Hobbs not showing the love

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

As the Harris campaign ends its whirlwind first week of campaigning for the White House, Democratic governors across the country are stumping for the vice president while Hobbs has remained relatively quiet. Dem governors in states like Minnesota, Michigan, Kentucky and Wisconsin have attended Harris campaign events, done media hits on national networks and demonstrated their support on social media during the week. While some of those governors are reported to be under consideration for Harris’ running mate, others – like Hobbs – are not. Hobbs released a statement on Monday endorsing Harris but has since remained quiet on the topic and has not attended events organized by the Harris campaign or Arizona Democrats. Hobbs’ press secretary, Liliana Soto, declined to comment on Hobbs’ presence – or lack thereof – at campaign events. Soto also said Hobbs will not be commenting on rumors of Kelly being a top contender for Harris’ vice president, despite the Arizona Democratic Party endorsing him earlier this week. “Governor Hobbs is focused on governing, not far-off hypotheticals,” Soto told our reporter in an email. If Kelly were selected for the veep position and the Harris ticket won in November, Hobbs would appoint his successor. Her office has declined to answer questions about that possibility this week.

With summer comes more deaths

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

Maricopa County reported a significant increase in heat-related deaths in 2023 from previous years and the county is investigating more deaths this year for heat-related causes than this time last year. Last year, the county confirmed a record of 645 heat-associated deaths. As of July 20, the county is investigating 396 deaths for heat-related causes and 27 deaths have been confirmed to be related to heat. Last year, that number was 359 with 25 confirmed deaths. Of the deaths under investigation this year, 37% are related to people being unhoused, 52% involve drug use and another 15% involve alcohol use. Those are similar numbers to 2023 but 46% of deaths last year attributed homelessness as a contributing factor. Will Humble, the executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, said he believes the rise in heat-related deaths over last year and the start of this year’s summer are due to the end of the public health emergency that ended the Center for Disease Control’s moratorium on evictions. “It appears it’s even worse this year than it was last year with really a comparable July weather-wise,” Humble said. County officials say part of the problem is a lack of awareness around using cooling centers established in the Valley. In June, the county announced it partnered with Clear Channel Outdoor to display billboards that show information about cooling centers. “We need as many people as possible to know about this resource,” Maricopa County Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers said in a news release. Another factor that Humble said could have led to more heat-related deaths is the closure of “the Zone.” “When everyone is concentrated into a small area like that, at least there’s an easier distribution of water and you can call ambulances,” Humble said. “With the implementation of the order from that case, there’s a lot of people I know that got into transitional housing, but there’s others that scattered into alleyways and under bridges when they had been downtown.” Not all the heat-related deaths have come from outdoors this year in the county. Almost 20% of deaths have been indoors. Four individuals had an air conditioner present but it was either turned off or non-functioning. Another death occurred inside without an air conditioner present.

Neutral headline goes here

Posted on by Arizona Legislative Report Staff

Attorney Kory Langhofer said lawmakers plan to appeal Friday’s ruling that “unborn human being” be removed from Prop 139’s voter pamphlet summary and replaced with a neutral term. Langhofer said they’ll file a special action with the Arizona Supreme Court. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten, an appointee of former Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, said the term is “packed with emotional and partisan meaning.” Langhofer said they will appeal as soon as the final judgment in the case is made, which could happen as soon as Monday. Whitten rejected the Legislative Council’s argument that the term is neutral because it is written in statute. “The court is not persuaded that every word chosen by the legislature in every statute it enacts is intended to be neutral in character,” Whitten said in the written ruling. “There is no requirement that the legislature chose its words in such a way, and plenty of evidence that they sometimes do not.” Whitten said that the Legislative Council should strike the phrase from the pamphlet summary for the pro-abortion measure and instead choose a “neutral term.” Toma wasn’t happy. “The ruling is just plain wrong and clearly partisan if the language of the actual law is not acceptable,” Toma said. “The judge should run for the legislature if he wants to write the law.” Petersen also called the ruling “partisan” and said he is confident it will be overturned on appeal. Cindy Dahlgren, spokeswoman for It Goes Too Far, an advocacy group that opposes the ballot measure, said in a written statement that the description should “just give voters the truth in common language.” “It’s rich to hear proponents of Prop 139 squabbling over the term ‘fetus’ when they completely left out of their amendment the words ‘doctor,’ ‘physician’ and ‘woman,’” Dahlgren said. Arizona for Abortion Access, the group behind the measure, was expecting the appeal. “We are pleased to be one step closer to making sure Arizona voters get accurate and impartial information about our citizen-led effort to restore abortion access before they vote this fall,” Arizona for Abortion Access Communications Director Dawn Penich said in a written statement.

We don’t want no stinkin’ Canadians on our voter rolls!

Posted on by Arizona Legislative Report Staff

Republicans on House MOE sent a letter Wednesday to all county recorders calling on them to update voter rolls and enforce state law that requires proof of citizenship for voting registration. They cited a recent ruling under the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that stayed an injunction barring the enforcement of a state law passed in 2022 that requires applications for voting registration to have evidence of citizenship in order to be approved. “(The law) should ease your respective offices’ administrative burdens because you are no longer required to search the Arizona Department of Transportation database to search for evidence of citizenship on behalf of an applicant who does not supply citizenship documentation,” the representatives wrote in their letter. They also called on recorders to remove foreign citizens from voter rolls and said it is “imperative” for them to do so due to the “flow of illegal immigration across the southern border under the Biden Administration since January 2021.” Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said Friday the county has taken several steps to update voter rolls and he’s seen the total number of registered voters decrease from 2.6 million to 2.4 million since he’s taken office. “Everything that is lawfully at our disposal, we’ve been using and this has been a real priority,” Richer said. “I’m really proud of the voter registration team and all they’ve done to ensure that our voter rolls are in as good shape as possible.” He said he expects the county to be above 2.5 million registered voters by the time general election ballots go out.

Education officials wary of Braun’s property tax plan

Posted on by Jarred Meeks

Education officials immediately shunned a property tax plan that Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Braun proposed Friday.

Aiming to provide property tax relief, Braun called for Hoosiers whose homes are valued at more than $125,000 to receive a 60% homestead deduction. He also wants Indiana homeowners whose homes are valued below that amount to get a 60% supplemental deduction and a $48,000 standard deduction.

In addition, Braun would cap the increase in property tax bills for seniors, “low-income” Hoosiers and families with children under the age of 18 at 2%; all other Hoosiers’ property tax bill increases would be capped at 3%. Any proposed property taxes above the caps would go to referendum.

Schools, which receive the lion’s share of property tax revenues, could be the biggest losers under the plan, education officials said.

“We don’t see a way forward with the plan that Braun has put out where it doesn’t have a negative impact on school corporations,” Indiana Association of School Business Officials Executive Director Scott Bowling said.

It was not immediately clear what the bottom-line impact of Braun’s plan would be on schools. Josh Kelley, Braun’s senior campaign adviser, told State Affairs the campaign instead focused on the impact to Hoosier homeowners. According to a news release, the plan would result in “an immediate 21% reduction in the average homeowner tax bill.”

“We have not calculated the impact on local government revenue,” Kelley said in an email.

The Indiana State Teachers Association also criticized Braun’s plan. Keith Gambill, the association’s president, said in a statement that the state needs “a proper balance between resident- and business-friendly property taxes and adequate school funding.”

“While Mike Braun’s proposal to cap property tax increases may seem beneficial, it risks undermining the financial stability of public schools,” Gambill said in the statement. (The Indiana State Teachers Association, through its political arm, has endorsed Jennifer McCormick, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.)

In June, Bowling told the State and Local Tax Review Task Force that school corporations are already being financially squeezed.

According to an independent analysis of school property tax funding by Policy Analytics LLC, Indiana school corporations’ operations property tax revenues since 2010 haven’t kept up with inflation, creating a decrease in purchasing power for transportation, utilities, capital projects and maintenance. Debt service revenues have also lagged inflation, Bowling told the task force while presenting the analysis’s findings.

“The fundamental problem is this: Local government is under pressure on the property tax side because they have limited revenue sources,” Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, told State Affairs. “They have an incentive, obviously, to raise property taxes.”

School corporations’ primary way for raising property taxes — through referendums — could also be changed under Braun’s plan.

The plan calls for all property tax-related referendums to take place only during “high-turnout” elections — likely during general elections. A bill proposing a similar idea died during the second half of the 2024 legislative session. 

School officials, whose school corporations might rely on referendum dollars, are against the proposed restriction. Many school corporations have dedicated referendum revenues to increasing teacher salaries. And if a school corporation would have to wait more than a year to renew a referendum, “that makes it very difficult to keep those promises that you made with those dollars,” Bowling said.

“Under the current system, schools are able to plan for that and hold referendums so that that funding stream doesn’t have a major interruption,” Bowling said.

However, one aspect of Braun’s plan received support from Bowling’s association.

In 2021, lawmakers required new ballot language for referendums. Many have criticized the new language, arguing that it’s confusing for voters because it expresses average property tax increases for homesteads and business property as percentages.

Braun’s plan would require the ballot language to include the total levy as a dollar amount and would include “data regarding the referendum’s impact on median home property tax bills.”

Bowling said the Indiana Association of School Business Officials supports a ballot question “that better reflects what is actually happening” when Hoosiers vote on a referendum.

Contact Jarred Meeks on X @jarredsmeeks or email him at [email protected].

PDEQ issues ozone air pollution action day

Posted on by Arizona Legislative Report Staff
PIMA COUNTY, July 26, 2024 – The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (PDEQ) is issuing a ground-level Ozone Action Day for the Tucson metropolitan area today. Individuals who are especially sensitive to ozone air pollution may experience shortness of breath, coughing, throat irritation, wheezing, and breathing discomfort. 

 

If you are especially sensitive to ozone, you may want to limit your level of exertion outside between noon and sunset when elevated levels of ozone pollution are more likely to occur. Intense physical outdoor activity causes heavier breathing, which allows ozone to penetrate deeper in the lungs.

 

Those who are most likely to be sensitive to ozone include children, adults who are active outdoors, people with respiratory diseases, and certain individuals who have an unusual sensitivity to this particular pollutant. Those people who are feeling symptoms should seek medical attention, if necessary.

 

There are many types of emissions that generate ground-level ozone. Motor vehicle exhaust, industrial and power plant emissions, gasoline vapors, chemical solvents, as well as natural sources, emit oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) that form ozone in the presence of intense sunlight and heat. 

 

Actions to reduce the production of ground level ozone:

 

Reduce driving – combine errands into one trip. Ride the bus, walk, bike, or share a ride with friends and family. Avoid idling your vehicle’s engine. Re-fuel your car after dark or during cooler evening hours when vapors are less likely to form ozone. While re-fueling, always stop at the click. Make sure your gas cap is tightly sealed after re-fueling. Avoid using gas-powered lawn and gardening equipment. Check your tire pressure monthly and keep tires properly inflated for peak performance. Conserve electricity to reduce emissions from power plants. Use low-VOC or water-based paints, stains, finishes, and paint strippers and ensure that they are sealed properly. PDEQ’s Clean Air Program educates Pima County residents about the potential health effects associated with elevated levels of air pollution and promotes actions to reduce air pollution.

 

PDEQ monitors air pollution in our region at 16 air quality monitoring sites. Real-time air pollution levels are available online at the PDEQ website.

 

To receive Air Pollution Action Day advisories, sign up here.

PDEQ issues ozone air pollution action day

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff
PIMA COUNTY, July 26, 2024 – The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (PDEQ) is issuing a ground-level Ozone Action Day for the Tucson metropolitan area today. Individuals who are especially sensitive to ozone air pollution may experience shortness of breath, coughing, throat irritation, wheezing, and breathing discomfort. 

 

If you are especially sensitive to ozone, you may want to limit your level of exertion outside between noon and sunset when elevated levels of ozone pollution are more likely to occur. Intense physical outdoor activity causes heavier breathing, which allows ozone to penetrate deeper in the lungs.

 

Those who are most likely to be sensitive to ozone include children, adults who are active outdoors, people with respiratory diseases, and certain individuals who have an unusual sensitivity to this particular pollutant. Those people who are feeling symptoms should seek medical attention, if necessary.

 

There are many types of emissions that generate ground-level ozone. Motor vehicle exhaust, industrial and power plant emissions, gasoline vapors, chemical solvents, as well as natural sources, emit oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) that form ozone in the presence of intense sunlight and heat. 

 

Actions to reduce the production of ground level ozone:

 

Reduce driving – combine errands into one trip. Ride the bus, walk, bike, or share a ride with friends and family. Avoid idling your vehicle’s engine. Re-fuel your car after dark or during cooler evening hours when vapors are less likely to form ozone. While re-fueling, always stop at the click. Make sure your gas cap is tightly sealed after re-fueling. Avoid using gas-powered lawn and gardening equipment. Check your tire pressure monthly and keep tires properly inflated for peak performance. Conserve electricity to reduce emissions from power plants. Use low-VOC or water-based paints, stains, finishes, and paint strippers and ensure that they are sealed properly. PDEQ’s Clean Air Program educates Pima County residents about the potential health effects associated with elevated levels of air pollution and promotes actions to reduce air pollution.

 

PDEQ monitors air pollution in our region at 16 air quality monitoring sites. Real-time air pollution levels are available online at the PDEQ website.

 

To receive Air Pollution Action Day advisories, sign up here.

Arizona Sec. of State Must Address Long Lines, Heat Before Tuesday Primary

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff
Phoenix — Ahead of Tuesday’s primary, democracy advocates are urging the Secretary of State to address barriers to polling place access as Arizonans prepare to face already-long wait times during the current heat wave. The Arizona Secretary of State has also begun implementing excessive security measures for election processes that could lead to even longer lines for Arizonans outside of polling places. This escalating trend includes the recent fencing of designated election locations and employing bomb-sniffing dogs for citizens returning signatures for their ballot initiatives.  

 

Arizona is experiencing record-breaking heat and has already seen a rise in heat-related deaths. Implementing such extreme and untested security measures to election infrastructure adds fuel to election conspiracism while creating additional barriers to the ballot box. 

 

Long lines are already a massive obstacle Arizona voters face when casting their vote — if “security measures” like bomb-sniffing dogs were to be employed on Election Day, it would only slow down the voting process and subject voters to even longer wait times in deadly heat. Instead of investing in costly and vote-suppressing alternatives, the state can invest in cost-effective measures that will improve the voting experience, like shade-oriented polling locations, shade umbrellas, and misters at polling places. 

 

Common Cause Arizona and Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) are urging the Secretary of State to address heat mitigation efforts and the long lines that will subject voters to dangerous climate conditions. The Secretary of State’s Office also has a duty to ensure that election security measures do not negatively impact voters or their access to the ballot.  

 

Statement of Common Cause Arizona Program Director Jenny Guzman: 

 

“All Arizona voters deserve to cast their ballots equally, equitably, and free of harm — that includes being able to make their voices heard, even in extreme conditions. We know that our summers are only getting hotter, making heat relief an overdue investment for our elections. Fans, hydration stations, and shaded waiting areas would help encourage more folks to cast their ballot during these hot summer months.

 

We also know that excessive use of force and increased security measures cause voter disenfranchisement — it does not make voters feel safer or increase turnout. In our tumultuous political landscape, we must protect election workers and voters from threats of political violence through tested and trusted protocols that do not impact the election process or accessibility of the ballot.

 

Arizonans can trust that their votes will be securely and accurately counted. It is now up to the Secretary of State to ensure that the voting process will be a safe and seamless experience for all Arizonans, no matter where they live in the state.”

 

Statement of LUCHA Political Director Chris Gilfillan:

 

“We support empowering voters throughout the state. But, what we know is that militarizing something like “bomb-sniffing dogs” at our polling locations won’t make voters feel safer. Voters feel safest when they’re in a welcoming and comfortable environment. Investing in our election infrastructure is important, and it’s equally important to ensure this is accomplished by meeting voters where they are and with what they need without encumbrance.”

Arizona Sec. of State Must Address Long Lines, Heat Before Tuesday Primary

Posted on by Arizona Legislative Report Staff
Phoenix — Ahead of Tuesday’s primary, democracy advocates are urging the Secretary of State to address barriers to polling place access as Arizonans prepare to face already-long wait times during the current heat wave. The Arizona Secretary of State has also begun implementing excessive security measures for election processes that could lead to even longer lines for Arizonans outside of polling places. This escalating trend includes the recent fencing of designated election locations and employing bomb-sniffing dogs for citizens returning signatures for their ballot initiatives.  

 

Arizona is experiencing record-breaking heat and has already seen a rise in heat-related deaths. Implementing such extreme and untested security measures to election infrastructure adds fuel to election conspiracism while creating additional barriers to the ballot box. 

 

Long lines are already a massive obstacle Arizona voters face when casting their vote — if “security measures” like bomb-sniffing dogs were to be employed on Election Day, it would only slow down the voting process and subject voters to even longer wait times in deadly heat. Instead of investing in costly and vote-suppressing alternatives, the state can invest in cost-effective measures that will improve the voting experience, like shade-oriented polling locations, shade umbrellas, and misters at polling places. 

 

Common Cause Arizona and Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) are urging the Secretary of State to address heat mitigation efforts and the long lines that will subject voters to dangerous climate conditions. The Secretary of State’s Office also has a duty to ensure that election security measures do not negatively impact voters or their access to the ballot.  

 

Statement of Common Cause Arizona Program Director Jenny Guzman: 

 

“All Arizona voters deserve to cast their ballots equally, equitably, and free of harm — that includes being able to make their voices heard, even in extreme conditions. We know that our summers are only getting hotter, making heat relief an overdue investment for our elections. Fans, hydration stations, and shaded waiting areas would help encourage more folks to cast their ballot during these hot summer months.

 

We also know that excessive use of force and increased security measures cause voter disenfranchisement — it does not make voters feel safer or increase turnout. In our tumultuous political landscape, we must protect election workers and voters from threats of political violence through tested and trusted protocols that do not impact the election process or accessibility of the ballot.

 

Arizonans can trust that their votes will be securely and accurately counted. It is now up to the Secretary of State to ensure that the voting process will be a safe and seamless experience for all Arizonans, no matter where they live in the state.”

 

Statement of LUCHA Political Director Chris Gilfillan:

 

“We support empowering voters throughout the state. But, what we know is that militarizing something like “bomb-sniffing dogs” at our polling locations won’t make voters feel safer. Voters feel safest when they’re in a welcoming and comfortable environment. Investing in our election infrastructure is important, and it’s equally important to ensure this is accomplished by meeting voters where they are and with what they need without encumbrance.”

Your search query contained invalid characters or was empty. Please try again with a valid query.