Arizona Education Network

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Your Questions Answered!

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Question: I just read that Senate President Robert Burns reiterated the urgency of our budget situation…just before he himself left for a special interest junket in Georgia.  Is this true?

Answer: Several concerned and confused voters contacted us after they had read two conflicting articles regarding Arizona’s ongoing budget crisis..

Both articles were from July 12, 2009.  The first contained a quote from Senate President Robert Burns where he said that the state’s financial status remains “an all-hands-on-deck situation.”  The second report stated that Senator Burns is heading out of Arizona this week to attend a special-interest group conference in Atlanta, GA. (see links to both articles below)

This sounded a little dubious to us – why would the leader of the Senate skip out on important, on-going negotiations this week regarding our unresolved multi-billion dollar deficit, especially just issuing the “all-hands-on-deck” directive?  While we hoped that this was just political gossip, we confirmed today that it’s true…Senator Burns is leaving this afternoon for a week-long American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference..

After checking out the agenda for the ALEC conference, we can’t say as though we blame him.   Why trudge through another week of heated negotiations and deal with large, complex and massively important issues like our state’s education system; when you can attend a “welcome reception” at the World of Coke (“taste over 60 different Coke products from around the globe!”), relax at the Hyatt Regency and attend a Braves Game with conservative sages like Newt Gringrich and Molson Coors Brewing Company Chairman Pete Coors?  The conference sounds like a great way to network and to gain access to the latest uber-conservative money…er, ideas.

Our commentary: In all seriousness, we can understand why Sen. Burns scheduled this trip.  He sits on the ALEC Board, and ALEC itself is a special interest group with a lot of street cred among conservative circles.  We also recognize that Burns has worked a number of long hours and reportedly missed out on a planned European vacation.

…BUT….

Here’s the thing we don’t understand.  Senator Burns is the leader of our Arizona Senate and one of the chief architects of the budget & legislative process this year.  Arizona is in a tenuous budget position and we are still facing a multi-billion dollar gap and a number of essential services in our state (including education) have been left with under- or un-funded essential services.  While Senator Burns cannot be held solely accountable for this situation, the budget is unresolved due to a number of wasted days and political games of ‘chicken’ that were squandered over 170+ days of the regular legislative session.

The unresolved issues with our budget have a negative impact on our schools, our state services, our ability to entice new business into our state and our overall economy.  First things first – our legislators have no business attending junkets, out-of-state conferences or special interest pep rallies before they have finished the primary job that we have elected them to do.

Monday Update:

The Arizona Guardian reported on Monday that the Senate Republicans actually closed their caucus to the public after a half hour of contentious debate.  Security guards asked spectators to leave the room after Senator Barbara Leff moved to discuss the budget in private.

When asked by a reporter about whether the closed caucus was in line with the Republican’s stated goal to maintain transparency during this session, Senator John Huppenthal reportedly ‘bristled’ and said “You guys are trying to degenerate this to trivia.  We’ve got the most severe budget.  Cut to the chase here. We meet in small groups all the time.  And what we’re doing here is getting the group together to try to come together as a team to tackle the biggest budget challenge in the history of Arizona.”

The Guardian article also confirmed that Senate President Burns “slipped out soon after the caucus began” so that he could head to Atlanta for the ALEC meeting…during, if we can requote Senator Huppenthal, “the biggest budget challenge in the history of Arizona”.

Wednesday Update:

Unfortunately, there is more to this story.  After placing several calls to Phoenix, your AEN correspondents have discovered that there are quite a few of our elected representatives who are skipping the ongoing budget work this week for a stay at the Atlanta Hyatt.

The list of our “representatives” who are reportedly bailed out of Arizona for a little Georgia hob-nobbing this week:  Representatives Cecil Ash, Ray Barnes, Nancy Barto, Sam Crump, John Kavanagh, Debbie Lesko, John McComish, Nancy McLain and Steve Yarbrough.

In addition to Senate President Robert Burns, Senators Pamela Gorman, Jack Harper, Barbara Leff, Al Melvin and Russell Pearce also on the list of ALEC conference attendees.  We are left (almost) uncharacteristically speechless.

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References & Additional Information:

-Sharon in Senator Burns’ office confirmed his attendance at the ALEC meeting this week when we spoke to her on July 13^th.  Senator Burns can be reached at (602) 926-5993 when he returns from Georgia.

-Attendance slips for Ariz. special session (Associate Press), Arizona Republic, July 20, 2009

-Lawmakers lean on lobbyists more this year for travel funds (Amanda Soares), Arizona Guardian, July 17, 2009

-Burns, after lambasting Brewer, calls on her to ease up on rhetoric (Howard Fischer), Arizona Daily Star, July 12 2009.

-Political Insider:  Verschoor skips Atlanta event; Burns does not, Arizona Republic, July 12 2009.

-Senate GOP caucus explodes, closes door (Paul Giblin & Mary K. Reinhart) Arizona Guardian, July 13 2009

-The American Legislative Exchange Council conference agenda can be found here.
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