Related articles:

Arizona lawmakers gear up for session Lawmakers will tackle budget early

Driver/Transportation
Winroc Corp
Drivers Health Care
Sonora Behavorial Health
Executive Assistant Health Care
VALOR HOSPICECARE
ON-CALL NURSE General
VALLEY PROTECTIVE SERVICES
SECURITY OFFICERS Driver/Transportation
Pioneer Landscaping
Dieel Fleet Mechanic Health Care
Mountain Land Rehabilitation
Physical Therapist Administrative & Professional
Pima Prevention Partnership
Administrative Assistant

The 100 scariest days in Arizona began Monday with the opening of the 2008 legislative session. Brace yourself for roughly three months of political wrangling as lawmakers tackle a budget deficit, immigration, transportation, education, health care and economic development.

Those are the big-picture categories. More than 280 bills have already been submitted, and most deal with narrow issues, such as a House bill that would require all Arizona municipalities to allow sign walkers — which, according to the bill, means a "person who wears, holds or balances a sign."

There's a House bill to stagger the registration schedule for watercraft and one that would allow public school boards to create girls-only or boys-only classes as long as a comparable class was offered to the other gender.

One House bill would forbid health insurance companies from imposing treatment limitations or financial requirements on mental health care coverage that don't also apply to medical or surgical coverage. Another would prohibit a manufacturer or contract-testing facility in Arizona from using "traditional animal test methods" if appropriate alternative testing methods exist. The bill would exempt medical research testing and animal testing required by state or federal authorities.

We have bills that would grant free game and fish licenses to veterans who have a service-connected disability and have been designated as 100 percent disabled and receive benefits, or to veterans with service-related or other disabilities that are severe enough that he or she receives government compensation and is considered unemployable and permanently disabled.

Another would protect workers from being forced to attend meetings if the primary purpose of that meeting is to convey an employer's religious or political opinion, unless doing so is required by another law. The bill would also protect the worker from retaliation for filing a complaint against an employer under that law.

A Senate bill would establish a cell phone users' bill of rights. Another would ensure that proof of intent is required under an existing law prohibiting sexual contact between inmates and corrections employees, volunteers or contractors.

The Senate also has a bill that would allow members of the military and their spouses to terminate wireless phone service contracts if they're called to active duty or transferred to a different location.

The list goes on.

Much of the sausage making that goes on during the legislative session involves fixing technicalities in existing laws or pushing through bills advocated by this group or that.

Legislators will pick an area to focus attention on — like Tucson Republican Rep. Marian McClure and her fight against payday loans — and Southern Arizona is fortunate to have legislators with expertise and interest in necessary state needs, like child welfare, health care and education.

Lawmakers have a difficult job this session. They must come together and balance the budget, but they must not be allowed to use Arizona's tight financial situation as an excuse to slash and burn government programs along ideological lines.

Republicans control the Senate, with 17 seats to the Democrats' 13, and the House, where they have 33 seats and the Democrats have 27. The Republicans may have a majority in both chambers, but we hope the more moderate forces within the party will prevail.

Our hope is that lawmakers keep the big-picture issues in mind as they go forward this session.

The budget will take up considerable time, but our representatives must not forget important tasks like the future of Healthcare Group of Arizona, the state-affiliated insurance program for small businesses and self-employed Arizonans; improvement to child-welfare procedures and rules; school construction; education funding; transportation; and water policy. We hope that 100 or so days from now we can look back at a legislative session that produced positive change for Arizona.