With public policy being one of the mainstay activities of the Arizona Technology Council, it stands to reason that the Legislature is the place to find the group’s members as they work to progress a pro technology agenda.
But in a year when the legislative session focused on dealing with the state’s huge budget deficit, it was understandable for the Council to pick key legislative priorities to focus on that did not add costs.
Members of the Council leadership and group’s Public Policy Committee still headed to the Capitol and rolled up their sleeves to raise support for their agenda. Even when funding is tight now, they
consider their efforts to be investments in the future of Arizona.
For example, the top legislative priority in the legislative session was continuation of the Arizona Commerce Authority. This included fighting the efforts to repeal and consolidate the agency, as well as repeal the key economic development programs that the Council has supported or even had created in Arizona statutes, like the Angel Investment tax credit. While a continuation should not have been as difficult as this was, the ACA was continued for another five years when Gov. Katie Hobbs signed HB2210, which prevents future continuations from occurring during an election year.
Another priority the Council continued to advocate was career and technical education and STEM education to ensure Arizona’s technology companies have a pipeline of trained talent to meet the
various levels of employees they need. A victory was the governor’s signing SB1113 to update continuing high school and workforce training program statutes.
In related action, the Council worked with Rep. Justin Wilmeth, chair of the House Commerce Committee, to hold an informational hearing that helped raise awareness of the importance of computer science being offered in every high school to ensure every student has the opportunity to learn the required skills for the workforce needs of the state’s technology companies.
Additionally, the Council met with various education stakeholders to share that Arizona is lagging behind other states in offering computer science and suggest how they can work with the Council to help ensure all students have access to computer science prior to graduation.
However, with the state deficit, the Council did not run legislation on funding computer science in the 2024 session. Regardless, the Council plans to continue the advocacy of the issue in future sessions.
Clean energy and air quality were other areas of focus in the session, which included stopping several legislative proposals that were introduced. Some of the bills the Council was able to help defeat were
HB 2130, which would have required counties to come up with maximum acreage policies for renewable energy production; HB 2133, which would have established a surcharge on solar panels to establish a Solar Panel Disposal Fund; and SB1010 and HCR2018, which would have had negative impacts on business programs to help reduce emissions and result in credits to allow manufacturing.
The Council also stayed true to other priorities, which included looking for opportunities to support economic development programs that have proven to work for the state; seeking opportunities to positively impact the diversity, equity and inclusion of Arizona’s workforce and leadership; and consistently, equitably and sustainably funding the state’s P-20 education system.
The Council had several other policy wins in the 2024 session focused on the Arizona Space Commission, Arizona-Ireland Trade Commission, continuation of the Department of Homeland Security, and defeating legislation that would have negatively impacted technology in the areas of artificial intelligence and working internationally.
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