Arizona Legislature looking at ‘short and painful’ 2018 session

PHOENIX — With the 2018 Arizona legislative session starting Monday, one analyst said this year’s session can best be summed up in two words: short and painful.

Stan Barnes, a former Arizona legislator and a political analyst, believed that the 2018 legislative session could “easily be less than 100 days.”

“It’s going to be short because it’s an election year and legislators and the governor want to get out to campaign full-time,” Barnes said.

He said that because every dollar is already accounted for, most legislators want to get on the campaign trail.

“There’s not much to talk about other than creating a budget and getting out to campaign,” he said.

Barnes also mentioned that the sexual harassment allegations that have been in the news recently will have an effect on the upcoming session.

“It’s going to be painful because the sexual harassment and ‘who’s sleeping with who’ cloud that is over the state capitol has yet to part,” Barnes said.

This year’s legislative session was scheduled to end April 17 and Barnes said everything is in place for the this year’s session to beat that.

“It doesn’t happen that often, actually, in Arizona to be less than 100 days. But all the ingredients are there this session for it to be on the much shorter side of the calendar.”

KTAR News’ Jim Cross contributed to this report.