Raft of issues face state lawmakers this session

Here are some of the issues other than balancing the budget that likely will be considered — though not necessarily approved — in the upcoming session:

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Fiscal control:

• Amend the state constitution to allow lawmakers to alter or repeal voter-approved measures.

• Reduce the constitutional state spending limit, which is now linked to total state personal income.

• Permanently repeal statewide property tax for education.

• Study alternate ways of financing education and school construction.

Immigration:

• Revamp the state’s employer sanctions law to make it easier for prosecutors to investigate alleged violations.

• Allow illegal immigrants to be prosecuted under state trespass laws.

• Require local police and sheriffs to do more to combat illegal immigration.

• Expand the requirement to prove citizenship for other state and local services.

Public safety:

• Permit people to carry weapons into establishments that serve alcohol.

• Allow people who feel threatened to unholster their guns.

• Reduce or eliminate the penalty for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.

• Reorganize the criminal code to reduce the number or length of mandatory sentences.

• Let people have a weapon anywhere in their vehicle without running afoul of concealed weapons laws.

• Ban texting while driving.

• Require motorists to move over when approaching parked tow trucks.

Health and welfare:

• Alter the laws on when a teen needs to get parental consent to terminate a pregnancy.

• Make late-term “partial-birth” abortions illegal.

• Increase the legal hurdle for patients to prove malpractice for injuries that occur in hospital emergency rooms.

• Require legislative approval for new regulations on greenhouse gases.

• Revamp laws on when Child Protective Services should take possession of newborns of drug-addicted mothers.

Commerce and finance:

• Regulate “reverse mortgages.”

• Amend the constitution to require secret votes in union elections.

• Determine whether to continue or revamp special tax credits for video and film production in Arizona.

Transportation:

• Decide whether to ask voters to hike taxes for new road construction.

• Repeal law that prohibits license plate frames from covering the word “Arizona.”

• Revisit and possibly repeal law authorizing statewide photo radar.

Miscellaneous:

• Force cities to hold nonpartisan elections for council.

• Overrule executive order granting “meet and confer” status for state employee unions.

• Ask voters to rename office of secretary of state as lieutenant governor.

• Repeal public funding of elections.

• Revamp what has to be considered when drawing new legislative districts.

• Alter various laws on what homeowner associations can regulate.

The 2009 Arizona Legislature, by the numbers
House :
This year: 35 Republicans and 25 Democrats
Last year: 33 Republicans and 27 Democrats

Senate:
This year: 18 Republicans and 12 Democrats
Last year: 17 Republicans and 13 Democrats

Deadline for adjourning: (Saturday the week of the 100th day, counting Saturdays and Sundays) — April 25

Last time Legislature met the deadline: 1994

Length of last year’s session: 166 days

Longest session: 173 days
Year of record: 1988

House bills introduced last year: (not including miscellaneous resolutions and memorials) — 872
Number that became law: 189

Senate bills introduced: 508
Number that became law: 129

Number of bills vetoed last year: 32
Veto record: 58, set in 2005 by Napolitano

Legislators who died in office in 2008: 1
Resigned: 1