The Arizona Promise
You know what they say about promises from politicians … The third caucus speaks … And bring on the mimecoins!
Gov. Katie Hobbs delivered her State of the State address yesterday under the theme of “Arizona Promise,” a phrase she said 16 times during a 40-minute speech.
That promise, she said, is “that everyday people can find opportunity, security and freedom.” And as Hobbs launched into her third year in office, she presented a bunch of promises she can’t keep without buy-in from the majority party.
And those ideas were immediately met with Republican resistance.
“Where the governor offers policies that may play well in California, Republicans offer leadership grounded in Arizona’s DNA,” newly minted House Speaker Steve Montenegro clapped back after the speech.
Every State of the State address follows a basic formula of pointing out what the executive branch has accomplished and giving the Legislature a to-do list.
But the most important parts are the actual policy solutions the governor proposes.
Housing
Hobbs wants to extend the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, a program that gives tax breaks to developers to make affordable housing. She also wants to crack down on out-of-state-owned short-term rentals, which she called “party houses.” And Hobbs is proposing putting funding in the state budget to ameliorate veteran homelessness.
Education funding
The governor called on lawmakers to extend Prop 123, the 2016 ballot measure that uses state land trust money to fund public education but will expire in June. While her plan for what a new version of the measure would fund conflicted with Republicans’ plans last year, Hobbs didn’t say what she would or wouldn’t support in a renewal.1
School vouchers
Like last year, Hobbs called for reforms to the state’s universal voucher program which Hobbs said “has ballooned into a billion-dollar boondoggle.” That means instituting income caps on who can receive the vouchers and tracking where the money goes. And like last year, Republicans hated the idea.
The border
Hobbs wants to keep the Arizona National Guard at the border to beef up federal security efforts that exist there, and she said both the state and federal border agencies have seized 8 million fentanyl pills since July. She wants to “continue working with this Legislature to protect our border,” but didn’t give any indication of what that looks like.
Water
The governor said she’ll keep pushing for new housing developments to be contingent on assured water supplies that aren’t groundwater. She also vowed to veto any bills undermining assured water supply requirements, and once again threatened to use her executive authority to act if the Legislature won’t.
Hobbs also wants to:
Give law enforcement officers and firefighters raises.
Make 12-month postpartum insurance coverage permanent.
Wants to sign a bill guaranteeing access to contraception and fertility treatments.
If you don’t have anything better to do, you can read the whole speech here.
If you’re more of a visual learner, you can watch it here.
Or if you don’t really want to spend 40+ minutes watching a speech, we made a song version for you. It’s dumb but it does capture the vibe pretty well!
Republican and Democratic legislative leaders started their first morning back at the Capitol by delivering dueling press conferences on their respective priorities for the session.
The Freedom Caucus Republicans, however, ditched their GOP colleagues to hold their own news conference later in the day.
Freedom Caucus leader Jake Hoffman led the press conference with the ghosts of the Freedom Caucus’ past behind him. Former lawmakers who lost their reelections, like Justine Wadsack and Cory McGarr,2 plus failed congressional candidate Anthony Kern, joined the faction of far-right Republicans.
The main point of the gathering was to disparage Hobbs, whose “days are numbered,” per Hoffman. He hit on taxpayer dollars used to create an “ugly” state logo, her $1.5 million inauguration fund and “using taxpayer funds to perform sex change surgeries for government bureaucrats.” All the while, Hoffman had to speak over the buzzing of a drone flying over reporters — which was allegedly piloted by House Democrats’ Communications Director Robbie Sherwood.
The dysfunction of the dueling Republican press conferences wasn’t lost on Democrats. House Democratic Leader Oscar De Los Santos argued Democrats have the upper hand because “the Republican caucus is completely fractured,” pointing to the separate press conferences as a literal example.
Hoffman, however, contended the Freedom Caucus is more than happy to work with other Republicans – though “work with” might be a bit strong.
“That means sometimes we work in tandem. That means sometimes we have to pull them along,” he said.
We spotted a lot of former politicians at yesterday’s State of the State ceremonies.
But one face we didn’t see was former Gov. Doug Ducey, who was delivering his first State of the State speech just a short decade ago. (Yes, that does make us feel old. Thanks for asking!)
Ducey used that 2015 speech to push a civics test for high schoolers. If they want to graduate, students now have to answer correctly 60 out of 100 questions pulled from the test used by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Back in 2015, we administered the test to now Speaker of the House Steve Montenegro, a sponsor of the legislation and an immigrant who has actually taken the citizenship test.
We can’t find the archive on that, but we remember clearly that he passed – but just barely.
Congratulations to our Bingo contest winners, Amy Chan and Murphy Hebert, who we hear nearly got into a fistfight in the Secretary of State’s Office yesterday trying to be the first to claim their prize: a sweet Arizona Agenda hat.
Meanwhile, the governor’s spokesman is bitter that he did not win.
Better luck next time!
“How would you feel if your child’s teacher was replaced by ChatGPT?”
We’re pondering that question as the first edition of our new weekly newsletter on artificial intelligence policy hits mailboxes today.
Plus, how much money does our AI policy guru Adi spend on $20-per-month subscription AI tools?
The answer may surprise you!
Subscribe today!
And don’t forget to sign up for our new weekly Education Agenda and our weekly Water Agenda, which are both launching this week.
We are pleased to announce, dear readers, that we’re finally about to get rich.
Republican Sen. Mark Finchem, an election conspiracist and fellow Substacker,3 is giving subscribers of his newsletter Digital Gold Coins, which he dubs “an up-and-coming competitive cryptocurrency.”
Honestly, we’re not sure what digital gold is.
But given that Finchem once announced on a now-defunct website for a now-defunct company that he had found a way to generate and deliver clean energy “without wires, anywhere around the world,” we’re pretty confident that we’re getting in on something big here.
Fun fact: Hobbs hailed Prop 123 as a “bipartisan success.” But only two legislative Democrats voted to send it to the ballot – and she wasn’t one of those two.
Hoffman introduced McGarr on the state Senate floor yesterday, announcing that McGarr, a pest control technician and former one-term lawmaker who lost his November race and then cried fraud, would be the next AZGOP chairman. He’s a longshot challenger to AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda for the gig.
We know! It is far past time to leave our regrettable platform(™). We’re working on it.
Interesting investigation from Pro-Publica on vouchers and the Christian right that is pushing for them.
Buying kayaks and horseback riding lessons by homeschool parents in AZ is mentioned, as is the uncontrolled cost to the AZ budget. What isn't mentioned is that Arizonans voted 2:1 against voucher expansion, but the Republican majority legislature forced them on us anyway.
Inside the Movement to Redirect Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Private Religious Schools
https://www.propublica.org/article/school-vouchers-ohio-church-state-tax-dollars-private-religious