Thread by @JulieGunnigle

The room is packed at #AzLeg this morning to support #INVESTinED #OutlawDirty #CleanEnergyForAHealthyArizona

I spy two candidates in #LD15 and @kathyhoffman_az

There’s still seating in the side room, if you’d like to join.

The “Protect Arizona Taxpayers” initiative is going first. This is the constitutional amendment that would permanently exclude services from taxation.

“Is an app a product or a service?” @kenclarkforaz This amendment would tie the hands of the legislature to address the service economy—but without telling the public how much potential revenue excluded.

Looks like we will not be telling voters the potential revenue this measure excludes in the summary, based on a straight party-line vote.

@OutlawDirty is up next. Said it before, I’ll say it again— this is the most important vote we will have in November.

No amendments offered on #OutlawDirtyMoney.

@CleanHealthyAZ Is up next.

As an aside, I know that the committee chair gets to pick the order of agenda—but why oh why, when your room is packed with red, does #INVESTinED have to go last?

Also—a big shoutout to the moms with children who are here. Thank you for making democracy a family value!

Lots of talk about whether the summary should define clean or renewable sources and whether the fact that SRP is excluded crosses the line into advocacy.

@CharleneforAZ “I listen to our constituents. I listen to our stakeholders.” Heck yes you do! Thank you!

It's 12:22. We've are only just now on #InvestInEd, despite that there are two full rooms of teachers, administrators, parents, and allies waiting. But please, tell me again how Arizona respects education...

Free cheese in the HHR3!

We are going round and round on whether #INVESTinED includes inflationary adjustments. There is some serious mental gymnastics involved to turn “subject to subsection B, C, and D” into “subject to subsection D only.”

Now we are debating what a “small business” is so that we can tell voters that #INVESTinED will raise their taxes.

Teachers, administrators and allies! Please don’t give leave yet. The amendments have gotten more problematic as the afternoon has gone on.

The worst amendment yet was just offered. The proposal is to tell voters that it is a 70%-90% increase in taxes.

Here’s how the math works— for some earners, the tax rate increases from 4.54% to 8%. Now they want to add summary to state the percentage of the percentage increase.

The tax rate moves from 4.54% to 8%. The amendment wants the summary to state it’s a 76% increase.

I hate that this has a typo. My apologies. Blood sugar was low before the aforementioned cheese distribution.

"We see what is going on and we will remember." Darn skippy we will. The amendment passes on straight party lines.

I'll leave you with this thought: no party has a monopoly on corruption, conflicts of interest, and legislative malpractice. It's not a Republican thing; it's not a Democrat thing. It happens when a party has unchecked power. Today we saw what unchecked power looks like.