Opinion ID: 2516373
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Application of the Arizona Blending Statute

Text: ¶ 12 The state is correct when it argues the January 1, 1994 effective date of the April 27 amendment should have no effect on either § 31-237 or the April 22 amendment. The April 27 amendment was restricted to felonies committed after January 1, 1994 because the new types of inmate release had not existed under prior statutes. Specifically, prior to the 1993 changes, neither conditional parole nor community supervision was permissible. See A.R.S. § 31-228 (Supp.1992). In addition, the April 27 amendment did not purport to change that part of the April 22 amendment that established the dedicated discharge account as a source of gate money. It merely amended the original 1992 version of § 31-228 to include, as of January 1, 1994, prisoners released conditionally and on community supervision. By the time the April 27 amendment was enacted, the April 22 amendment was already in effect. ¶ 13 We conclude the legislature consciously chose the later start date for the April 27 amendment in order to separate the two in both time and substance. The legislative intent emerging from these provisions, viewed separately, is that the April 22 amendment dealing with gate money should apply to all inmates, while the April 27 amendment, as part of the Truth in Sentencing scheme, should apply, as expressly provided, only to inmates released under programs never before implemented who committed their offenses after January 1, 1994. Moreover, because the effective dates of the two amendments were expressly separated as a matter of clear legislative enactment, we cannot, by judicial directive, delay the effective date of the April 22 amendment until January 1, 1994 to make it coincide with the April 27 amendment. ¶ 14 Our blending statute cannot reconcile an irreconcilable difference. Section 41-1304.03 requires the Arizona Legislative Council to blend multiple amendments to one statute into a single section, unless doing so would substantively change the statutory meaning. To postpone the effective date of the April 22 amendment would amount to a substantive change, contrary to the express pronouncement of the legislature. Section 41-1304.03 gives the legislative council authority to combine redundant, non-conflicting, amendments. These amendments are in conflict such that their differing effective dates must remain as legislatively directed.