We’ll be breaking down the takeaways from the legislative session over the next few days, but Mary Jo Pitzl, Ronald J. Hansen and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of the Arizona Republic give a wrap-up of the session here:

The Arizona Legislature crept to a middle-of-the-night close to its 2015 session, after a drawn-out final workday sapped the patience of lawmakers, leading to the failure of a pair of key election bills.

The House adjourned sine die at 3:34 a.m. Friday.

But long before the House wrapped up its business, most of the Senate had gone home in exasperation and exhaustion. The senators’ departure made moot the House’s work on a key GOP bill to severely limit who could return a voter’s ballot. The measure needed a final Senate vote.

The demise of Senate 1339 was followed by the failure of a proposed ballot measure that would have asked voters whether to end the state’s public campaign-finance system and direct the money that funds the Citizens’ Clean Elections Commission to K-12 education instead. The measure, Senate Concurrent Resolution 1001, fell two votes shy of the needed number.

“That was a bumpy end to the session, wasn’t it?” House Republican Chief of Staff Tami Stowe said to staffers.

The final hours dragged on, but overall the session set a modern speed record: At 82 days, it was the shortest session in five decades.

This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2015.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

5 replies on “Th-Th-Th-That’s All, Folks! AZ Legislature Wraps Up 2015 Session”

  2. I doubt there’s been a more dysfunctional bunch of legislators outside of DC than this bunch. Biggs has a hissy fit, takes his ball, and goes home, along with the rest of the State Senate. Saturday Night Live couldn’t come up with that kind of comedy gold even in its heyday!

  3. Freise( D) Tucson proposed a bill motorcyclists a fee if they chose not to wear a helmet???

    Gee I wonder who sponsored that turd? Is there a sugar tax or over breathing surcharge coming?

  4. Whew, just whew!

    Thank Gaia that republikan Klown Kar’s left Phoenix!!!

    And, @rat, as a motorcyclist who often had to sit behind a line of idiots at a traffic light who cannot recognize green from red (an Arizona thing) and even when they finally see the light’s green can’t remember how to operate an accelerator (another Arizona thing) and then they lift their foot off the brake and begin coasting slowly forward after finally recognizing that the car in front of them has move 50 yards down the road (another Arizona thing), with waves of 145 degree heat rising from the asphalt baking me to a crisp, I’d TRADE HAVING TO WEAR A HELMET FOR LANESPLITTING ANY DAY!!!

    Not “having” to wear a helmet is overrated…

  5. I guess my thought was that somebody without a helmet should have lower medical expenses (because of non survival) than one wearing a helmet. I thought it was an attempt to collect on expenses paid by insurers. But I did not find an explanation of intent.

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