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2017 STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
Staff Contact: Brent Stoddard, Director, Public Affairs
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Purpose and Policy Guidance
Recommendation
This is a request for City Council to review and provide guidance on the proposed 2017 state legislative agenda and to give a legislative preview.
The Intergovernmental Programs staff recommends prioritizing the state legislative agenda to a few key issues to allow the city to have a stronger, more consistent message on the items of greatest priority. The proposed key priority issues for consideration are described in the attached reports.
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Background
Prior to each legislative session, the Intergovernmental Programs staff seeks Council adoption of the city's state legislative agenda. The legislative agenda defines the city's priorities for the upcoming session and will guide the city's lobbying activities at the Arizona State Legislature. The Intergovernmental Programs staff will update Council on a regular basis throughout the session for guidance on bills and amendments that may be introduced. The city's legislative agenda is a flexible document and may change, based on activities at the Legislature and Council direction.
The 53rd Legislature's First Regular Session will begin on Monday, January 9, 2017.
Analysis
While we will not know the full scope of issues that will impact the city until the session starts there are some major themes we are anticipating.
2017 Budget/Tax Reform
A number of tax reform measures are currently being discussed by various legislators. We have not seen any specific proposals. However, we are encouraging our legislators to carefully consider whether changes to the tax code truly improve our national competiveness enough to justify the loss of revenue or to find new revenues to offset any losses to cities, and whether it is wise policy to be over-reliant on any single revenue source.
Municipalities continue to slowly recover from the Great Recession, but overall municipa...
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