Bad Bills (a bunch of them) to be debated on AZ House floor on Tuesday

Shoot 'em up Shooter's VOTER SUPPRESSION bill was "retained on the calendar" today in the Arizona House. That, of course, just means that even though the House leadership scheduled it for floor debate, somebody decided it should wait.

One source suggested to me that since Scrooge McDucey was vetoing bills today, House leadership wanted to sort of take his temperature to get a feel for how he might react to controversial bills.

Don't fret, SB1339 is back on the COW calendar for Tuesday (tomorrow)... along with several other stinkers (yes, strikers too, but also very bad bills).

A sampling of Tuesday's bad (or at least controversial) bills:

• SB1088 -- ALEC Lesko's striker amendment to expand ESAs (funding shifts to private schools, away from public schools) was added in the House to change a bill that had been about income tax bracket inflation indexing. Now, any child who was awarded private school funding because her or his family income does not exceed 185 percent of the amount that would qualify them for free or reduced school lunches, would be allowed to continue in a private school as long as they want. For the current school year, that means a child in a four member household with an annual income of not more than $44,122 qualifies for as long as they continue to attend the private school, even if their family's income later exceeds that 185 percent mark.
• SB1237 -- changes a bill passed in the Senate as an authorization for ADOT/DMV to begin issuing driver licenses electronically now to be a bill to make changes to the Citizens Clean Elections Act, including to exclude non-participating candidates from penalties for non-compliance with certain previously applicable provisions of the Act.
• SB1291 -- a bill (not amended in the House, therefore already passed in the Senate) to preempt local control of firearms in political subdivisions (cities, towns, counties).
• SB1467 -- Sylvia Allen's bill to protect the employment rights of law enforcement officers subject to investigation for allegations of wrongdoing. This, of course, was prompted by Sen. Allen's son-in-law getting pinched for receiving oral sex from a female prisoner in exchange for cigarettes. What was that she was saying the other day about moral decay and the soul of America?

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SB1241 -- to preempt political subdivisions from regulating (banning) plastic bags in retail stores, is on a House Third Reading calendar for Tuesday, having been debated in COW and receiving a DO PASS AMENDED recommendation. Because it was a different subject (before the House striker), if the House passes it tomorrow, the Senate will still have to decide whether or not to agree to the changed bill.

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Today it is a case of the grasshopper pitted against the elephant. But tomorrow the elephant will have its guts ripped out. Le Loi, Vietnamese emperor, 15th Century