After a bill is in the Rules Committee, it moves on to the Caucus. Caucus is one of my favorite videos to edit because it gives us (the viewers) the chance to see what’s going on behind the scenes.
This bill has a hostile amendment added last week by Rep Payne(R-LD21). Normally, a hostile amendment does not occur when the bill’s sponsor is the same political party as the amendment. Usually, lawmakers of the same party get along well enough to not step on each other’s toes. However, this is politics and things don’t always make sense.
House Democratic Caucus for SB1324, held on 3-29-22
The House Minority caucus might be a little hard to understand if you don’t know what’s going on. Senator Shope (R-LD8) is the sponsor of SB1324. The original sponsor can reject any amendments to their bill as hostile. This leads to a Conference Committee. A Conference Committee is a few members from each house named by the presiding officers, who meet to resolve differences between House and Senate bills. So instead of 16 and 31 votes needed, you only need 3 in a conference committee. That’s why some lawmakers and lobbyists allow a bad amendment to go through, knowing the original sponsor will reject it when it goes back to their chamber. In the video, you hear democrats discussing this.
House Republican Caucus for SB1324, held on 3-29-22
Meanwhile, in the House Majority Caucus, Rep Payne states that he is removing the amendment.
Overview
Amends the Arizona Constitution, upon the affirmative vote of at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the Legislature, to permit additional police and fire agencies to receive a portion of money from the Smart and Safe Arizona Fund (Fund).
History
The Fund consists of money from Proposition 207, which is a 16% excise tax on the sale of recreational marijuana products and license and registration fees. After agencies pay administrative costs, the remaining funds are distributed to community college districts (33%), municipal police and fire departments (31.4%), the Highway User Fund (25.4%), the Justice Reinvestment Fund (10%) and the Attorney General (0.2%) (A.R.S. § 36-2856).
Distribution of the 31.4% of monies for municipal police and fire departments depends on the number of employees enrolled in the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System and the Public Safety Personnel Defined Contribution Retirement Plan (A.R.S. § 36-2856).
The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) is responsible for maintaining the courses of study and academic degrees at Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona (A.R.S. § 15-1601).
Provisions
- Adds Indian reservation police agencies, Indian reservation firefighting agencies, university police departments under ABOR and joint power authorities to the list of recipients of 31.4% of monies from the Fund. (Sec. 1)
- Contains a retroactivity clause from and after December 31, 2020. (Sec. 2)
- Specifies that this act is only effective on the affirmative vote of at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the Legislature. (Sec. 2)
- Makes technical changes. (Sec. 1)
Amendments
House Committee on Military Affairs and Public Safety
- Adds the Department of Public Safety to the list of recipients of a portion of 31.4% of monies from the Fund.