It's like you're on a ledge and now
someone stepping on your fingers,
so that's how it feels.
That's Blue Ridge Unified School
Superintendent Michael Wright.
He says that someone who is stepping
on his fingers is Governor Doug Ducey.
Ducey coming under intense pressure
from educators and lawmakers.
They want him to call a special
session of the legislature in the
waning days of his term to avert
a billion dollar fiscal Cliff for
K12 public schools next year.
Welcome back to square off,
prominent Republican and Democratic
lawmakers are going public saying they
had a deal with the governor to lift
a spending cap on K12 public schools.
In a special session and they
have the votes to pass it now.
Well, Ducey,
go along and call the special session.
And what happens if he doesn't?
I'll put that question and more
to our political insiders.
Stacy Pearson,
co-founder of the Democratic consulting
firm Lumen Strategies and Marcus Dell Artino,
a Republican consultant at
first strategic public Affairs,
welcome back to Square Off.
So here's what's at stake,
$1.4 billion that lawmakers
budgeted for K12 public schools.
This past spring.
But because of a legislative relic
known as the aggregate spending
limit AE L you know it well Marcus.
The schools won't be able to touch
this money by the time March arrives.
Budget cuts and layoffs could ensue.
Marcus give us a bit of history here.
Why is this expenditure limit still with us?
Well
and I should tell you the legislatures
kind of wants to look at ways
to to modernize this somehow.
But it it came into into.
The statutes a long time ago
and with our increased revenue,
we've had some pretty big jumps in
education funding with those big increases,
it's been bumping up against
this aggregate expenditure limit.
So even though the money's been appropriated,
the money can't be spent
in these schools are now coming
into their budget time when they're
trying to do their planning and
they won't be able to actually
spend the money that they've been
appropriated unless this aggregate
expenditure limit is moved up and
the legislature had to deal with.
To cap this past session,
to deal with the previous year's problem,
they eliminated the CAP but
didn't do away with the problem.
So Stacy, with the holidays coming
up and his term ending January 2nd,
Doug Ducey would have to call a special
session really in the next two weeks.
Is there any evidence he'll do
that? Certainly the pressure is
mounting for him to do that and to
conclude his tenure as governor.
He should take the win and walk off
the field with his arm in the air.
I mean, this should not be something
that he punts to Governor Hobbs
to fix because inevitably the
expenditure limits going to be raised.
So it's a matter of who's going
to take the win.
So here's the hard political question.
Who thought this was a good deal when
they made it back in the spring?
You know, punting this to a lame duck
governor and an uncertain legislature
of uncertain composition sometime
between Thanksgiving and Christmas
to fix a problem that it doesn't
appear the governor cares much?
About K12 public schools aren't
giving him awards the way choice
the Choice movement is.
Who thought this was a good idea?
Well, remember the deal
was, as I understand it was in trade
for ESA's and in trade for traditional
public education getting over a
billion dollars into the classroom.
I will call a special session after
the election in order to raise
the AE L Now what's happened is,
as you can see, there's some question
about whether the governor's going
back on his word to call that special.
Fashion. And to Stacy's point,
you know, there's a couple things here.
One is you're taking $1.4 billion
out of the economy. So I'm doubtful.
We're not going to raise the
expenditure limit, right.
That's that's a bad financial move, too.
You know, we're getting up at
this point where you're talking
about the governor's legacy.
You sort of don't want it marred
by this going on in the last bit.
You'd rather go out on your high note.
He's been talking about ESA's
and historic tax cuts.
There was a big dinner the other
night celebrating all his wins.
I think he wants to be able to keep
that going. And three, I think.
People forget about this.
Charter schools really don't exist
in huge numbers in rural Arizona.
Private schools certainly do not.
So for these schools in Blue Ridge AZ
or Springerville or Lake Havasu or page,
this is a big deal not only
for their local economies,
but for the
parents. I still don't understand
why they made this deal.
It's like me telling a home seller to fix
my house after he sold the home to me.
I mean, really.
And if this doesn't get done,
it gets kicked to Katie Hobbs.
Governor Katie Hobbs and
a Republican legislature,
and they're going to work this
out by March sometime. Well,
and that's just it is.
They took Governor Ducey.
They being the Democrats,
took Governor Ducey at his word.
And now it's a question of whether or
not he's going to stick to his word.
I just don't get why they
ever took that deal quickly.
Joe Biden. Making his first
trip to Arizona as president.
He's going to a chips plant.
Not the boat. The border. I get.
You want to celebrate your successes
and not your problems. You're
stealing my line. Oh, no.
I you know he's not going to
the border because it's a
complete liability for him.
It's a complete failure by this
administration to address anything
on the border even look at
Kirsten Cinema in in Mark
Kelly from his own party
or disagreeing with him on on immigration
policy and and dealing with the border.
So clearly he doesn't want to come there.
I don't think he'll be able to avoid
it will be my question I think the
press will be there the press is going
to want to ask questions about the
border so you can come celebrate the
the chip manufacturing plant which
he's doing across the country just did.
Groundbreaking in Syracuse,
who by the way has more water than we do.
So they got that other plant,
but I I don't think that he'll
be fully able to skate.
OK, a fairly successful
midterm for the president.
Doesn't he have to do
something about the border,
something meaningful and
obvious in the next two years?
Well, it's not just about the border,
it's about immigration policy writ large.
When you've got ranchers,
Republican ranchers on the border
asking for labor, you know,
when we've got watermelon farmers saying,
hey, we can't get enough labor to come
get these melons out of the ground.
I mean, this is, there's going to have
to be comprehensive immigration reform.
And the fact that he still has a path,
a viable path to do that, I think is key.
I think he still has a path.
I deal with it with a split Senate
and with a slim majority in the House.
I think there are enough border Republicans,
border state Republicans,
that may want to look at this.
Certainly not from Arizona.
We've seen that before.
2024 is here already, right?
Let's talk about Senator Kirsten cinema.
She could face a Democratic
primary challenge in 24.
Perhaps from Congressman
Ruben Gallego of Phoenix.
We shall see.
I don't know if you're a skeptic, Marcus.
I well, let's listen to cinemas reaction
after the Senate passed a landmark bill
last week protecting same sex marriage.
Let's hear that by.
I can't wait for people all across
the country to be able to talk to
their children and their children's
children about the time in America.
When we made it completely normal for
families to be together and love each
other and take care of each other.
Cinema, the first bisexual member of
of Congress, was quite emotional there,
and she followed that up with a pointed
Twitter thread that started with when
Roe versus Wade was overturned, many
worried that would be what would be next.
We saw elected officials drum up
outrage to fuel clicks and retweets.
Outrage can help propel political stars,
but it doesn't solve problems and
it doesn't improve people's lives.
Your point we improve people's lives.
We protected people here.
From one of the great fears
after Roe versus Wade,
which was that Republicans in Congress
might go after same sex marriage,
cinema did something about it.
How strong a selling point
will that be in 2024?
Oh, I think that's immeasurably important.
And what is? Under between the lines under
the the initial text is cinema found a way,
Senator cinema found a way for government
to function with the filibuster in place.
And so which we all know has been designed
or used to prevent whiplash in American
governments at the highest levels.
So she found the 60 votes to get this
heard and then ultimately get it passed.
And that's her point.
She gets stuff done. Yeah.
I mean, this is somewhat
humorous to me because whether it's.
This particular bill you're talking about
the chips act that she worked hard on
the infrastructure bill which brought
more millions of dollars into Arizona.
She has been key to getting the
Biden administration's legislation
through there's no doubt about it.
But there's a fight within the Democratic
Party that she's not doing enough.
It's it's it I don't get it.
It's is basically what I'm trying
to tell you and we want to focus
on you know certainly Republicans
having problems in the in that party.
But I will tell you this I think
this highlights the fact that.
The Democrat Party is not far,
very far behind.
Real quick, if if Democrat Raphael
Warnock wins the US Senate runoff
election in Georgia this week,
how would a 5149 Democratic Senate versus
the current 5050 affect cinemas clout.
Marcus, I I think if you just
just the bills I just listed.
I mean she's established
herself as sort of a key member
for the Democratic Party to moving
legislation and getting stuff done.
And I think part of the frustration
in this country is Congress.
Doing nothing.
So the fact that she's they're
doing something is is helpful.
Well, Senator Cinema is going
to remain key in getting over
that filibuster threshold.
And so that her position,
her importance there
is not going to change.
All right, when we come back,
Carrie Lake is getting ready to challenge
her defeat in the governor's race.
A former Republican governor
has some wisdom for lake.
And what will it take for Katie Hobbs
to succeed when she becomes governor?
Stay with us.