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State AdvocacyAzLTA Legislative Update, Caucus list and priority bills list
50th Legislature - 2nd Regular Session, 2012 Sunday, Feb 5 2012 12:33 PM
The deadline for the introduction of bills in the Senate passed on January 30th while the same deadline in the House is scheduled for February 6th. Once again this year a disproportionately large number of bills have been introduced in the Arizona House and Senate and the AzLTA is following a lot of them.
Of interest, of course, is the Governor’s recommendation for a $7.0 million appropriation to the Arizona Office of Tourism. While a little less than half of what the formula would have produced, nevertheless it is still a recommendation in the right direction. Should that be adopted, together with the increase in Indian Gaming funds, AOT will have an opportunity to improve on their promotional activities in the coming fiscal year. Of course, the Legislature still has to act on the state budget and negotiations have just begun but many legislators are telling the House and Senate leadership that this appropriation is an essential contributor to jobs in Arizona’s second largest industry.
Unfortunately the Governor also recommended that the statutory formula that funds AOT should be repealed in light of the direct appropriation. The AzLTA believes that to be a bad idea. Sooner or later the economy will recover and when that time comes it will be more important than ever to sustain the job growth and economic activity that tourism produces. At that time a resumption of the formula funding should resume. As we are making legislators aware of this we are receiving good response but we have a long way to go.
ne other bill of note. The so-called “film credit” bill (SB 1170) that would create an incentive for production companies to come to Arizona passed the Senate on February 2nd. The bill received bi-partisan support and is now headed for the House where indications are that Speaker Tobin will move the bill through the process.
The Legislative Tourism Caucus held their first meeting of the session on January 30th with 17 legislators taking time to attend and discuss important issues affecting our industry. Already 40 members have signed up for the caucus and an additional 20 have verbally committed to join. Their efforts will be critical as the session goes on. (On the list of members those with an “X” by their name have signed up officially and we are awaiting sign up forms form the others.)
SENATORS Frank Antenori REPRESENTATIVES
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