All 13 legislative candidates attend, some clash at forum
All 13 people running for office in Yuma County’s two state legislative districts converged at Yuma Civic Center Thursday for a candidate forum to share their ideas, and occasionally clash with others on the panel. The most heated debates were between incumbents who lived through the last session’s debates about education and infrastructure funding, issues settled for this fiscal year when the budget was passed but not resolved for future years.
Questions for the candidates were submitted by the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the event, and event sponsors.
One asked whether the contenders would “pledge to fight any fund sweeps (within the state budget), particularly of road funds, industry fees and other funds designated for a specific purpose.”
It led to a wide-ranging exchange between Reps. Charlene Fernandez and Gerae Peten and Sen. Lisa Otondo, all Democrats seeking election in District 4, and Rep. Darin Mitchell, R-Goodyear, running for his fourth term in District 13.
Mitchell said “I absolutely oppose sweeping funds, and I think the last few years we’ve been trying to put a stop to it,” he said, noting the current year budget’s full funding of the state Department of Public Safety allowed the return of most Highway User Revenue Funds to county and city governments, a sore spot for almost a decade.
Fernandez, using one of the two “red cards” given to each candidate to allow them to rebut or respond to someone else, said the shift of HURF and other funds began with the economic
crisis of 2008, but “the sweeps continue. This last budget, which was overwhelmingly passed by one party (majority Republicans), contains 75 sweeps.”
Mitchell responded that legislators weren’t able to pick and choose which parts of the $10 billion budget package to vote for. “But I’ll tell you what we did do this year, we passed ‘20 by 2020’ to fund public education, and every Democrat in the House voted against it.”
This was Gov. Doug Ducey’s plan to fund a 20 percent pay increases for teachers, phased in over the next three years, which was passed with the budget. Democratic critics contend it relies on overly optimistic revenue projections for most of the raises.
This moved Otondo and Peten to dig into their red cards, while other Democrats on the panel passed theirs down to Fernandez, who is the House minority whip.
“I would just like to say that the 20 by 2020 (plan) was passed with sweeps, and is not sustainable,” Fernandez said.
Otondo interjected, “Fifty-nine school districts did not get the monies that were promised. The plan is unsustainable, I voted no, and the teachers were never dealt with,” referring to demands for additional education spending not related to their salaries during the #RedForEd walkouts and marches last spring.
Mitchell said, “All I hear from the Democrats is we don’t have K-12 education funding increases. We did it, in a way we think is unsustainable. I don’t know any other government agency that asks for a tax increase in a certain way to get their increase.
“The Democrats were a no because they didn’t like the way we paid for it. Either you vote for it because it’s the right thing to do, to increase education funding, or not. You don’t look for a certain sustainable tax, which is what you’re looking for,” he said.
Peten added, “It has always been my position on the floor that education needs to be fully and permanently funded. It did not happen this year, it’s a case of smoke and mirrors.”
The presence of former Rep. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, at the far end of the table did not seem to weigh heavily on the event, despite his highly publicized expulsion from the House last February after an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against him.
He has filed suit over his ouster, claiming exonerating evidence was withheld from the final report, partly because state leaders saw him as blocking their ability to infringe on Yuma County’s Colorado River rights.
Shooter said voters need to return him to the Senate, where he served six years before switching to the House, as the worsening drought conditions spur urgency to conserve water and hunt for new sources.
“I want to reiterate this, there’s a storm coming over your water, and I’ve been talking about it for months. And I’m telling you it’s coming, as sure as God’s vengeance. And you better listen, and you better send someone up there who will be a warrior. And I’ve had seven years to prove I’m a warrior,” he said.
Shooter was a last-minute entrant into the GOP primary for the district, against Sen. Sine Kerr, RBuckeye, who was appointed this year after Steve Montenegro resigned the seat to run for Congress, and Brent Backus, a management system consultant from Waddell.
Backus, who lost a court fight to keep Shooter off the ballot by contesting his residency, embraced any measures Arizona can take to prevent illegal immigration and said he supports President Trump’s proposed border wall.
“I’m so for securing our border. All means, everything’s on the table. Because you know what? Things are getting ridiculous. They come over here and you know what? I just found additional money for education. Let’s stop educating those illegals that are in this state. That’s money for our kids and our schools,” he said.
He said he’s also against any tax or fee increases or an expanded role of government. Kerr said most of the laws passed by the Legislature this year were done for good reasons, but it could be reaching a limit.
“Each new law definitely has its own merit. We did a lot of work this year reducing burdensome regulation or redundant regulations in different agencies. So some laws are good, they reduce redundancy and that frees up those agencies to operate more efficiently.
“And then, there have been laws that we don’t need to put through. Tomorrow I think more than 400 laws will be taking effect, and I think that’s plenty,” she said.
Democrat Michelle Harris of Buckeye is also running for the Senate seat in the GOP-dominated district, and said student achievement gaps found between districts and income levels should be addressed by going back to the local level.
“I believe that you have to go back to the experts. We have to go back to the school districts that are being affected by those educational gaps, and listen to their input of what they need to bring their kids up to the standards. I also believe the Department of Education can help out with that as well,” she said.
Along with Mitchell, there are three Republicans and one Democrat running in the District 13 House primaries.
Rep. Tim Dunn, R-Yuma, who was appointed to take Shooter’s seat after he was expelled, agreed that water law will be a priority when the next session begins in January.
“Being from Yuma, we need to let the rest of the state know we’re in an 18-year drought, and we need to live like we live in the desert and do better with conservation. So I’ll continue to be a voice for conservation and leaving water on the (Colorado) river,” he said.
Trey Terry of Litchfield Park, who is running with Mitchell as a team, said he believes crumbling roads in many areas of the state can be repaired with existing resources, and opposes a new car registration fee which helped free up funding for infrastructure, as well as teacher raises.
“They imposed a tax on your vehicle and license renewal fees. I 100 percent oppose that. I’m opposed to raising our taxes, I’m opposed to imposing our government on you. At some level, I do believe we already have the funds, if we properly appropriate them, to handle our local infrastructure issues,” he said.
Goodyear City Councilwoman Joanne Osborne, another contender in the GOP race, said state-level education funding must be settled at the state level, so local school districts don’t have to continually seek bond measures or other plan Bs to get the funding they need.
“As a councilmember understanding local control, I’ve noticed that what’s been happening at the state level has not been funding public education, and what has been occurring at the local level is your school districts are constantly asking for overrides and bonds,” she said. “So as we look for the proper ongoing expenses, that’s where the bottomdown circulation is going to end.”
Democrat Thomas Tzitzura, a veteran and retired teacher from Litchfield Park, said he opposes attempts by the state to limit the areas which local government can regulate, as did several others on the panel, though his reasons were a little different.
“There are many instances in the last few years when we’ve tried to have a gun buyback program, and the state Legislature came in and slammed that down, made that inappropriate. Bisbee’s plastic bags (ban), it goes on,” he said.
Mitchell was the lone voice advocating more state control of local affairs. “I’ve actually run a lot of legislation opposing local control. I’m known for it, it’s why most city governments hate me.
“But when individual owners, property or businesses, wish to do something with their properties, and cities are stopping them, I oppose it,” he said.
Otondo, Fernandez and Peten are all running unopposed in the District 4 Democratic primaries. There are no Republican candidates, but Sara Mae Williams, a Baboquivari School District board member from the Tohono O’odham Nation, is running as a Green Party candidate for the House.
She said the district started its own preschool program with First Things First funding, and its graduates are now going into kindergarten first-grade ready.
She added, “The other thing we did as a school district is we are the highest-paid school district for incoming teachers, at $51,000. So we were able to leverage all of our federal and state dollars in order to pay that kind of wage, and yes, we don’t put it towards buildings and all the things that we need.”