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Arizona Democrats Outline Priorities For 2016 Session

Arizona House Minority Leader Eric Meyer
(Photo courtesy of the Arizona State Legislature)
Arizona House Minority Leader Eric Meyer

Arizona legislative Democrats have outlined their priorities for the upcoming session ahead of Governor Doug Ducey's State of the State address Monday.

The list is not surprising: more money for K-12 education, restoring spending cuts to universities, better oversight of the Department of Child Safety and prison reform.

House Minority Leader Eric Meyer also said the state can put more money into economic development.  He said that after years of deficits, the money is now available for all of those priorities.

"The Joint Legislative Budget Committee has identified $218 million in ongoing funding that could be used strategically to invest in our future. This is on top of over $1 billion cash on hand. That includes the rainy day fund," Meyer said.

Meyer acknowledged that that Democrats remain in the minority in the Legislature. But he insisted that voters support Democrat goals.

"The voters that I talk to every day as I'm out in my community want quality public schools they can send their kids to that are well funded. They want quality teachers in the classroom. They want to reduce class sizes. They want affordable college tuition which should be as near as free as possible as our constitution says," he said. "And they want jobs for their kids."