Monday, May 13, 2013

Legislator Evaluation Update as of 5/10/13

8:29 PM | Posted by | Edit Post


Updated Ratings!!!


Arizona Conservative Coalition Republican Legislator Rankings
Legislative Actions as of 5/10/2013
Last Updated 5/13/2013


Narrative:

The number of bills being tracked is 255 plus 3 Strike All amended bills. One bill, HB2608, was just added to the evaluation. It was previously overlooked, but it is a terrific bill that moves the state government on the road to employee pension reform by switching a small group of employees from defined benefit to defined contribution retirement plans.
Here is what happened in the past week with bills that are part of the evaluation:
In the House:
SB1266, which provides penalties for illegal dumping of trash, passed the House. This bill, which we support, helps protect innocent property owners from people who would despoil their neighborhoods.

In the Senate:
HB2608, which switches new participants in relatively small state pension plan from defined benefit to defined contribution, passed the Senate on its second try when it was reconsidered after the first attempt failed due to absent Senators in favor of the bill. We support this bill.
HB2281, which requires tenants to be kept informed of foreclosure activity on the property they are leasing, passed the Senate. We support this bill because it helps protect defendants from being defrauded by defaulting property owners.

We have added a new feature to the ratings. There is now a section showing scoring exceptions for a legislator voting NO on a bill in order to make a motion to reconsider it. This is explained in the score section in more detail. The basic idea is that, in this special case, a NO vote is counted as a YES vote in the evaluation because the legislator is actually advancing the bill by using the NO vote as a parliamentary tactic to be permitted to give the bill another chance to be voted on.
As we near the end of the session, we remind legislators as well as the voters to beware of omnibus bills and last minute amendments that can contain legislative language that might be glossed over to sneak it past legislators. This is often done by overwhelming legislators with too many pages of legislation to read before voting or by making last minute changes that are difficult to properly evaluate before a vote. Legislators should understand that any bill containing legislative language from a bill that we gave a negative weight may get the negative weight of that negatively weighted bill regardless of how many good things are also in the revised bill currently being voted on. Since it will be impossible for the contents of omnibus bills or bills with last minute amendments to be known early enough for an announcement about how the bill weights will be reset for the evaluation, everyone needs to be aware that they will be evaluated on the final version of the bills they vote on after the votes take place. With the Governor digging in to pressure the legislature to expand Medicaid, we will be watching for that in late breaking bills as well as appropriation omnibus bills. We will also be looking for Common Core funding in omnibus bills. We strongly oppose both and will weight bills that include them accordingly.
These are NOT final scores for the session until our final report after the session ends! We encourage conservative activists to use these weekly evaluations as a way to work with legislators to achieve more conservative results in the legislative session.

The legislation causing the most lowering of scores is HB2047 combined with HB2045 which switches Arizona from the AIMS standard to the Common Core standard. Our concern is that Common Core surrenders state autonomy on education to the federal government and promotes nationalization of education. K-12 education, particularly inside a state, is clearly beyond the proper scope of the federal government, and Common Core makes federal usurpation even worse. In addition, the curriculum associated with Common Core relies on an international perspective instead of traditional study of American and World history. HB2425 was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor.
Other bills having a significant negative impact on scores remove significant limitations on school district spending, allow executive agencies to set fees in order to bypass limitations on the legislature raising taxes or fees, or increase government regulation of businesses.
Many Republican legislators have argued that good business regulations that “make people do the right thing” are good. This, unfortunately, is almost a perfect definition of fascism which Republicans traditionally oppose. There are always situations where we might wish others would deal with us on terms of our choosing when they are not willing to do so. Using government to force people to deal with us on our terms rather than mutually agreed upon terms is tyranny even if it is dressed up as consumer protection or professional responsibility or trying to improve market efficiency. Of course, in a free economy, people can decide for themselves what is good and make decisions on that basis as both consumers and businesses. Also, government regulations usually have unintended consequences that are usually bad. These consequences are then used to justify still more regulation when less regulation is the best solution.



To look at the legislator scores, click on legislative report.
 For bills used in evaluation, click on bill weights.

For detailed evaluation data, click on detail evaluation data.

For Frequently Asked Questions, click on  FAQs.
Sunday, May 5, 2013

Legislator Eval Update as of 5/3/13

9:27 PM | Posted by | Edit Post

Updated Ratings!!!



Arizona Conservative Coalition Republican Legislator Rankings
Legislative Actions as of 5/3/2013
Last Updated 5/5/2013


Narrative:

The number of bills being tracked is 254 plus 3 Strike All amended bills.
Here is what happened in the past week with bills that are part of the evaluation:
SB1316, which creates state regulation of house appraisers, passed the Senate in a final vote and was signed by the governor. This bill, which we oppose, adds economic regulation that does not protect consumers – it’s stated purpose. The added regulation creates barriers to entry to the home appraisal business which benefits appraisers since limited competition will allow them to charge more and hurts those financing house purchases who will bear the full cost of this government interference in the free market. This is another victory for industry lobbyists at the legislature, and a costly defeat for those home buyers who need a mortgage in order to buy a house.
SB1439, which allowed silver and gold to be used as legal tender in Arizona, passed a final read in the Senate, but it was vetoed by the governor. We support this bill which would have allowed Arizonans to protect themselves from inflation caused by the federal government printing more money.
HB2347, which allows the state and county treasurers more options on investing tax receipts to be used to pay off bonds in the future, passed the House. We oppose this bill because the investment options under current law are adequate and provide better protection for the taxpayers against loss. Even though the objective of the bill is to get more interest on financial reserves with modest risk, we feel it exposes taxpayers to more risk of loss due to fraud with relatively little financial gain. Generally, adding options and flexibility is great in the private sector, but it creates too many risks for mischief in the public sector. The legislators have more confidence in the good judgment and capabilities of current and future state and county treasurers than we do.
SB1369, which provides better protection for employers against illegitimate unemployment insurance claims, passed the House and will be going to the governor. We support this bill because it is fairer for employers and generally creates a better business climate which is good for the people of the state.
SB1470, which gives additional taxing authority to municipalities, passed the House and is going back to the Senate for a vote on the amended version. It is worth noting that NO votes were cast only by Republicans. This is a bill we oppose and we congratulate those Republicans who stood up for taxpayers by voting NO. Those who voted YES should reflect on why the Democrats were solidly behind this bill.
HB2303, which gives the same overtime pay benefits received by police officers to those assisting police officers, passed the House and is on the way to the governor. We oppose this bill because it increases the costs of overtime for government employees working with the police who are not actually police officers. It is bad for taxpayers.
HB2341, which allows certain routine home renovations to be done without government approval, passed the House and was signed by the governor. We supported this bill because it actually eliminated some government regulation.
SB2178, which allows more flexibility in administering fines for flood control violations, passed the House. We support this because it improves options for citizens who are accused of violating flood control rules.
SB1445, which requires public schools to provide information about school performance to parents before their children enroll in the school, passed the House. We support this bill since it gives parents more information to make school enrollment decisions for their children by forcing public schools to be accountable for their performance.

We have added a new feature to the ratings. There is now a section showing scoring exceptions for a legislator voting NO on a bill in order to make a motion to reconsider it. This is explained in the score section in more detail. The basic idea is that, in this special case, a NO vote is counted as a YES vote in the evaluation because the legislator is actually advancing the bill by using the NO vote as a parliamentary tactic to be permitted to give the bill another chance to be voted on.
As we near the end of the session, we remind legislators as well as the voters to beware of omnibus bills and last minute amendments that can contain legislative language that might be glossed to sneak it by legislators. This is often done by overwhelming legislators with too many pages of legislation to read before voting or by making last minute changes that are difficult to properly evaluate before a vote. Legislators should understand that any bill containing legislative language from a bill that we gave a negative weight may get the negative weight of that negatively weighted bill regardless of how many good things are also in the revised bill currently being voted on. Since it will be impossible for the contents of omnibus bills or bills with last minute amendments to be known early enough for an announcement about how the bill weights will be reset for the evaluation, everyone needs to be aware that they will be evaluated on the final version of the bills they vote on after the votes take place. With the Governor digging in to pressure the legislature to expand Medicaid, we will be watching for that in late breaking bills as well as appropriation omnibus bills. We will also be looking for Common Core funding in omnibus bills. We strongly oppose both and will weight bills that include them accordingly.
These are NOT final scores for the session until our final report after the session ends! We encourage conservative activists to use these weekly evaluations as a way to work with legislators to achieve more conservative results in the legislative session.

The legislation causing the most lowering of scores is HB2047 combined with HB2045 which switches Arizona from the AIMS standard to the Common Core standard. Our concern is that Common Core surrenders state autonomy on education to the federal government and promotes nationalization of education well beyond the proper scope of the federal government. In addition, the curriculum associated with Common Core relies on an international perspective instead of traditional study of American and World history. HB2425 was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor.
Other bills having a significant negative impact on scores remove significant limitations on school district spending, allow executive agencies to set fees in order to bypass limitations on the legislature raising taxes or fees, or increase government regulation of businesses.
Many Republican legislators have argued that good business regulations that “make people do the right thing” are good. This, unfortunately, is almost a perfect definition of fascism which Republicans traditionally oppose. There are always situations where we might wish others would deal with us on terms of our choosing when they are not willing to do so. Using government to force people to deal with us on our terms rather than mutually agreed upon terms is tyranny even if it is dressed up as consumer protection or professional responsibility or trying to improve market efficiency. Of course, in a free economy, people can decide for themselves what is good and make decisions on that basis as both consumers and businesses. Also, government regulations usually have unintended consequences that are usually bad. These consequences are then used to justify still more regulation when less regulation is the best solution.


To look at the legislator scores, click on legislative report.
 For bills used in evaluation, click on bill weights.

For detailed evaluation data, click on detail evaluation data.

For Frequently Asked Questions, click on  FAQs.
Sunday, April 28, 2013

Legislator Eval Update as of 4/26/13

9:52 PM | Posted by | Edit Post

Updated Ratings!!!



Arizona Conservative Coalition Republican Legislator Rankings
Legislative Actions as of 4/26/2013
Last Updated 4/28/2013


Narrative:

The number of bills being tracked is 254 plus 3 Strike All amended bills.
There were some bills voted on this week that increased economic regulations or expanded the delegation of law making (regulatory) authority from the legislature to the executive branch. There were votes to add regulatory requirements to insurance agents, add state regulation of Music Therapists, and burden private providers of Department of Motor Vehicle Services with regulations that it is likely the actual Department of Motor Vehicles is unable to comply with (the private companies can be shut down, though, while the government agency cannot be). Some Republican legislators voted against these laws, but many voted in favor of them (along with most Democrats).
We have added a new feature to the ratings. There is now a section showing scoring exceptions for a legislator voting NO on a bill in order to make a motion to reconsider it. This is explained in the score section in more detail. The basic idea is that, in this special case, a NO vote is counted as a YES vote in the evaluation because the legislator is actually advancing the bill by using the NO vote as a parliamentary tactic to be permitted to give the bill another chance to be voted on.
As we near the end of the session, we remind legislators as well as the voters to beware of omnibus bills and last minute amendments that can contain legislative language that might be glossed over by overwhelming legislators with too many pages of legislation to read before voting or by making last minute changes that are difficult to properly evaluate before a vote. Legislators should understand that any bill containing legislative language from a bill that we gave a negative weight may get the negative weight of that negatively weighted bill regardless of how many good things are also in the revised bill currently being voted on. Since it will be impossible for the contents of omnibus bills or bills with last minute amendments to be known early enough for an announcement about how the bill weights will be reset for the evaluation, everyone needs to be aware that they will be evaluated on the final version of the bills they vote on after the votes take place. With the Governor digging in to pressure the legislature to expand Medicaid, we will be watching for that in late breaking bills as well as appropriation omnibus bills. We will also be looking for Common Core funding in omnibus bills. We strongly oppose both and will weight bills that include them accordingly.
These are NOT final scores for the session until our final report after the session ends! We encourage conservative activists to use these weekly evaluations as a way to work with legislators to achieve more conservative results in the legislative session.

The legislation causing the most lowering of scores is HB2047 combined with HB2045 which switches Arizona from the AIMS standard to the Common Core standard. Our concern is that Common Core surrenders state autonomy on education to the federal government and promotes nationalization of education which is well beyond the proper scope of the federal government. In fact, the Constitution gives NO authority for ANY action by the federal government in a host of areas including education. In addition, the curriculum associated with Common Core relies on an international perspective instead of traditional study of American and World history. HB2425 was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor.
Other bills having a significant negative impact on scores remove significant limitations on school district spending, allow executive agencies to set fees in order to bypass limitations on the legislature raising taxes or fees, or increase government regulation of businesses.
Many Republican legislators have argued that good business regulations that “make people do the right thing” are good. This, unfortunately, is almost a perfect definition of fascism which Republicans traditionally oppose. There are always situations where we might wish others would deal with us on terms of our choosing when they are not willing to do so. Using government to force people to deal with us on our terms rather than mutually agreed upon terms is tyranny even if it is dressed up as consumer protection or professional responsibility or trying to improve market efficiency. Of course, in a free economy, people can decide for themselves what is good and make decisions on that basis as both consumers and businesses. Also, government regulations usually have unintended consequences that are usually bad. These consequences are then used to justify still more regulation when less regulation is the best solution.


To look at the legislator scores, click on legislative report.
 For bills used in evaluation, click on bill weights.

For detailed evaluation data, click on detail evaluation data.

For Frequently Asked Questions, click on  FAQs.
Sunday, April 21, 2013

Weekly Legislator Evaluation Update

12:35 PM | Posted by | Edit Post

Updated Ratings!!!


Arizona Conservative Coalition Republican Legislator Rankings
Legislative Actions as of 4/19/2013
Last Updated 4/21/2013

 Narrative:

The number of bills being tracked is 254 plus 3 Strike All amended bills.
There were some changes in scores – especially a general move downward in both bodies of the legislature largely due to votes on bills this past week.
In the Senate, HB2045 (essentially allowing the executive branch to impose a hospital bed tax) and HB2500 (which forces insurance companies to consider the government a preferred provider for vaccinations) caused Republican scores to be lower. Both of these bills have the appeal of not having the legislature vote to increase taxes or fees while allowing executive agencies to extract more money from the private sector. The government should raise money based on specific taxes and fees set by the legislature instead of hiding what big government legislators call “revenue enhancements” in regulatory authority assigned to the executive branch.
In the House, SB1223 (allowing the Department of Fish and Game to set fees instead of having the legislature set them) and SB1316 (adding state regulation of house appraisers) causes lower scores. SB1223 eliminates the legislated fees and empowers the executive branch to set fees which we consistently oppose as an abrogation of legislative responsibility. SB1316 adds more economic regulation ostensibly to protect people from bad appraisers, but will actually restrict competition in the appraisal industry, raise costs of appraisals (which will be an added cost to those financing a house purchase), and will have little or no effect on protecting the public since these appraisals are done for the benefit of lenders financing the house purchase (NOT the buyer or seller of the property). Mortgage lenders can qualify their own appraisers without the assistance and cost of state licensing. This is another example of an economic regulation sought by the regulated industry as a means of limiting entry and raising prices rather than actually serving a legitimate public purpose.
These are NOT final scores for the session until our final report after the session ends! We encourage conservative activists to use these weekly evaluations as a way to work with legislators to achieve more conservative results in the legislative session.

The legislation causing the most lowering of scores is HB2047 combined with HB2045 which switches Arizona from the AIMS standard to the Common Core standard. Our concern is that Common Core surrenders state autonomy on education to the federal government and promotes nationalization of education well beyond the proper scope of the federal government. In addition, the curriculum associated with Common Core relies on an international perspective instead of traditional study of American and World history. HB2425 was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor.
Other bills having a significant negative impact on scores remove significant limitations on school district spending, allow executive agencies to set fees in order to bypass limitations on the legislature raising taxes or fees, or increase government regulation of businesses.
Many Republican legislators have argued that good business regulations that “make people do the right thing” are good. This, unfortunately, is almost a perfect definition of fascism which Republicans traditionally oppose. There are always situations where we might wish others would deal with us on terms of our choosing when they are not willing to do so. Using government to force people to deal with us on our terms rather than mutually agreed upon terms is tyranny even if it is dressed up as consumer protection or professional responsibility or trying to improve market efficiency. Of course, in a free economy, people can decide for themselves what is good and make decisions on that basis as both consumers and businesses. Also, government regulations usually have unintended consequences that are usually bad. These consequences are then used to justify still more regulation when less regulation is the best solution.



To look at the legislator scores, click on legislative report.
 For bills used in evaluation, click on bill weights.

For detailed evaluation data, click on detail evaluation data.

For Frequently Asked Questions, click on  FAQs.
Monday, April 15, 2013

New Legislator Ratings as of Last Week

11:59 PM | Posted by | Edit Post

Updated Ratings!!!


Arizona Conservative Coalition Republican Legislator Rankings
Legislative Actions as of 4/12/2013
Last Updated 4/16/2013

 Narrative:
 Two bills were added to the evaluation after being brought to our attention by members of the legislature. Although it is late in the session, both bills are well within our policy guidelines indicating the type of weight they would receive.
HB2341 reduces government regulation on remodeling homes when significant structural changes are not being made. We weighted this (+5) because it actually rolls back government regulation. If it had been brought to our attention earlier in the session, it would have gotten a higher weight because the information would have been available before the votes. However, reducing regulations on citizens is a consistent policy objective we espouse.
SB1223 eliminates Fish and Wildlife fees being set by the legislature and assigns that responsibility to an unelected board. This is an obvious attempt to bypass rules that require the legislature to get two thirds majorities to raise taxes and fees. We have consistently told legislators we would weight any bills that delegate the legislature’s taxing authority to the executive branch of government as (-10). That is the weight assigned to SB1223.
The weight on SB1437, a bill for establishing licensing for music therapists, was changed from (-6) to (-5) because an amendment adopted in the House slightly improved the bill by addressing one of our concerns. The weight of (-5) still indicates we oppose the bill as we cannot see that it is an appropriate role for the government to help certain groups of professionals and/or businesses either form cartels, restrict competition, or use the government to provide them with a seal of approval or respectability.
The number of bills being tracked is now 254 plus 3 Strike All amended bills.
There were some changes in scores – especially a general move downward in the Senate.
These are NOT final scores for the session until our final report after the session ends! We encourage conservative activists to use these weekly evaluations as a way to work with legislators to achieve more conservative results in the legislative session.

The legislation causing the most lowering of scores is HB2047 combined with HB2045 which switches Arizona from the AIMS standard to the Common Core standard. Our concern is that Common Core surrenders state autonomy on education to the federal government and promotes nationalization of education well beyond the proper scope of the federal government. In addition, the curriculum associated with Common Core relies on an international perspective instead of traditional study of American and World history. HB2425 was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor.
Other bills having a significant negative impact on scores remove significant limitations on school district spending or increase government regulation of businesses. Many Republican legislators have argued that good business regulations that “make people do the right thing” are good. This, unfortunately, is almost a perfect definition of fascism which Republicans traditionally oppose. There are always situations where we might wish others would deal with us on terms of our choosing when they are not willing to do so. Using government to force people to deal with us on our terms rather than mutually agreed upon terms is tyranny even if it is dressed up as consumer protection or professional responsibility or trying to improve market efficiency. Of course, in a free economy, people can decide for themselves what is good and make decisions on that basis as both consumers and businesses. Also, government regulations usually have unintended consequences that are usually bad. These consequences are then used to justify still more regulation when less regulation is the best solution.


To look at the legislator scores, click on legislative report.
 For bills used in evaluation, click on bill weights.

For Detailed information showing points for each legislator for each vote or sponsorship.

For Frequently Asked Questions, click on  FAQs.
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