed is done. In the Senate, Sen. Ron Gould, Sen. Pamela Gorman, and Sen....

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July 31, 2009 - 12:05 pm
NEWS FEED: Blog for Arizona

Special Session Update: Sen. Jack Harper will trade his vote to stick it to Tucson; will Sen. Al Melvin and Sen. Jonathan Paton betray Tucson and its business community?

By AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

OK, Here's what we do know. The Arizona House has already passed the 10-bill compromise budget with 32 Republican votes. Half the dirty deed is done.

In the Senate, Sen. Ron Gould, Sen. Pamela Gorman, and Sen. Jack Harper were opposed to the sales tax increase, creating a 15-15 tie vote, spelling defeat for the measure. I indicated yesterday the question was which one of these three Republicans would cave under pressure?

It turns out this was the wrong question. It was the Senate Finance Committee which caved in last night to the personal vendettas of Sen. Jack Harper in exchange for his vote on the 10-bill compromise budget.

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July 31, 2009 - 09:03 am
NEWS FEED: Blog for Arizona

Special Session Update: Rep. Steve Farley provides the play by play

By AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rep. Steve Farley (D-Tucson) in his latest Farley Report provides the play by play of the dirty dealings by Republicans in the Arizona Legislature.

"I know it's a few days early for the monthly edition of the Farley Report, but there is action to report on the budget front.

Unfortunately, that is not good news. 

You will recall in the last report I described a unanimous vote to restore and even increase funding to education and other important areas, and the hopeful beginning of negotiations between legislative Republicans and Democrats. 

At the very start of those talks, Republican leadership made us promise that there would be no side deals with the Governor, unless all parties agreed to it.

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There have been 27 comments posted in response to this story.

July 29, 2009 - 05:51 pm
NEWS FEED: Arizona Republic

Gould shown the door

Count Sen. Ron Gould out on the budget agreement. The Lake Havasu City Republican just strode out of Senate President Bob Burns' office. But not at his own instigation, which, Gould says, is usually how these things happen.
Instead, he said he was asked to leave.
"I can't support a tax increase," Gould said, referring to the proposal to ask voters to support a three-year temporary increase in the state sales tax.
  ...

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July 22, 2009 - 10:41 am
NEWS FEED: Blog for Arizona

The Accidental Governor floats a trial balloon to Democrats

By AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

At her Tuesday press conference, the Accidental Governor floated a trial balloon to Democratic legislators. She said that she might allow the state property tax to go back on the books this fall if doing so would result in Democratic support for a ballot referral to raise the sales tax. Brewer, Democrats dancing around a tax deal:

Democratic lawmakers have said they might agree to Brewer's desire to let Arizonans vote on raising the sales tax — but only if she also rejects Republican attempts to permanently repeal the property tax. That tax has been on hold for three years and is a different tax than local property taxes homeowners and businesses pay.

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July 19, 2009 - 06:08 pm
NEWS FEED: Blog for Arizona

Special Session Update: another week of comtemplating their navels

By AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Special Session rolls into its third week on Monday. Don't anticipate any breakthroughs on the budget. A number of legislators are out of town attending the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual convention in Philadelphia. Sixteen Arizona legislators are expected to be in attendance. Special session kicks off 3rd week

As a result, don't look for lawmakers to do much more on Monday than check in, do the pledge and invocation, and adjourn until next week.

Or maybe not. I spoke to several Democratic legislators at an event this weekend. One intimated to me that he has heard that Sen.

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There have been 23 comments posted in response to this story.

July 14, 2009 - 04:18 pm
NEWS FEED: Blog for Arizona

Hell about to freeze over?

By AZ BlueMeanie

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It appears that the GOP insane clown posse leadership may be losing control over its caucus.

Republicans held a closed door caucus meeting on Monday for what Majority Leader Chuck Gray (R-Mesa) described as discussions about "how our leadership team is functioning." He said that fit the legal exception for "organizational" meetings to justify gathering in private.

But the full wording of that exception actually is for "organizational meetings to elect officers of the caucus," something that was not done Monday. (Someone should explore filing a complaint for violation of the Open Meetings law.)

The GOP natives are starting to get restless and may be ready to give the Accidental Governor what she demands: referral of a sales tax increase to the ballot in a November special election.

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There have been 21 comments posted in response to this story.