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ATA eNewsletter

December 2009

A Word from ATA Lobbyist Barry Aarons

One more special session down and likely one more to go before the regular session commences on January 11th. The most recent effort was to protect certain agencies from literally running out of money and although there were a couple of hiccups for the most part it went according to plan. Now comes the tough part. Governor Brewer and most legislative leadership now concur that placing a sales tax hike on the ballot is essential as the state's financial picture continues to deteriorate. (Didn't someone say that the recession was over? I thought I heard that!)

Most likely there will be a session before Christmas in order to meet the requirement to have a special election in March. Also included may be a ballot item to allow the Legislature to divert some of the "First Things First" early childhood education plan passed by the voters in 2006 into the State General Fund. That program is currently running a rather hefty balance but without public approval they cannot touch to funds. Will there be other things cut when they go back into special session? That is still up in the air at the moment but as we get closer to the regular session more and more everything comes into the mix.

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