LD7 PCs Hear Congressman Ben Quayle

Last Tuesday, LD7 PCs and visitors to the meeting heard from Ben Quayle. He said that the debt limit vote would be extremely important and would show whether Republicans can get meaningful cuts in the federal budget.

Our three legislators were there and reported on the legislative session. David Smith proudly announced that he was rated 4th out of 40 Rpublican representatives by the Pachyderm Coalition. David Smith and Nancy Barto talked about bills they sponsored and the governor's vetoes of bills they supported. Heather Carter said she voted against increasing the tax credit for Private School scholarships from $500 to $750 per taxpayer because she felt it would unbalance the budget; David Smith took issue with that by saying that getting students moved from public schools to private schools would actually save the state taxpayers money even counting the tax credits. Carter was the only Republican legislator to vote against this. Her NO vote allowed Governor Jan Brewer to safely veto the bill. Reportedly, Heather Carter got into a shouting match with David Smith outside the meeting regarding this. Heather Carter received substantial contributions to her campaign from those supporting higher taxpayer spending on government education. She also works at ASU teaching students who are training to become K-12 public school teachers, so she is, herself, part of the government education establishment.

David Smith spoke briefly and to the point and took some questions. Heather Carter made a speech about her accomplishments and took some questions about not supporting tuition tax credit increases. Nancy Barto made an 11 minute address followed by 3 minutes of questions by PCs angry with her votes on some bills.