Pass a budget and then wait for COVID-19 risk to recede

These are the two things the Arizona Legislature should do after it convenes on Monday:

First, pass a status-quo budget, to ensure that state programs can continue after the end of the state’s fiscal year in June, irrespective of what happens with COVID-19 between now and then.

Second, adjourn indefinitely. I’ve been a steadfast opponent of lockdowns to manage COVID-19 spread. But opposing lockdowns doesn’t mean advocating living life as though COVID-19 doesn’t exist and isn’t a threat. Significant risks that can be avoided should be avoided.

Trying to conduct a normal, full legislative session during this period of high COVID-19 transmission is a sig

There’s no need, and a lot of risk, in attempting a normal, full legislative session during a period of high coronavirus transmission risk.

nificant risk. And it can be avoided.

Both the Senate and the House have adopted protocols to mitigate the risk. These include temperature checks, mask mandates and limits on public attendance at hearings and floor sessions.

Even if scrupulously adhered to, these protocols would run a substantial risk of being overwhelmed by the kind and number of interactions inherent to a deliberative legislative process.

But the protocols won’t be scrupulously adhered to. Sen. Kelly Townsend has already announced that she will ignore them. Undoubtedly, a significant number of Republican senators and representatives will join her. Call them the Reckless, Irresponsible and Inconsiderate Caucus.

Moreover, the protocols will necessarily degrade the deliberative legislative process. Human interaction is intrinsic to the endeavor. Having that occur in an artificially constrained environment will produce an inferior result. And the limitations on public participation undermine the democratic acceptance of the result.

If there were no alternative, making do with widely violated protocols, or moving primarily to remote legislative proceedings, might be argued to be better than forgoing an entire legislative session, except for approving a budget.

But the vaccination rollout means that there is likely an alternative. By, say, May, there is a strong possibility that a quasi-normal legislative session could be held. Certainly, the COVID-19 risk of having a legislative session will be substantially reduced by then.

That would still leave two months for legislative action before the start of the next fiscal year. State revenues are currently surprisingly strong, a credit to the way Gov. Doug Ducey has managed COVID-19 spread without returning to lockdowns.

But there remains a COVID-19 risk to state revenues. By May, there would be a firmer understanding of available resources, with plenty of time for legislators to debate what to do with any surpluses.

There are three things that some legislators want to accomplish that arguably couldn’t wait until a later date after the COVID-19 risk abates.

Some Republican lawmakers want to exercise their statutory authority to enact an end to Ducey’s declaration of a COVID-19 emergency.

However, Rep. John Kavanagh’s insightful opinion request to Attorney General Mark Brnovich should put an end to that quest.

Counties and cities have independent statutory emergency authority. In exercising his emergency authority, the governor can preempt the emergency powers of local governments, and Ducey has done so. But if his emergency powers are ended through legislative resolution, so is the preemption.

Those wanting to end Ducey’s emergency declaration think he has gone too far. But several major counties and cities think Ducey has done too little. A legislative end to his emergency would leave them free to do pretty much whatever they want.

Some Republicans want some kind of an immediate review of the last election. Many of them just want to fan the flames of Donald Trump’s treacherous election claims. Others, genuinely if naively, want to put such claims to rest and believe, or at least hope, that yet another airing of them can accomplish that.

But it is indubitably clear that such claims defy any contact with reality. Trump and his enablers have had their day, indeed days, in court. At this point, speaking up for the integrity of Arizona’s elections is the only responsible course.

Democrats want to see Arizona’s maximum unemployment benefit, one of the lowest in the country, increased. And there’s a good argument that supplementing the income of the unemployed is an important, and urgent, COVID-19 response.

However, the budget bill Congress passed in the last days of 2020 included four months of an additional $300 a week in unemployment benefits. The estimate is that roughly half of recipients would be making more than when they were employed.

That mitigates some of the urgency of a state boost. And Congress may act again before the four months expire.

There’s another benefit to adjourning the session until the COVID-19 risk recedes. It would increase the odds of some degree of bipartisan cooperation.

Both chambers of the Legislature are closely divided, with Republicans having just a two-vote advantage in each.

Now, bipartisanship is easy to talk about but difficult to achieve in a partisan institution. It requires caucuses willing to allow it and leaders skilled enough to cut limited but meaningful deals.

Bipartisanship in action, as opposed to empty rhetoric, has also become more difficult as the two political parties have become more ideologically homogeneous.

Still, given the narrow margins in both chambers, the legislative business would go much more smoothly if there were the space, and willingness, to cut some limited cross-party deals.

Plowing forward with a legislative session at the height of COVID-19 transmission risk will shrink that space. For reasons that aren’t obvious, at least to me, Democrats tend to be much more concerned about COVID-19 risk than Republicans. Conservative Republicans tend to be particularly cavalier.

If GOP lawmakers persist in trying to conduct a full legislative session during a period of high COVID-19 transmission risk, there’s a good chance it will blow up, with hard feeling along partisan lines in the aftermath.

The bipartisan, legislative mantra should be: Aye on a status-quo budget and see you in May.