P.L.A.N. Update - Legislature Winding Down‏

The Final Stretch -- Week of the "Strike Everything" Amendment
Yesterday was the deadline for committees to hear bills, without special permission, so a blizzard of bills appeared on long agendas and many hearings stretched into the evening hours. It was also the last opportunity to introduce "strike everything" amendments, since legislative rules do not allow those amendments on the floor of either the Senate or House. A strike everything amendment substitutes one bill for another bill and can be wholly unrelated to the original bill, but does retain the bill number and sponsor. One example of this is Senate Bill 1010, a bill introduced by Rep. Rick Murphy (R-Glendale) related to "Child Restraint Systems," but when the bill was listed on the House Ways and Means Committee agenda this week it said SB 1010 would be transformed into a bill entitled "County Libraries; Counties;Taxes." A strike everything amendment can bring an old, dead bill back to life or introduce a brand new issue that didn't get introduced before the original deadline. Pretty clever, isn't it.

Speaking of Library Taxes . . . Senator Linda Gray Airs County Library Tax Issue

After numerous attempts, Phoenix and other cities in Maricopa County succeeded this week to publicly express the unfairness of the Maricopa County Library District (MCLD) distribution of its secondary property tax revenue. Phoenix property owners pay this tax but see very little benefit from MCLD. For example, last year only ten cents of each dollar paid by a Phoenician came back to the City. Senator Linda Gray (R-Phoenix) very graciously offered to air the issue in her Public Safety and Human Services Committee, since three previous committees had declined to hear SB 1373: County Library Districts; Counties; Taxes (Sen. Al Melvin, R-Oro Valley) and similar bills run as strike-everything amendments. GR staff, as well as the City’s Library Director, presented the issue together with library directors from the cities of Glendale and Scottsdale. Thank you, Senator Gray!

Source: P.L.A.N.