• Griselda Nevarez/Cronkite News Service
• Demonstrators rally at the State Capitol against bills that would, among other provisions, require police to enforce federal laws against illegal immigration.

Sen. Russell Pearce's illegal-immigration omnibus bill is drawing protests at the Capitol.

Griselda Nevarez of Cronkite News Service reports:

Dozens of demonstrators rallied Monday at the State Capitol against bills that would make it trespassing to be in the country illegally and require local law enforcement to assist in enforcing federal immigration laws.

Members of several organizations carried signs and chanted outside the Executive Tower where Gov. Jan Brewer’s office is located. They delivered hundreds of letters urging her to veto SB 1070 and HB 2632 if they reach her desk.

Alfredo Gutierrez, a former state senator, said it would be unconstitutional to charge people in the country illegally with trespassing.

“These are people who aren’t even jaywalking,” he said. “It is merely their presence and their

Here's the latest on the bills we're tracking at the Arizona Blogislature.

You can find the full list here.

HB 2337: Frank Antenori has sponsored legislation which would allow companies to set up shop in Arizona to manufacture traditional incandescent light bulbs after 2012, when federal regulations will ban incandescent bulbs that range from 40 to 100 watts.

Antenori's real goal is to set up a showdown with the federal government over the limits of its powers under the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause. He says the feds have no business telling Arizona residents what kind of light bulbs to use.

"That's a bill gift-wrapped for someone like the Goldwater Institute to challenge the commerce clause," Antenori says. "It's just to say, 'Hey, the federal government needs to stick to the basics of what it was chartered to do in the Constitution, and not regulate light bulbs and flush toilets and health care and all that stuff.'"

HB 2337 passed the House of Representatives on March 3.

HB 2338: Rep. Frank Antenori says cities should provide motorists with a one-second grace period when they get nabbed running a red light by

Carolyn Classen at TucsonCitizen.com reports that Republican District 30 precinct leaders have picked Ted Vogt, Doug Sposito and Parralee Schneider as possible replacements for Frank Antenori in the Arizona House of Representatives. Antenori was selected last week to replace Jonathan Paton in the state Senate.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors is expected to appoint one of the three to the vacant House seat next Tuesday, March 16.

Former state lawmaker Randy Graf did not make the cut as one of the final three.

It looks like we may be able to get some federal funds to keep from dumping more than 300,000 people from the AHCCCS rolls—if lawmakers don't change the eligibility standards as part of a desperate budget maneuver of questionable legality in a rush to pretend to balance the budget by the end of the week.

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema dropped this e-mail today:

Yesterday in Approps I mentioned that the Senate was expected to pass the FMAP extension bill today. As we debated the budget in Approps, the Senate voted on cloture to end debate and bring the bill to the floor. Today the bill came up for a vote. The bill just passed the full Senate by a vote of 62-36, with 5 Republican members joining Democrats in voting yes (Sens. Bond (MO), Collins (ME), Murkowski (AK), Snowe (ME), Vitter (LA)). The bill has moved to the House, where it is expected to pass tomorrow and be on the President’s desk as early as Friday.

There’s no need to jeopardize Arizona’s standing to qualify for these funds. I urge you all NOT to vote to roll back Prop 204 this week — doing so jeopardizes our ability to qualify to receive over $400 million for health care in Arizona — dollars that will be dollar-for-dollar supplanted in our current AHCCCS spending. In short, these dollars will actually bring us MORE money than the current budget proposal plans to save by cutting AHCCCS for over 320,000 people. We should NOT take shortsighted, foolhardy action this week when the federal stimulus dollars will be approved within days.

Here are the details on the American Workers, State and Business Relief Act.

The Children's Action Alliance responds to the GOP budget plan:

This budget calls for deep cuts that will devastate children and families and damage Arizona's future recovery. Many alternatives have been put on the table that would allow the state to responsibly continue KidsCare health coverage for 47,000 children, child care assistance for hardworking parents, domestic violence shelters, and rehabilitation for troubled youth. This plan puts Arizona behind all other states for jobs. We urge state lawmakers not to put their name on a budget that shuts the door on children and economic growth.

The budget bills voted on in Committee yesterday endanger children and families in numerous ways:

Eliminating KidsCare, resulting in 47,000 children losing their health care coverage. With the elimination of KidsCare, Arizona would be the only state in the nation without this health coverage and Arizona will be turning away the federal funds that come with this.

Eliminating the Department of Juvenile Corrections. This would shift responsibility to the counties without planning or resources for treatment and rehabilitation. Locking up youth without needed services is the surest way to turn troubled youth into repeat criminals.

Slapping Arizona voters in the face by cutting more than 300,000 adults and 12,000 children off health care coverge despite our ballot vote several years ago.

Exposing 17,000 poor children to more hunger and risk by eliminating cash assistance for their families.
Damaging jobs and children’s education and security by keeping the door shut on child care assistance for low-income working parents.

Asking voters to move Arizona backwards by repealing First Things First and eliminating all state investments in health, education, and security for young children.

Update from our earlier post: GOP leaders couldn't round up the votes to pass the budget in the House or the Senate this afternoon, so they'll be massaging the package and trying again tomorrow.

Here's what we're hearing from the Capitol:

Republican leadership would like to get the slash-and-burn budget through as quickly as possible and had hoped to the get the bills that passed both Senate and House appropriations committees yesterday through the chambers today.

But they've hit some snags in the Senate, which has already abandoned plans to vote on the package today. The House, meanwhile, is scheduled to start debating the bills at 3:30 today, but that plan could change if the votes don't materialize.

One major holdup revolves around putting the financial responsibility for incarcerating juvenile-justice inmates on the counties. That's running into big resistance, especially from the rural counties.

More to come.

The GOP budget plan is working its way through the appropriations committees at the Legislature.

Howie has the details:

Legislative panels approved more than $1 billion in spending cuts, nearly $500 million in raids on special funds and some other budget maneuvers on Tuesday in their bid to balance the budget.

The votes in the House and Senate Appropriations committees, largely along party lines, came over the objections of various interests whose pet programs will get less funding or who are finding themselves with new financial obligations. Those calls went largely unheeded.

The latest dispatch from Rep. Steve Farley sums up many of the budget proposals that are making their way through the Legislature this week:

Allow me to apologize on behalf of Republican leadership. While last week was officially declared as "Budget Week", they never actually came up with any budget proposals.

So this week is, once again, "Budget Week"!

We actually do have a budget proposal on the table today. The Republicans would again have a lot of apologizing to do, if they were actually sorry for what they are about to do to the state of Arizona.

It's a bloodbath that will last for generations.

This budget was worked out behind closed doors with input from Republican members only, and

Republican state lawmakers were finally releasing details of their spending plan for the upcoming year earlier this week—and, to no great surprise, the proposals are brutal to anyone who cares about the citizens of the state.

Among the lowlights:

• All-day kindergarten is gone.

• KidsCare, the program that provides health insurance to children in households below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, is gone. That means we’ll lose a lot of federal dollars that come into the state because the feds provide a 3-1 match for the program.

• Healthy Arizona, the program that provides health insurance to people below the federal poverty level, is gone, with eligibility rolled back to one-third of the federal poverty level. If you’re a single mom with two kids making more than roughly $6,100 a year, you will no longer qualify for state-subsidized health insurance.

Even the Arizona Chamber of Commerce is against that one. Executive Director Glenn Hamer—a former executive director of Arizona Republican Party—says the move is just plain foolish.

“If you’re taking 300,000 people off of health insurance,