PHOENIX – In the chaotic race to finalize a nearly $ 40 billion state budget, Arizona Republicans seek to reverse a voter-approved election that would impose special excise taxes on the rich.
They also seek to undermine the foreign minister’s authority to administer and defend elections.
The two amendments that were controversially debated in the State House and the Senate this week are very different.
The proposed flat tax, which would undercut the excise tax for those earning more than $ 250,000 a year or for couples earning more than $ 500,000 a year, would overhaul the taxation of Arizona citizens. The change in shifting the power to deal with legal challenges from the State Secretary to the Attorney General appears to be small in comparison.
However, the two measures are part of an emerging trend in Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country and raise questions about what happens when a party that loses an election refuses to respect the will of voters.
In the wake of recent state-level election losses, Republican lawmakers have sought to curtail the power of the voters who delivered those defeats by either restricting access to the elections, curtailing the authority of the incoming party, or ignoring the results of direct initiatives.
In Arizona, Republicans admit they see the excise tax created by voter-approved proposal 208 last year as an obstacle to competition with other states for new businesses and taxpayers.
“We’re addressing that [Proposition] 208 problem, we’re lowering the overall tax rate, “State House majority leader Ben Toma (R) said in an interview. “We wanted to make sure it was a tax cut for everyone.”
The amendment to change authority over electoral disputes removes power from Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and hands her over to Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
“This is about politics and retaliation,” said MP Raquel Teran (D), who is also the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party. “They disregard the will of the electorate and there is no other way of expressing it than taking power.”
Republicans in other states have also been willing to consolidate power, either in lame duck sessions after losing an election or in regular sessions after losing national races, but retain control of the legislature.
In the weeks following the 2018 midterm election, Wisconsin lawmakers passed measures limiting a governor’s authority over a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act and the state’s business development agency. Former Governor Scott Walker (R), who lost his re-election bid, signed the measures that hampered his successor, the Democrat Tony EversTony Evers: More than 3 million ballots have been cast in Wisconsin – officials have only reported 27 as possible fraud cases. Republicans See New House Majority With Reallocation From Wisconsin Gov.of fulfilling election promises.
The Georgian legislature was the first of a handful of states to pass a comprehensive package of reforms to the electoral law this year President Biden
Joe BidenPaul Ryan: Voters will not be impressed by the “yes men and flatterers flocking to Mar-a-Lago”. Intelligence told the White House they had untested evidence of the origin of the coronavirus: Milley report says the US is planning a possible evacuation of Afghan translators from the region MORE Critics said the new laws would restrict access to the ballot box.
Voters in Georgia now have less time to request a postal vote and less access to mobile voting centers, while volunteers are unable to distribute food and water to those waiting. This practice is common in minority areas, where long lines are more likely than in most white districts. What matters is that the package has been legally signed by the government. Brian Kemp
Brian Kemp Democratic lawmakers form a voting council under pressure from the GOP for restrictions. Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, says he has been banned from Republican governors’ conference meetings (R) shifts the power to resolve some electoral disputes from civil servants to lawmakers themselves.
Republican officials and activists in Wisconsin and Georgia have taken steps in the past few days to mimic Arizona, where the GOP-controlled Senate is scrutinizing more than 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County last year. This test is based on previous ones President Trump
Donald TrumpPaul Ryan: Voters will not be impressed by the “yes men and flatterers flocking to Mar-a-Lago”. Murkowski expresses frustration at the GOP with the January 6 commission: “Something bad has happened”. The secret service told the White House they had untested evidence of the origin of the coronavirus: REPORT MOREThe persistent unproven allegations of widespread inappropriateness in the 2020 election have been criticized as deeply flawed by electoral administration experts and even other elected Republican officials.
“Politicians have always used political reforms to write the rules to win the game. What is new about these moves is that they change who the umpires are, ”said Thad Kousser, chairman of the political science department at the University of California at San Diego. “It’s a way to vaccinate against any outcome. If we haven’t got the rules right, we still have control of the referee. “
Other states disregard the will of voters more directly.
In Missouri, Governor Mike Parson (R) left an offer to fund Medicaid expansion after lawmakers refused to fund additional coverage for those who hit less than 138 percent of the federal poverty line. A majority of state voters passed the expansion approved under the Affordable Care Act 2010 in November.
This follows efforts in Florida in recent years to reverse constitutional amendments passed by more than 60 percent of voters.
One of these changes – the creation of an independent body to oversee redistribution every decade – survived a legal challenge after lawmakers tried to set their own boundaries. Another, which would restore the right to vote for ex-offenders, was changed by the legislature: whoever wants to regain his right to vote must first pay court fees or fines.
The Republican takeover is a legacy of the party’s campaign in the 2010 midterm elections under then-President Obama. While the Democrats have been able to regain the ground lost in the US House of Representatives and Senate, and even in the governorates, they have never returned to similar power in the state legislatures that they lost this year.
In November 2010, the Democrats controlled 60 of the 98 partisan legislative chambers across America, including both chambers in 26 states. The Republicans controlled only 38 chambers and both chambers in 14 states.
After what Obama called the 2010 “shellacking”, Republicans had control of 58 chambers and total control of 25 states. And their power has only grown. Today they control both chambers in 29 states and a total of 60 chambers.
Democrats say much of this legislation is inaccessible due to bipartisan gerrymandering that has left their party deeply in the minority. In a state like Wisconsin, Democratic candidates for seats in the 2018 State Assembly won 53 percent of the vote, but only 36 out of 99 seats.
Democrats aren’t immune to their own wandering: A Democratic draft of Illinois State House maps released last week would have thrown multiple Republican lawmakers into unpredictable counties or played them off against other incumbents.
But the growing geographical divide between Democratic and Republican partisans is becoming an unbridgeable chasm of its own.
Democratic voters in a state like Wisconsin are highly concentrated in a few urban areas – Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Kenosha, and other liberal enclaves. The same goes for Arizona – Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff – and Georgia, with democratic strongholds in Atlanta, Columbus and Augusta.
“Wherever you are disadvantaged, your voters are bundled up,” said Kousser.
While another cartographer may have drawn a cheaper map for Democrats, it’s hard to imagine that county lines would break the Republican advantage in Wisconsin, where Democrats would have to take 11 more seats to control the State Assembly, or Georgia, where they would have more 13 need. Even with cards drawn more cheaply to Democrats, Republican legislative candidates won more votes than Democratic candidates in 2020.
In Arizona, Republicans continue to claim a slim majority of a seat in both the House and Senate, according to maps drawn up by an independent commission a decade ago.
In recent years the campaign season came and went, and the party that gained control of the state parliament worked with those who had won executive offices, regardless of party affiliation. Those days are over and are being replaced by new rules that allow a legislature to change the job description of a statewide official during his tenure or bypass the will of voters entirely.
Today the status quo favors the Republicans. But Democrats warn that this may not always be the case.
“Change takes time,” said Teran. “And we’ve been working on changes for a long time.”
On The Trail is a column by Reid Wilson that deals primarily with elections.