Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper has ruled against a group of residents and Arizona lawmakers who sought to block Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.
In 2012 the Arizona Legislative passed a Medicaid expansion program, with a coalition of democrats and a handful of republicans, that levies a provider tax on Arizona taxpayers, to fund the program. The Goldwater Institute argued that the levy was unconstitutional under Prop. 108 of the state constitution because bills that enact new taxes or increase taxes must receive two-thirds majority vote in both houses of the legislature.
The state’s Medicaid expansion bill fell well short of the threshold.
“Unfortunately, this ruling greatly damages Arizona’s critically important voter-enacted constitutional protection requiring a two-thirds legislative supermajority for all new taxes, even when the government is responding to a ‘crisis or emergency’ or a program ‘for the poor.'” Goldwater attorney Christina Sandefur told the AP. “If this decision stands, it would enable a simple majority of legislators to vote to ignore a constitutional supermajority requirement when politically convenient, shielding that vote from legal challenge.”
The Goldwater Institute represented legislators whose votes against Medicaid expansion should have defeated the bill but were effectively nullified when the expansion bill became law without a two-thirds majority approval. Goldwater argued that a two-thirds majority was guaranteed by Prop 108, however Judge Cooper found that the Legislature determines if a 2/3 vote is required under a voter-approved constitutional amendment.
Across the state of Arizona last spring, Republican Precinct Committeepersons passed resolutions condemning Brewer, for her effort to expand Obamacare in Arizona. In every Legislative District, except one, Republicans rejected the largest expansion of government the state has ever seen.
Brewer’s closest advisor, Chuck Coughlin, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from the healthcare industry to defend Brewercare from the Goldwater lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, the Goldwater Institute also asserted that the legislation expanding the Obamacare Medicaid mandate violates state separation-of-powers doctrine.
Goldwater is expected to file an appeal.