The Daily Agenda: Let's make a deal

One last chance on Prop 400 ... From toilet to tap that keg ... And it's really not that hot.

The longest session in the history of the Arizona Legislature will swing back into action next week as lawmakers from across the state descend on Phoenix after their latest extended break.

But it’s still unclear whether they’ll end the year on a high note by pulling off a grand bargain on extending Prop 400, or on a low note, admitting that after months of dragging negotiations, they couldn’t reach a compromise to achieve one of the most basic government functions: to build roads. 

Instead of closing up shop shortly after they passed a bipartisan budget in mid-May, legislative leaders kept the session open this year, saying they’re still trying to work out a deal¹ with Gov. Katie Hobbs to pass an extension of Prop 400, the soon-to-expire sales tax to fund transportation infrastructure in Maricopa County. They set a June deadline. Then they pushed the deadline to next Monday, July 31.

Sending voters a new Prop 400 before it expires is a major priority, if you like roads, highways and public transportation, especially the Light Rail. The problem is, many Republican lawmakers don’t like the Light Rail and don’t want to fund its expansion or even maintenance. 

So for months, lawmakers and the governor have been attempting to hammer out a deal that gives both sides some of what they want.

• Hobbs wants an extension of Prop 400 that she can sign, presumably meaning it includes some level of ongoing funding for the Light Rail, at least for maintenance, if not expansion.

• Republicans want Hobbs to sign a bill that would prohibit cities from charging a tax on rental properties, which, as previously noted, would save Hank about $40 per month but would cost cities somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million per year that they spend on services like police and fire.

• And Republicans also allegedly want to tinker with a planned Light Rail line to ensure it doesn’t go near the Capitol. The inclusion of a line near the Capitol sparked outrage among some Republican lawmakers earlier this year. 

As of last week, Hobbs’ Chief of Staff Chad Campbell was still meeting with Josh Kredit and Michael Hunter, the chiefs of staff to Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma, respectively. But it’s a tight circle. Lawmakers — especially Democrats, who don’t have a representative in the negotiating room — are in the dark as to whether the two sides have made any progress. 

What’s clear is there hasn’t been a breakthrough yet. What’s less clear is if one can be reached before Monday. 

Recently, the negotiators have started asking partners for data about hypothetical deals, a sign that a real deal may be in the works, one source who has been involved in negotiations noted. But the fact that those meetings are staff-only with no lawmakers in the room shows any potential deal isn’t very far along, another source noted. 

There are other complications that could nullify any chance of progress. Lawmakers are on vacation, and several don’t even plan to be at the Capitol Monday. The air conditioning in the House is partly out as the chamber does summer renovations, so holding people there for longer than a day or two is shakey. And the Freedom Caucus, which has been adamantly against any new Light Rail funding, is sure to cook up some sort of shenanigans for when lawmakers return.

If a deal is close, but not quite nailed down, lawmakers could again go into recess, dragging out the longest session in history even longer, one suggested. That’s the worst possible outcome. 

If lawmakers and the governor reach a breakthrough in negotiations on Prop 400, this year’s prolonged legislative session will be worth it. But so far, the only tangible benefit to dragging out the session has been to pay lawmakers their per diems longer. 

If lawmakers and the governor can’t reach a deal by Monday, we doubt more time will do the trick. 

Leave it to the pros: Gov. Katie Hobbs sent power providers a letter demanding to know what they’re doing to prepare for record heat. But energy companies don’t answer to the governor, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer explains, and regulating them is the Corporation Commission’s job. But for what it’s worth, APS set a one-day energy use record Thursday, when customers used 8,193 megawatts of power.

Hauling water: The new “standpipe district” in the Rio Verde Foothills area held its first meeting, the Republic’s Sasha Hupka reports, as the new government board prepares to solicit water providers to bring a steady supply to the wildcat development. It’s not just humans who need water trucked in — the Washington Post details Arizona wildlife managers’ attempts to keep watering holes filled with water for thirsty animals. 

Tastes skunky: A California company is turning wastewater into beer, the New York Times notes. But the company can’t sell its beer in California, which prohibits drinking wastewater, so it’s selling the recycled water beer in Arizona instead, where Gilbert-based Desert Monks Brewing Company is already brewing with former toilet water. 

Slip of the tongue: After U.S. Rep. Eli Crane referred to people of color as “colored people” on the floor of the U.S. House, Toni Gibbons of his local paper the White Mountain Independent caught up with Crane at a parade and asked about it. 

“Messing up your words or messing up a statement does not make you a racist,” Crane said. 

Not worth the money: Mesa Republican lawmaker Jacqueline Parker claims she’s traveling to the Capitol from her Pinal County home even though she seemingly lives at her other home in Maricopa County, which means she has collected an additional $30,000 this year in mileage and per diem payments, Substacker Dillon Rosenblatt reports after pulling her mileage, per diem and voting registration records. Parker didn’t respond to his questions about it.

Porking up the budget: Substacker Robert Robb complains that the state budget is now precariously close to ending up in the red, if lower-than-expected revenues continue. But he says that’s more due to GOP leaders’ decision to send lawmakers on a “pork-barrel spending spree” than on universal vouchers, as Democrats claim. 

“There was a less irresponsible way to do even this,” Robb writes. “The amount of the pork could have been limited to a sum that still provided a somewhat reasonable reserve and cushion, say in the $200 million to $400 million range.”

It’s official: A federal judge officially blocked Arizona’s law banning filming within eight feet of police after ordering an injunction against the law last year, the Associated Press reports. The law was so clearly unconstitutional that even former Attorney General Mark Brnovich refused to defend it.

To mine or not to mine: Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar and a panel of his fellow Republican congressmen argued that mining in Oak Flat is essential to Arizona’s economy, saying if Arizona doesn’t mine minerals, the Chinese will do it, Debra Utacia Krol reports in the Republic. But in the LA Times, Terry Rambler, chair of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, asks why on earth the Biden administration would approve the mine when it’ll mean giving away $400 million worth of groundwater to the mining company. 

Too hot for cages: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is holding people in a chain-link pen in the sun near Ajo, The Intercept reports. And the number of migrants apprehended crossing the border in June hit a two-year low, Cronkite News’ Shelly Garzon notes.

“From a ridge overlooking the Border Patrol’s facility, the migrants could be seen gathered under a carport-like structure, crowding themselves into a single, narrow strip of shade to escape the desert sun. The only furniture available was a short stack of metal bleachers baking in the extreme heat,” The Intercept’s Ryan Devereaux reports.

The Daily Star’s Tim Steller takes on our favorite new summer conspiracy: That it’s not actually as hot as the weather reports claim.

Apparently after our great success in stealing the 2020 and 2022 election, we in the media are now in cahoots with the National Weather Service to juke the weather stats.

Here’s a tweet that about sums up the weather denialism that’s sweeping the state.

1. That explanation for keeping the session open always struck us as slightly suspect: If the governor and lawmakers actually reach a deal on sending a question to the ballot, Hobbs can call them into a special session to ratify it any time.