John C. Scott

J.C. Scott: Az Senate budget includes Medicaid expansion

Posted May 17, 2013

John C. Scott Show

On the Friday edition:

We started our show with Rep. Bruce Wheeler (D-LD10), who previewed next week's Medicaid expansion debate in the Arizona House of Representatives. He said if a compromise cannot be made with leadership there may have to be some parliamentary maneuvers made in the House to pass Medicaid expansion.

15 minutes into the show, we were joined by Sen. Linda Lopez (D-LD2), who talked about Thursday's historic budget vote in the State Senate that included passage of Medicaid expansion. She also talked about other element of the budget including education and CPS funding.

26 min: Sen. Steve Farley finished our round up of Democratic legislators, complimenting those Republicans that joined Democrats to pass the budget out of the Senate.

38 min: We interviewed Republican Ben Buehler-Garcia, a Ward 3 Tucson City Council candidate. Buehler-Garcia, who filed the maximum 245 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot, shared his thoughts about proposed pay raises for City of Tucson employees, coming pension funding challenges, public transportation, small business and Downtown development.

50 min: We were joined by reporter Ben Giles of the Arizona Capitol Times, who gave a behind the scenes view of the parliamentary maneuvering in the Senate on Thursday. Questions remain as to whether the coalition of five Republicans who joined Democrats to pass the budget will hold. Giles also talked about other elements of the budget including education and CPS funding.

68 min: We talked with Jesse Lugo, who invited our listeners to join him for the third annual golf tournament to benefit American Legion Post 59, honoring Sgt. Martin Lugo Jr. and PFC Angel Carranza, members of Post 59. The tournament will be held May 25. For more information, call Lugo at 440-3305.

80 min: Dr. Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, gave an update of the continuing conflict in Syria and talked about the pitfalls of military intervention.

93 min: We finished with activist John Kromko, who is gathering signatures for proposition that would outlaw red light cameras and photo radar throughout the state.