Sen. Andy Biggs, 2011 Legislator of the Year

Congratulations to Arizona Senator Andy Biggs, who was the highest-scoring Legislator on AFP-Arizona’s 2011 Legislative Scorecard. Senator Biggs earned a score of 99.4 percent, barely edging out Senator Ron Gould (99.1 percent), who has the highest cumulative average of any multi-term Legislator. AFP-Arizona will present Biggs with its 2011 Barry M. Goldwater Legislator of the Year Award (a mounted jackalope) sometime during the 2012 legislative session.

In a year in which many pieces of ground-breaking free market legislation originated in the Arizona Senate, 18 Senators earned the designation of Hero of the Taxpayer by scoring above 90 percent on the Scorecard. Members of the House majority also scored well (despite the demise of several key bills on the House side), with most earning the designation of “Friend of the Taxpayer.” Representative Eddie Farnsworth earned the highest score on the House side (80 percent — “Champion of the Taxpayer”).

The highest-scoring Legislative District was LD 4 (pre-redistricting), which covered Sun City Grand, Sun City West, and Wickenburg, and which was represented by Sen. Scott Bundgaard, Rep. Judy Burges, and Rep. Jack Harper. Second highest was LD 9 (Glendale, Peoria and Sun City), represented by Sen. Rick Murphy, Rep. Debbie Lesko, and Rep. Rick Gray. Third highest was LD 23 (Pinal County), represented by Sen. Steve Smith, Rep. Frank Pratt, and Rep. John Fillmore.

The lowest score in 2011 went to Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who also placed lowest on the 2005 Scorecard, which was produced by the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers, AFP-Arizona’s predecessor organization. (In that year, Sinema graciously accepted AFT’s “Lenin Prize” for the lowest score…)

On the 2011 Scorecard, Republican Legislators scored an average of 78 percent (“Friend of the Taxpayer”) and Democratic Legislators scored an average of 16 percent (“Champion of Big Government”).

The Scorecard scored 146 bills and weighted them according to their projected impact on Arizona taxpayers, consumers and producers, with one point on the raw score approximating $1 million of impact. To see a scoring rubric for the 2012 Legislative Session, download the pdf guide at this link:

http://www.americansforprosperity.org/101311-afp-arizona-2012-legislative-agenda

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Article source: http://www.americansforprosperity.org/020112-afp-arizona-2011-legislative-scorecard