Weekly legislative update: Democrats discuss new state budget, new bills

It’s our weekly legislative update! Today, we hear from Representative Laura Terech and Senator Christine Marsh of District 4 to discuss the fight Democrats faced to hammer out the new state budget.

Representative Terech said there is a lot to be proud of when looking at the new state budget. “There’s work we can do on the process, and those conversations have already begun in earnest, and we’ll see where next year takes us,” Terech said.

The Arizona Capitol is adjourned until June 12.

“We have lots of business that we should be talking of,” Marsh said, “But we have adjourned, we’re not entirely sure why, but we know that there are some negotiations that need to happen for Prop 400. We’ve heard rumor that there’s certain vacation plans that needed to be accommodated, but definitely we have work to do, and I’m eager to get back. I know Representative Terech is as well,” Marsh said.

This is spring break part three, according to Terech.

There were nearly 100 bills voted on in the House, which was quite a backlog. It was a marathon session, Terech said.

Where does Prop 400 stand?

There are a lot of meetings and behind-the-scenes work going into this prop and the hammering out of a deal that meets the original plan dating back 40 years, Marsh said.

“Even though this is a Maricopa County tax, this has impact for our entire state. When we’re talking about potentially losing billions in federal matching funds, that’s too important to sit on and we need to move forward and compromise since we do have a divided government,” Terech said.

The biggest concern from Republicans in the House and the Senate is the light rail funding, along with some of the clean energy parameters that come in with federal funding, according to Marsh.