By Jim Nintzel
REP. JEFF GROSCOST had one of his frequent moments of confusion on the House floor last week.
A Mesa Republican who has introduced 117 of the wacky bills floating around the state House this session (including legislation putting bounties on wolves, licensing gila monster breeders and making it a crime to comply with the Endangered Species Act), Groscost was asked to explain what one of his bills--HB 2325--was supposed to do.
Although he was the prime sponsor of the bill, Groscost didn't have a clue.
"I don't know," he said. "I didn't write it so I guess I'd defer to legislative council."
Hey, the hard-working lawmaker came close to filing a whole gross of bills--he led the pack this year. So what if he can't remember what the legislation is all about?
In all, lawmakers have sponsored more than 950 bills this session--and as we've noted here in the recent past, many of them are frivolous, ridiculous or downright menacing.
Earlier this week, the newly formed Citizens for Efficient and Open Government (now who could oppose that?) proposed a plan to put a halt to the half-baked legislation dreamt up by Groscost and his ilk. Organizers hope to place the Common Sense Initiative on the 1996 ballot, which would limit lawmakers to introducing five bills each session. The initiative would also ensure all bills get a hearing and would require all legislative meetings with more than three legislators to be open to the public, which would put a stop to the GOP's current practice of closed caucuses.
The initiative effort, spearheaded by Sen. Chris Cummiskey, has already picked up support from Common Cause and United We Stand.
A Phoenix Democrat, Cummiskey makes a convincing economic argument in favor of the initiative. Bills cost between $1,500 and $2,000 each to introduce, and plenty more if they get out of committee. If lawmakers had to abide by the limit, the effort could ultimately save Arizonans somewhere in the neighborhood of a million dollars a year.
And, as Capitol insiders point out, many bills are a waste of time--lawmakers wishing to pander to a particular constituency, please a special interest or simply flirt with a lobbyist are not above introducing bills that don't have a chance of passing.
Of course, even if Citizens for Efficient and Open Government manages to succeed in the task of collecting 112,000 signatures from registered voters and successfully campaigning for the measure's passage, chances are lawmakers will just rewrite the law to suit themselves.
Elsewhere at the Capitol last week:
• The environmental audit bill (SB 1290), which would extend a cloak of secrecy to polluting firms and exempt them from fines and penalties if they reported the violations to the Department of Environmental Quality, passed the Senate and is under consideration in the House.
• Sen. David Peterson--yet another Mesa Republican--continued to urge Senate President John Greene (R-Phoenix) to agree to hear a bill which would require a minor to get parental permission to have an abortion. Last month, Peterson publicly offered to reverse an earlier vote and support vouchers if Greene would hear the abortion bill.
The resulting media shitstorm about trading votes left the freshman senator chastised but undaunted. Last week, Peterson said he was looking for fellow Republicans to sign a letter to Greene calling on the Senate President to hear the bill. Greene has so far steadfastly stood by his word to not allow any abortion bills to reach the Senate floor.
• Senate Finance Chairman Mark Spitzer (R-Phoenix) killed his own flat income tax proposal, saying it was based on bad math.
• The House is leaning toward passing a bill which would raise the AHCCCS eligibility levels to the federal poverty level. The move would mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 180,000 people would be eligible for health care and the federal government would pick up more of the tab, so the state would actually save money. Although this compassionate plan would save people's lives and even has the support of Gov. J. Fife Symington III, it's expected to die when it reaches the Senate, because Greene and Sen. Carol Springer (R-Prescott) say they are opposed to expanding the state's "welfare rolls" and fear becoming more dependent on those evil federal dollars.
• HB 2196, which removes a citizen's right to sue if the Department of Environmental Quality fails to enforce its law, has been passed by the House and is under consideration by the Senate. GOP supporters say they want to strike the lawsuit provision because it allows the state to have "four million vigilantes," as Rep. Rusty Bowers puts it. They're conveniently ignoring the fact that since the law first went into effect in the 1980s, there have been only four lawsuits, and one of them netted the state more than a quarter million dollars in fines.
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