Budget moves closer to finish

Items added to woo holdouts

Rep. Anthony Kern needed to ensure universities would get money for “freedom schools” as a counterbalance to what he sees as higher-education’s liberal indoctrination.

For Rep. Kelly Townsend, it was a bill to tighten rules on removing children from their family homes.

One by one, holdout Republicans in the Arizona Legislature discovered Thursday different reasons to support the $9.8 billion budget deal GOP leaders negotiated with Gov. Doug Ducey.

For some; it was money for a pet project; for others, it was changes to policy.

The deal-making continued into the night

as lawmakers worked to try to pass the spending plan, which is tied to passage of a separate bill to boost university bonding levels. Legislative leaders said they would continue their work for as long as needed to pass the plan.

The $1 billion bonding measure that had been so problematic for weeks scarcely changed in recent days, but other aspects of the budget were in play as GOP leaders cobbled together votes to support the bonding plan and the budget.

Kern said he would vote for the bonding measure only if the House prohibited universities from hiring contract lobbyists with state general funds, and included another measure that would ensure cities couldn’t vote on tax hikes in years when few voters show up at the polls.

With those proposals moving, other conservative Republicans switched their votes to support the bonding measure.

“I’m not really in favor of the bonding issue ... but I needed to feel comfortable moving my vote over to a ‘yes,’ and the only way I could feel comfortable is if there were some conservative items that I wanted to bring forth,” Kern told The Republic. He said he asked for four items, and got three.

It appeared that Democrats, who sought higher teacher raises in exchange for their support of the bonding plan, were again spectators to the budget as it grew more conservative by the hour.

By Thursday, it had grown to three years and $15 million.

Rep. Randall Friese, D-Tucson, took his frustration to the floor of the House Thursday night, lamenting that Democrats’ goal of extending cash aid to the poor from one year to two lost out to Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita’s tax cut, which he said would translate to about $4 per person.

“We can’t participate in this process,” Friese said. “This year again, it’s not bipartisan. We continue to make choices that hurt the most vulnerable in our state and then we play politics by telling ourselves, ‘I’m so glad I got a tax cut that puts $4 in the pockets of our citizens.’ ”

House Speaker J.D. Mesnard, RChandler, said it was unfair to disparage the tax cut as overly small when many had supported the cut when it was even smaller.

The House passed a bill limiting cities to holding sales-tax related elections in even-numbered years when presidential and congressional races draw more voters to the polls.

It was a technical provision that would effectively make cities face a wider swath of voters when seeking such increases.

Democrats weren’t the only ones dismayed by the budget-related dealings.

The League of Cities and Towns said it opposed the election measure, saying it trampled the rights of cities such as Phoenix and Tucson.

The cities years ago won a court case that reversed another law that narrowed when they could hold elections; the league believed that could happen again.

“It’s the same question,” said Patrice Kraus, a lobbyist for the league. It’s about the authority of charter cities,” she said, not about taxes.

Few were willing to identify publicly their demands, but Mesnard acknowledged it was a necessary to secure the budget deal.

He said several items could move “a number of Republicans” to “yes” votes on the bonding deal in both the House and the Senate.

“There’s an interest in some onetime money for the ‘freedom schools,’ ” Mesnard said. “That seems to be the direction things are going.”

The freedom schools are Kochbacked entities aimed at advancing free-enterprise ideals at the universities. The Koch network of “dark money” helped fund Ducey’s rise to governor, and he and Republicans gave $5 million in state money to the schools last year.

Asked about contract lobbyists, Mesnard said there is an interest among some members in ensuring general fund dollars don’t go to pay them.

Sarah Harper, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Board of Regents, told The Republic that the regents and the universities “do not engage the use of contract lobbyists with state or public monies.”

This follows Ducey’s executive order last year banning various state boards, commissions and other state entities from hiring contract lobbyists. The governor said he wanted to end a system in which “lobbyists get richer” at the expense of taxpayers.

Earlier this session, Ducey signed legislation that makes the executive order permanent.

“The universities have lots of pots of money. This is being a little more prescriptive with state money,” Mesnard said.

Daniel Scarpinato, Ducey’s deputy chief of staff, said the legislative sweeteners are “good, easy reforms.” He praised the most controversial of the items — the “freedom schools — saying it has had a positive impact on civic engagement.

“... In an era when (University of California) Berkeley is silencing free speech, isn’t it great that Arizona has the school that is encouraging civil, civic debate?”

Republic reporter Mary Jo Pitzl contributed to this article.

"We can’t participate in this process. This year again, it’s not bipartisan.” REP. RANDALL FRIESE D-TUCSON, ON DEMOCRATS’ FRUSTRATION WITH BEING LEFT OUT OF THE BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS