"He chose millions, I chose public service"---1/18/17

This was my first week on site*, and I began the day in the House Ways and Means Committee, held in Hearing Room 1. It was also my first day watching a committee, which I thought was fascinating. I spent most of the time trying to understand what the laws were about (each of the legislators come into committee meetings already knowing what these bills are about and at times having already spoken to constituents and others to begin to form an opinion towards it). If you want to see the whole meeting, you can watch here. Unfortunately, because this was my first day and I was trying to wrap my head around it all, I can't tell you too much about the bills, but if you want to learn more you can watch the whole committee meeting. However, one of my greatest impressions from the meeting was the range of bills that are debated and passed. The first bill debated was passed quickly and without debate, and it confirmed the Arizona tax code with the internal revenue code, while the second bill would have added a line to a bond election pamphlet, and was debated for an hour and included multiple testimonies. It was amazing to see the issues that people cared about and the important bills that were passed, some being as big as our tax system to others seeming as small as a single line on one pamphlet.

One of my other big impressions comes from the quote of the day, which I have included in the title of this post. At the beginning of the meeting, Rep. Bolding was told to give a fun fact about himself, and he told the committee members and the audience that he played basketball with LeBron James when he was growing up in Akron, Ohio. He finished the story with his quote "He chose millions, I chose public service." Though it may seem obvious, I realized that all of the legislators are normal people like you or me, and many have lives outside of the State Capitol that influence their decisions here in the legislature. In the end, none of them have the "Big Brother" vibe that I unconsciously associated with politicians, and I am excited to find out more about them.


* This is a post that I wrote for the date 1/18/17 after what was my first week, but I never actually published on my blog (sorry!)