Arizona Republican leaders speak to Ted

The Arizona legislative session kicked off yesterday. The governor delivered her state of the state address, and lawmakers went to work in both chambers to take on a variety of issues.

President Pro Tempore TJ Shope AND House Speaker Ben Toma joined us to talk about their plans for the legislative session.

What are the GOP priorities for this session?

“Well there’s quite a few things of course, and a lot of it will depend on the partnership between our two chambers, The House and the Senate, and of course the Governor’s office as well. In most cases we’re going to have to get the Governor’s signature on some of our priorities,” explained Ben Toma.

“Everyone that I have been a part of, and this starting number for me, has had a personality of its own within the same term; session to session will have a different personality,” said Shope.

What are you hoping for?

“Much of what we foresee has yet to be determined. We got a little bit of a snapshot yesterday during the state of the state address. I think there’s plenty of room for movement there in a positive direction; however, there are going to be many things that we just will not be agree on,” said Shope.

Shope seems optimistic that the session will be able to progress and move forward in a positive direction.

What do you think Arizona’s want from the session?

“Again every relationship has two sides, we got a little bit of a snippet of what that might look like in the state of the state, and I hope the tone changes. During the state of the state it was very partisan for the most part, some of the points that were made, and it was also relatively policy light in terms of actual details,” said Toma.

He stressed the importance of legislative details, “I think the legislative process details matter quite a bit, in terms of moving the ball forward,” he further explained.