AZCOPS working for you in Capitol despite legislative slowdown

(Posted: March 25, 2009)

By Luis Ebratt, Director
AZCOPS Government Relations

This has been a very deliberate year for legislation at the Capitol. The House has processed a number of bills; however, the Senate has pledged to hold all Senate bills until a budget has been resolved and has not heard any House bills as a result. There is an increased chance as every day passes that this action will effectively kill all but a few pieces of legislation in 2009.

Despite the slowdown, AZCOPS will continue to hold meetings with key decision makers to include the Governor, and members of the Senate and House.Prior to te start of the session, Russell Pearce (Senate Appropriations Chair) and John Kavanagh (House Appropriations Chair) were urged by AZCOPS leadership to guard against drastic cuts that effect our public safety ranks in corrections, police and probation.

Gov. Brewer also expressed support of our officers who protect the citizens of this state. With RIFs occurring across the state in our probation agencies and recent budget proposals in DOC that would have far reaching financial impact to our brothers and sisters in corrections, specifically in the locations of Eyman, Lewis and Florence, meetings have once again been scheduled.

As this is being written, Appropriations Chairs and committee members have agreed to meet with AZCOPS this week to discuss sensible measures that would not cut as deeply as have been proposed in some budget scenarios and would allow equity across the board in resolving this fiancial crisis. An early April meeting with the Governor's Office was also finalized today to once again address these areas of concern.

AZCOPS is working for you.