Arizona State Senate President Andy Biggs and Speaker of the House Andy Tobin provide a preview of the 2013 legislative session.

The 51st Legislature is under way and senators are at work. The session began with opening ceremonies on Monday, January 14. The gallery was full of guests who were invited to watch the ceremonies. After the call to order, a prayer was led by Jose R. Montenegro, pastor of Apostolic Assembly in Surprise, Arizona.

Senator Gail Griffin, Arizona District 14, visited Graham County last week on Dec. 12 and 13. Her goal was to make herself available to constituents by attending community functions in order to better understand the strengths as well as the areas in which she might make improvements to benefit the people in (parts of) Graham, Greenlee, Cochise and Pima counties by being a catalyst for change on a legislative level. One of the senator’s first stops in Graham County was the Gila Watershed Partnership meeting at the Graham County General Services Building on Dec. 12 at 7 p.m.

Senate President-elect Andy Biggs sits down with Arizona Capitol Television to talk about the upcoming legislative session.

Senator-Elect Kimberly Yee (R-Phoenix) has been selected to serve in leadership for the nation’s oldest organization addressing the needs of elected women at all levels of government.

“I support the decision today by Governor Brewer that Arizona will not operate its own Health Insurance Exchange. I appreciate her thoughtful deliberation and the research of the Governor and her advisers on the concept of an exchange run by the state.

Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, is happy to have had a part in turning around the state’s multimillion-dollar budget deficit. His hope for the new year is “to continue keeping the state solvent and still encourage business.”

Senator-elect Kimberly Yee has been chosen to lead the Senate Committee on Education. Senate President-elect Andy Biggs made the announcement this afternoon.

Sen.-elect Yee has a long history with education policy. In California, she was chosen by then-Governor Pete Wilson to be a policy analyst to the California State Board of Education. She has also worked as a research analyst for the Arizona Senate Committee on Education, and has 16 years of experience in public education.

Senate President-elect Andy Biggs today announced Senate committees and the chairs overseeing them for the 51st Legislature.

Senator Don Shooter will continue to chair the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Senator Shooter chaired the committee last year, producing a balanced budget with new funding for education and hundreds of millions in a rainy day fund.

The Marines of Recruiting Station Phoenix came to the Arizona State Senate on November 9 to celebrate the United States Marine Corps’ 237th birthday. The Marine Corps was created by a resolution of the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775. The Senate ceremony included Dr. Lance Hurley portraying George Washington. He read an official proclamation from Governor Janice K. Brewer, announcing November 2012 as “Marine Corps Month” in Arizona. The Marines also honored a 60 year tradition of cutting the ceremonial birthday cake, which has come to symbolize the passing of tradition from generation to generation. In keeping with that idea, the oldest and youngest Marines present at the ceremony were recognized

Arizona Week took a half-hour look at the state of Arizona’s economy this month. Senate Majority Leader Andy Biggs was featured, discussing where we stand and where we are headed.

Senator Sylvia Allen joined Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu in Florence today to announce the creation of an Anti-Smuggling Posse (ASP) Armed members of the ASP will assist PCSO SWAT members in fighting drug smugglers.

Senator Jerry Lewis appeared on Fox 10 News Tuesday night to talk about the Commerce Department’s threat to end a tomato importation agreement with Mexico, potentially killing thousands of jobs in Arizona.

Senator Nancy Barto will join a panel discussing health care at the state and federal level. The event is Tuesday morning at Alexi’s Grill, at 3550 N. Central Ave., Suite 120. Registration begins at 7 a.m., and the panel discussion starts at 7:15 a.m. Morning Scoop is sponsored by the Arizona Capitol Times. There is no charge and a continental breakfast is included.

Senator Lewis proposes historic reforms to lobbyist – legislator disclosure laws

(State Capitol, Phoenix)—State Senator Jerry Lewis (R-Mesa) today unveiled a legislative reform package that will dramatically simplify the public’s ability to find out who is lobbying their elected representatives and on behalf of which interests—all with a simple click of the mouse.

“For too long, our legislative activities—including meals with lobbyists—have been hidden behind a confusing curtain of unclear rules and an antiquated public database—but no longer,” Senator Lewis declared. “This proposal aims to shine the light of transparency on the legislative process and ensure that the public has the information it needs to hold elected officials accountable.”

When enacted, Senator Lewis’s proposal will establish an online interactive database on the Secretary of State’s website and require that lobbyists and legislators use the site to independently disclose any meal, event ticket, or other event paid for by a lobbyist in the course of legislative advocacy, thus creating a checks-and-balance system that holds both parties in the transaction accountable for its disclosure. As currently envisioned, this innovative online tool will significantly enhance legislative transparency by:

 Providing up-to-date tracking of lobbyist expenditures  Requiring real-time reporting by lobbyists and legislators  Making both reporting and searching easy with a simple interactive tool  Allowing the public to search for disclosures by legislator, lobbyist or client  Simplifying the reporting process for legislators and lobbyists

Under Senator Lewis’s plan, lawmakers and lobbyists will use the website to report any expenditure that is required to be disclosed by state statute. Lawmakers will be required to disclose the event and the lobbyist with whom they met, while lobbyists will be required to disclose the legislator and the client they were representing.

“While lobbyists are currently required to disclose virtually any transaction they make on behalf of an elected official, current statute only requires those transactions to be disclosed every three months, after which they are displayed on a technologically obsolete database that provides very little practical information to the public,” Senator Lewis explained. “This proposal aims to fix these shortcomings and bring the state’s database into the 21st century.”

Senator Lewis’s plan has already received the backing of some of Arizona’s most respected community leaders and elected officials.

“Having previously identified needed areas of reform, I am encouraged by Senator Lewis’ proposal that we will undertake steps necessary to reform reporting requirements and mechanisms,” County Attorney Bill Montgomery said. “I look forward to working with Senator Lewis in the upcoming legislative session.”

Arizona State Senate President Steve Pierce (R-Prescott) announced that Senator Lewis’s proposal would have his support. “I fully support Senator Lewis’s plan, which I believe will enhance transparency and strengthen the public’s trust in their elected officials.”

State Senator John McComish (R-Ahwatukee) echoed Pierce’s remarks. “I am glad to see Senator Lewis take on this critical issue and will be proud to co-sponsor the legislation when it is formally introduced in January.”

“In Phoenix we’ve taken active steps to make sure the public has full confidence that decisions are made in the public interest, including improving transparency and forming an ethics task force,” says Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. “The more we can improve public confidence at all levels of government, including the state legislature, the better off we’ll be as a state.

Jack Brown, a former Senate Minority Leader and longtime lawmaker, endorsed the concept in Senator Lewis’s proposal. “Common sense is a rare thing at the State Capitol, but this proposal makes sense to me. I would gladly vote for it if I were still at the legislature.”

Senator Lewis, who began working on this issue immediately upon taking office last January, made it clear that he intends to sit down with members of the lobbying community and elected officials before the next session begins to ensure that his proposal is a consensus bill that enjoys broad support.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that this important piece of legislation is among the first to pass in the upcoming legislative session.”

“Along with my friends and neighbors who live near the border, I express my profound sadness at the loss of one of our courageous Border Patrol agents and extend my deepest condolences to the families of the agent killed and the other agent wounded.

The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI were quick to respond and they are searching for the suspects in this disgusting act of violence on the people who protect us.

This morning’s shooting reinforces what many of us in Arizona have known for years—that our southern border is not secure, that armed drug and human smugglers remain a grave threat, and that the federal government’s response to the situation has been totally inadequate.

The safety of our citizens must be a fulltime priority, not just something we focus upon after a tragedy. Our men and women in uniform face these dangers every day, and we owe it to them to address this issue once and for all. The federal government continues to drag its feet, so Arizona must step forward and do all it can.”

“Arizona’s hearts are heavy today on the news of the death of Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever. Cochise County could not have had a better fighter for its residents. He always had the best interests in mind for the community.

To many people, Larry Dever WAS Cochise County. He was born in St. David, grew up there and joined the Sheriff’s Department back in 1976. In 1996, voters made him their Sheriff.

Larry was always ready to come up to Phoenix to let state leaders know what was happening in his county. No one better articulated concerns about illegal immigration and drug smuggling and how they impacted residents. My fellow ranchers who live near the border knew they could count on Sheriff Dever. His voice will be missed.

My condolences go out today to his wife Nancy, their six boys and 11 grandchildren “

You’ve probably heard lawmakers exclaiming that their priorities are “jobs, jobs and jobs”. No matter what the issue of the day happens to be, leaders on both sides of the aisle will say the focus must be on jobs and the economy. But I don’t blame some of the more cynical parts of the electorate to question whether those words ever turn into action. What are Arizona leaders doing to create jobs and bring back this economy? I would point to an announcement on August 14 as evidence Republicans are making the right decisions in public policy and re-establishing Arizona as a leader in the national recovery.

That day the Intel Corporation announced it will start building a $300 million research and development facility in Chandler. The company says that facility will create several hundred well-paying jobs. This is on top of the massive construction project well-underway on the Chandler Intel campus. The Fab 42 manufacturing facility will be completed next year, and the company says it will hire one thousand people for that plant.

Clearly these are exciting numbers to see as we climb out of the economic downturn. A private company is pouring billions of dollars into an expansion of its already-large operations in our state. These decisions weren’t made in a vacuum. We can point to specific decisions made by Republicans in the Senate and House, along with the Governor, that led to these positive economic developments.

Last year, the Governor called a special session to enact the Arizona Competiveness Package. Within this sweeping tax reform and business incentive plan were many items that a company such as Intel would look at when considering an expansion in Arizona.

We lowered the state’s tax rate for commercial property from 20% to 18%, a tremendous reduction for a $300 million facility. The corporate income tax is being phased down from almost 7% to 4.9% by 2016, becoming the fifth-lowest rate in the country. We raised the sales factor from 80% to 100%, meaning a company such as Intel that sells products around the world will have a much bigger reason to stay and expand in our state.

The Arizona Competiveness Package also included a Quality Jobs Program, providing a tax credit of $3,000 per new employee. We improved upon this in our last legislative session, lifting a 400 employee cap on the credit, so that a company such as Intel will benefit from the credit for the 500+ new employees it hires.

I don’t pretend to claim that legislation passed into law was the only reason for Intel’s expansion in Chandler. What I do know is the Majority in the Legislature laid the groundwork for companies large and small to flourish. It’s crystal clear that Arizona is now a business-friendly state, and we all benefit from an outstanding company investing, expanding and hiring here. My hope is that this announcement is just the start.

Sen. Steve Yarbrough Chairman, Senate Finance Committee

On Thursday Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Patricia Trebesch issued a temporary restraining order banning the sale of dangerous synthetic drugs such as “bath salts” in Yavapai County. I applaud this ruling. Bath salts are a public safety crisis and my county has been hit hard. Emergency rooms in Yavapai County are reporting on average twenty ER visits each week by people suffering reactions to synthetic drugs. They ingested drugs bought at stores in Prescott, Sedona, Cottonwood and throughout the Verde Valley.

Yavapai County Attorney Shelia Polk is doing an outstanding job in

combating this scourge. So is Senator Linda Gray, who I have been working with to fight this menace that is tearing apart families and putting the public at risk. This past session we swiftly passed a bill that was signed by the Governor to outlaw the synthetic drugs we have been aware of, and we are looking for ways to continue to address this concern in the next legislative session. Judge Trebesch’s order is now another step in getting these life-threatening drugs off the shelves.”

Alarmed by the potential impact of new environmental regulations on the local economy, State Senator Sylvia Allen (R-Snowflake) will testify before a public hearing conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding a federal plan that has the potential to close one or more units at the Cholla Generating Station near Joseph City.

The Tuesday, August 14 hearing will solicit public feedback on the EPA’s decision to reject Arizona’s plan to address regional haze (a visibility, not health issue) in favor of a federal plan that would require Arizona utilities to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to install new and expensive technology on existing power plants, including Cholla. If implemented, the plan could force the utility to close one or more units at the generating station.

“I am appalled that the EPA is considering new regulations that could do significant harm to Navajo County’s economy at virtually the same time that we’re struggling to deal with the closure of the Catalyst Paper Mill near Snowflake,” Allen said. “I look forward to defending my constituents against the Obama Administration’s extreme environmental agenda.”

WHAT: EPA public hearings on new regional haze regulations.

WHO: State Senator Sylvia Allen.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 14, 6 pm.

WHERE: Northland Pioneer College (Tiponi Conference Room).