Two Arizona lawmakers are trotting out plans to reduce the penalty for some unusual felonies despite arguments by Gov. Janet Napolitano they should instead be giving her more money for more prisons.
Reps. Carole Hubbs, R-Sun City West, and Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford have a wide-ranging measure to reclassify as Class 1 misdemeanors various offenses which now are Class 6 felonies. The first crimes on their list in HB 2015 range from theft of native plants and operating a pyramid scheme to selling a forged nursing diploma and abandoning a spouse.
What is significant is not only that misdemeanors mandate shorter periods of incarceration: six months versus a year. Those convicted of misdemeanors generally serve their time in county jails and not in state prisons.
Hubbs acknowledged the crimes on this list are not those that result in large numbers of arrests, much less prison time. But she said it provides a starting point to look at reversing the trend of the last two decades of taking some minor offenses and making them felonies.
The biggest problem at this point for the two lawmakers is convincing Napolitano to even let the questions be considered as the Legislature enters the third week of its special session.
Napolitano's session call had said the only prison issue she wanted addressed was her request for cash to find space for inmates. Gubernatorial press aide Paul Allvin said revamping the criminal code, even in the name of reducing prison overcrowding, may not fit within that legal definition. He said Napolitano is reviewing the legislation with an open mind "but she really wants them to focus on the central issues that were in the call and not peripheral issues."
Hubbs and Konopnicki already were chairing a special House panel looking at the sentencing code when Napolitano brought lawmakers back last month.
Konopnicki said the goal was to have a plan ready when the Legislature reconvened in regular session in January. He said while the work is not finished, he and Hubbs decided to present their findings so far in hopes it "would make some difference in the amount of folks we have incarcerated."
Prison overcrowding aside, Hubbs said the decision by prior legislatures to make some of these offenses felonies is "absurd."
Napolitano has had only limited luck so far in convincing lawmakers to just give her the money she seeks for prisons. 
Aside from the push to revamp the criminal code, the governor already has had to abandon her demand that legislators approve a $470 million construction program, scaling that back to just $27.9 million. And some other lawmakers, while agreeing to the need for more prison space, instead want to contract with private companies.