Flagstaff City Council Voting on a Tobacco 21 Ordinance Tuesday (2/2/19)

The Flagstaff City Council has a Tobacco 21 ordinance up for a final vote at their Tuesday, July 2nd 4:30 PM council meeting.  Here’s a copy of their ordinance, which follows the national best practices model for Tobacco 21.  

The ordinance is a few pages long- but essentially it would limit the sale of tobacco including electronic cigarettes to only people over 21, requires retailers that sell tobacco and e-cigs to get a license (the city will do compliance checks), and includes fines for violations.  I couldn’t tell exactly what the effective date for the ordinance would be (should it pass).  More to come.

Great News for Arizona Kids & Families

As a part of the state budget recently passed, the legislature finally granted the Department of Economic Security the authority to expend $56 million in new annual federal childcare money. ADES moved swiftly to begin using these new dollars to increase scholarship rates and to serve more children.

The ADES has already implemented a provider rate increase with the funds (the first since the since before the recession). The childcare wait list has also been suspended, meaning that families that are eligible for childcare assistance will be able to begin services immediately (this is the first time since 2009 there has been no wait list).

Thank you to all the parents, champions, and partners who called for investment of these funds in these three changes. Advocacy works!