Weekly Legislative Update: Democrats

Senator Juan Mendez and Representative Alma Hernandez join Ted to discuss the recent updates of the Arizona Legislator including lifting of the spending cap for education.

“Everybody was concerned about the education funding and the Republicans finally coming through with this,” said Mendez. “It’s been stopping us from modernizing our school budgets, from modernizing our schools in general, and so this was the bare minimum that we could have asked.”

As Hernandez mentions, schools were at risk of closing if this measure was not passed. Tensions were high as the budget was not passed until the last minute.

“My sister serves on a school board and they were very worried – she’s also a legislator – they were very concerned that they would not be able to keep their doors open,” said Hernandez. “So it’s very problematic when you’re up against a deadline, and we do this every year.”

Bills have been introduced to prevent these types of votes from being held off until the last minute, as Hernandez points out.