Arizona Branches of Government

Structure and Organization

First, it is a collective decision-making body. It can take official action only when a majority or more of its ninety members agree. Second, it is a representative body. Arizona legislators are elected from small districts throughout the entire state. It is bicameral or two chambered. The smaller chamber is the Senate and the larger chamber is the House of Representatives.

State legislators have simultaneous two year terms. They can serve no more than four consecutive terms. However, they can sit out one term and the clock starts again. They can also switch chambers. Elected from thirty equally populated districts. To serve in either chamber of the legislature, a person has to be at least twenty-five years old, a U.S. citizen, an Arizona resident (minimum three years), a county resident (minimum one year), a registered voter, and English proficient.

Serving has always been a part time job. Since 1951, legislators meet for one regular session a year. The session begins the second Monday of January. There is no fixed end date, but strive for one hundred days. There is also an unlimited number of special sessions, which can initiated by the Governor or legislature at any time. Typically there are two or three special sessions a year. Most bills are drafted before a session begins. Interim committees meet in the summer and fall. Constituents and interest groups contact legislators year-round. The state legislature is organized around three powerful elements: leaders, committees, and the majority party. The leader of the senate is the President and the leader of the House is the speaker.

Authority lies in four main areas: Parliamentary powers, administrative powers, appointive powers and referral powers over bills. There are also two parties, the minority party and the majority party. The minority party runs itself with various committees. The majority party is the single most powerful organizing force in the state legislature. It controls operations in three major ways. The presiding officer is always a member of the majority party. Committee chairs are members of the majority party. Each standing committee is carefully structured so that the majority party comprises the majority of members.

Responsibilities and Oversights

Legislature has two main tasks. One is to make and revise the laws of the state. Two is to appropriate money for government operations. Approximately three hundred new laws get enacted each year out thousands submitted. Most of these enacted laws are revisions to existing laws. Successful bills usually traverse five major stages.

The first in the introduction. Bills can originate in either chamber of the legislature. This chamber is the sponsor of the bill and to be successful should have multiple sponsors. The second stage is the committee review in the first chamber. Roughly two-thirds of bills fail to make it to this stage. The speaker or President give the bills to standing committees for detailed research. All bills are assigned to the chamber’s Rules Committee for technical scrutiny. The graveyard for most bills is the standing committee. The chairperson of this committee can kill a bill single handedly by refusing to schedule the bill for a committee hearing. The standing committee votes on the bill and has three options. First option is do pass which means it passes in original form. Second option is do not pass which means it has been be disapproved. The third option is do pass as amended which means the bill is supported only with the specific amendments proposed.

The third stage is passage by the first chamber. The bill is debated here if the bill was passed by the standing committee and is put on the calendar for consideration by the entire chamber. The fourth stage is review and passage by the second chamber. The bill now has to successfully traverse through the second chamber. The whole process that was done in the first chamber is now done in the second chamber. The second chamber has to approve the bill in the exact same form as to when it was approved by the first chamber. The two chambers can form a committee to arrange a compromise, but if they cannot come to an agreement the bill is said to have “died in conference”. The fifth stage is approval by the governor or legislative override.

Powers and Limitations

The legislature has fiscal powers. It must share its fiscal powers with the voters, the governor, and the federal government. The state raises revenue and currently takes in $28 billion a year just to keep state institutions and programs running. Taxes are the main way the state gets the money it needs. Most revenue collected goes into a general fund which pays for ordinary operations of the state government. More than half of the general fund currently goes into education. There are two types of appropriation bills. The general appropriation bill consolidates the operating budgets of state agencies, institutions, and programs into a single bill.

The second type are individual supplemental appropriations that address other spending needs that come up from time to time. This type goes through a similar process as a bill. It is introduced, studied by committees, voted on, sent to the governor and then enacted. July 1st is the start of the new fiscal year. Unlike other states, Arizona relies on significant input from the governor when doing a general appropriation bill, but it is a joint effort with the Senate and the House. The governor is required to submit a proposed operating budget within five days of the start of the regular session. The legislature’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee prepares its own budget recommendation and both sets of recommendations are sent to the house and senate appropriations committees.

The legislature has a variety of oversight powers. These powers are impeachment powers to remove executive-branch officials and judges from office before the end of their terms, legislative expulsion where each chamber can expel its own members by a two-thirds vote, and other governmental oversight powers. The legislature can propose state constitutional amendments and amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The executive branch has a “plural” executive branch. Power in the Arizona executive branch is fragmented among many elected officials and quasi-independent boards. There are multiple elected officials. Voters separately elect a governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, state mine inspector, and five corporation commissioners. No official is the boss of any other. The executive branch is divided into more than one hundred separate departments and agencies. Many of these are headed by a single gubernatorial appointee who is subject to the governor’s control. With eleven elected offices and a large number of quasi-independent boards, Arizona considered a “weak governor” state. Experts criticize the design saying it lacks a strong and unified leadership and that it is prone to too many internal conflicts.

Accountability is reduced and elected officials can blame one another for inaction and failures. Elected officials for the five major offices are given four-year terms. The four-year cycle is elected in even numbered, off-presidential years like most other states. The five major offices along with the Corporation Commission members can serve no more than two consecutive terms in the same office. The governor and the other four major offices only need to be twenty-five years old, U.S. citizens (for ten years), Arizona residents (for five years), registered voters, and English proficient. Until 1988, the constitution stated the top five executive officers had to be male. This has been changed.

Executive compensation is well above legislative compensation because executive positions are full time. Officials can removed either by impeachment by the legislature or recall by the people. When an office becomes vacant, the governor appoints a replacement to serve until the next general election. This is from temporary capacity (impeachment, short-term disability, etc.) or permanent incapacity (death, resignation, conviction of impeachment, or permanent disability).

Structure and Organization

Responsibilities and Oversight

The secretary of state is first in line for succession. The secretary’s responsibilities lie in two main areas: elections and recordkeeping. Overseeing elections goes beyond tabulating and certifying official vote counts. It is also maintaining accurate voter registration records, certifying citizen initiatives and referenda meet constitutional signatures, certifying candidate nominating petitions meet the formal legal requirements, preparing the official ballot, preparing voter information pamphlets, training and supervising the personnel that staff local polling places, ensuring integrity of voting equipment and maintaining financial disclosure reports required of candidates, elected officials, political action committees and large contributors to ballot campaigns. For recordkeeping, the secretary keeps up to date records of the constitution, the statutes and administrative rules. This office also maintains a number of other important official documents such as commercial lien filings, notary public certifications and election records.

The attorney general provides legal advice to other elected officials, the state’s many agencies and boards, the courts and occasionally to school districts and local governments. The office also serves as the state’s lawyer in most noncriminal litigation. It also plays an important, but not exclusive, role in criminal law enforcement. They also have supervisory powers over county attorneys and can take over local criminal prosecutions at the request of the governor of county. They must possess five years of legal experience in addition to the other requirements.

The state treasurer is the state’s chief financial officer. They safeguard, invest, audit and disburse the billions of dollars that belong to the state. They serve on numerous official boards involved with financial issues. The superintendent of public instruction is the state’s highest ranking education official. They direct the Arizona Department of Education. This agency certifies K-12 teachers, oversees statewide testing, approves textbooks, sets minimum pupil competencies, and apportions operating funds to public school districts and charter schools. The policies are set by the state Board of Education. The superintendent is a member of the board, but the other eight members are appointed by the governor. They do not need to possess any prior teaching or school administration experience.

The governor has a various number of powers. The governor has administrative powers which is their primary job. Appointment powers is used to select the heads of most state agencies and fill vacancies on boards and commissions. Appointments must be approved by the senate. Independent board members usually have staggered fixed terms and do not necessarily coincide with the governor’s term. Removal powers by the governor are limited. Some appointees can be fired by the governor for any reason. This includes the heads of most large agencies such as the Department of Corrections. The governor cannot fire the other ten independently elected members of the executive branch.

The governor is a major participant in the state’s appropriations process. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the state’s military forces (the National Guard). The governor is given three legislative powers. The first is to propose new legislation, the power to the legislature into special session and has veto power (though this power has some limitations). The governor also has limited judicial powers. The governor can appoint judges and has clemency powers. The governor also has some informal powers as well. They deliver speeches, entertain visiting dignitaries, issue proclamations and awards and play a major leadership role within their political party. The other elected officials can potentially inherit the top office of governor. In succession order it is the secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and superintendent of public instruction.

Powers and Limitations

Structure and Organization

The courts resolve legal disputes. These disputes can be private matters, matters of wide social significance, cases may be criminal or they can be civil. The role of the judge is not well understood. Judges make law and public policy.

Judges not only have the power to make new laws and policies, but they can strike down laws and policies made by other branches of government or voters. Arizona has five major courts: Justice of the Peace courts, Municipal Courts, Arizona Superior Court, Arizona Court of Appeals and Arizona Supreme Court.

Responsibilities and Oversight/Powers and Limitation

The Justice of the peace courts are located in every county. They mostly handle traffic cases that do not result in a serious injury. They also have jurisdiction over minor criminal cases, as well as some landlord-tenant disputes. Small private lawsuits can also be tried in this court as long as the amount is less than $10,000. Municipal courts are in most cities and towns. They chiefly handle traffic violations and minor crimes that occur within city limits. They also try violations of city ordinances and codes. They authorize search warrants and issue injunctions in domestic violence and harassment cases.

Arizona Superior Court is the state’s major trial court. A division is located in every county with the number of judges dependent on county’s population. They handle the state’s most serious criminal and civil cases. All felony trials, such as murder, rape, and armed robbery, take place in this court. Death penalty sentences are imposed here as well. They perform a limited appellate function by reviewing Justice of the Peace and Municipal courts. Superior court judges have unlimited four-year terms. They must be at least thirty years old, of good moral character and a licensed attorney for at least five years. The Arizona Court of Appeals is an intermediate appellate court that came into existence is 1965. This court determines whether any serious legal errors occurred in the lower court proceedings. It does not conduct trials of consider new evidence. The appellate court assigns three judges to each appeal.

The Arizona Supreme Court is the state’s last resort. It is required to review all death penalty cases from the superior court. This court only takes cases with the greatest statewide importance or to resolve inconsistent lower court rulings. Two categories of lawsuits can begin here: cases between counties and cases against the governor or other state officials in their official capacity. Five judges or justices serve on this court. Unanimity is not needed, just majority rule. The supreme court performs important administrative functions. It oversees all the lower courts in the state and approves formal rules. It has the authority to discipline and remove judges from office and to disbar the state’s licensed attorneys. The chief justice who is chosen by the other justices for a five year term presides over impeachment trials. Supreme court justices have unlimited six year terms. They are chosen and retained through merit selection and must be licensed attorneys for at least ten years.