The state Legislature doesn’t start its new session for another month or so, but lawmakers are already filing bills in preparation — and they deal with a wide range of issues.
Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services spoke about some of the pre-filed bills on the show.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: And Howie, first off, what exactly are these pre-filed bills? How does that work?
HOWARD FISCHER: Well, lawmakers have the option of getting all their brilliant ideas out and on paper before anyone else comes back, and sometimes they want to be the first or second ones out there. The fact is, in general, the earlier a bill is filed, the more likely it goes and gets in the pipeline faster. Therefore, the more likely it is to get an early hearing, which can be important because toward the end of the session things sort of get gummed up.
Obviously it's no guarantee of passage. It's not even a guarantee of being heard. But the idea is, let's get some things in.
Now, the other half of the equation is that both the House and Senate have firm bill limits after a certain date, usually sometime in February. So the more you get in now, you don't hit your bill limit after, you know, the certain date in February where you're only allowed to file, let's say seven more bills.
So you've got a lot of people who just love filing bills. Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) is probably No. 1. He filed probably a dozen bills already this session, and he just always has an idea of something that needs to be fixed.
BRODIE: Well, so let's talk about one of those ideas he has, which deals with bicycles that are apparently going too fast for his liking?
FISCHER: Well, yeah, I mean, it makes him sound like one of those folks, you know, walking along the sidewalks saying, "You miserable kids, get off of my sidewalk!" and things like that. There's probably a real problem. I don't doubt, and I've probably been in situations where kids are speeding by on a sidewalk — not just on regular bicycles, but on electric bicycles and electric scooters and things like that.
Fact is, if you are going more than 15 mpg, you probably should be riding in the street. I realize that's more dangerous, but you've got people using the sidewalks for other purposes. Same thing with bridle paths and everything else.
So his idea is to say, if in fact you're just riding along 15 mph is enough. I don't know where he got that number. It may just seem to be reasonable. I don't even know how fast folks travel when they're just normally bicycling on the sidewalk. These aren't the folks who are trading for some, some great race.
The more interesting part says, and if you're passing someone else, you know, the bicycle or pedestrian, you have to slow to 5 miles an hour. Now, I don't A, how somebody knows they're at 5 mph versus 6 or 7. And B, how does the bicycle stay up? If you're on a two-wheeled bike, do you fall over at 5 mph? And then the problem C, of course, is does anybody really believe that the police in Scottsdale or Fountain Hills or Avondale are going to be out there with their radar guns checking on this?
BRODIE: Yeah, I mean, that's a fair question. So Howie, let me ask you also, speaking of John Kavanagh and his 89 colleagues in the Legislature, there's a proposal to give them a pay raise, which they've not had in many, many years. But it seems to come with a bit of a catch?
FISCHER: Well, there are two versions. The John Kavanagh version has no catch other than any vote, and you need voter approval for a pay raise. It says, let's take the $24,000 a year that voters approved in 1998, and we will adjust it since then for inflation. And if voters approve, we will then use that as a new starting point for automatic inflation indexes. Now that would take it directly to $48,000 a year.
He actually got that bill out of the Senate last year. It never got a House vote. A lot of political reasons for that.
I'm not sure, quite frankly, that voters going into a voting booth are going to say, "We understand this is just an inflation adjustment, but we're not quite ready to double the salaries of lawmakers."
So Rep. Stacey Travers from Phoenix, who's a Democrat, has an alternate plan: Let's go to $35,000 — which is not quite the inflation indexing from 1998 — but I'll tell you what, we're gonna offer a sweetener here for some of you folks who may not be happy with lawmakers. We're gonna offer true term limits.
Now you may remember back in 1992 we enacted term limits legislation, you know, eight years, four terms in the House, four terms in the Senate, and theoretically you'd be gone, but there's a loophole. You can go back and forth, so you can do your four years in the House, do four years in the Senate, and then go back and do four years in the House.
We have several lawmakers, including said Mr. Kavanagh, who have been around for a lot more than the 16 years. And she's saying, why does anybody need to be here for 16 years? We need some fresh blood.
And so her proposal — assuming it A gets a hearing and B is approved and C is approved by the voters — would say we'll do $35,000, but you can be guaranteed no lawmaker will serve more than 16 years where they've been in and out and in and out. That's it, 16 years and you're done.
BRODIE: So Howie, we talked about two-wheel modes of transportation a moment ago. Let's talk about four-wheel modes of transportation for just a moment. There's a proposal that would lower the age when new drivers could start getting their learner's permits. Is that right?
FISCHER: That's it. Right now, it's at 15 1/2. And it used to be, in fact, that you couldn't really get the permit till you were 16. They figured at 15 1/2, you're supposed to be driving with an adult in the car, and you're supposed to use that time to go ahead and learn the rules of the road.
The idea by Rep. Nick Kupper (R-Surprise) is we'll give kids another six months of training that they can do. And the assumption is, well, if they've got another six months, they'll actually have six months more of supervised driving. Now, there's folks like from the insurance information for highway safety who say, but that's not necessarily true.
Because the law only requires a certain number of hours of training, whether it's by mom and dad or by a driving instructor, and so simply saying we're going to have you on the road for six more months, they're not convinced that in fact it will make safer drivers, and they contend that the earlier you get a learner's permit, the more accidents that occur.
BRODIE: So Howie, let me ask you about one other bill that has been pre-filed that would also affect younger people — not quite as young as those getting just getting their driver's license or learner's permits — but there's an idea that would exempt people under a certain age if they are married from paying state income taxes.
FISCHER: Exactly. This is an idea by Rep. Rachel Keshel (R-Tucson). And it seems to be she is trying to encourage marriage because right now at whatever age you start making money, you start paying taxes. That's the nature of it. So her proposal says anyone who is 25 or younger, who is married to somebody else who was 25 or younger, they would pay no state income tax on anything they earn. It doesn't matter how much they earn. If they somehow have figured out how to make $200,000 a year at age 24, and of course in the dot-com era that could be possible, they don't owe anything to the state.
This is another bit of social engineering. I mean, we've got several bills that are designed to promote adoption, to promote women keeping their babies versus aborting them. And then this one is the idea that somehow the state is better off if people are married.
Again, another piece of debate at the Legislature. It should be fascinating when they start deciding, well, what is the proper age that people should be married, and is any of that any of the state's business?
BRODIE: Absolutely. It should be interesting. Well, all these bills that will be interesting to follow as they move through the process.
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