State of the State analysis: How Hobbs is taking a more measured approach
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Gov. Katie Hobbs gave her second State of the State address on Monday in front of a joint session of the Legislature. In it, she addressed the need to close budget shortfalls for this fiscal year and next. She also called on lawmakers to approve changes to Arizona’s universal school voucher program, update the state’s groundwater management act and address home affordability, among other priorities.
Wayne Schutsky from KJZZ’s Politics Desk was at the Capitol for the speech and he joined The Show to talk more about it.
MARK BRODIE: Good morning, Wayne.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Good morning.
BRODIE: So what were the highlights really for Governor Hobbs? What were her main priorities she wants to get done?
SCHUTSKY: As you mentioned, water played a big role. She wants to close some of the loopholes that exist currently in state law for things like wildcat developments that caused the well, publicized Rio Verde foothills issue last year. Also build to rent developments that don't have to have the same water requirements as homes that are being sold. She wants to close that. She wants to give rural communities more power to regulate their water, their groundwater, which you know, is something that has run into problems with some key Republicans, when it's tried to go through the Legislature before. Also, she wants to provide some different types of assistance for Arizonans who low- and middle-income Arizonans who are trying to buy homes through a program called the Arizona Is Home, which is a mortgage type of assistance. And here's something she had to say about that.
[SNIPPET OF INTERVIEW]
GOV. KATIE HOBBS: This program will help working class families throughout the state with down payment assistance and mortgage interest rate relief.
[END OF SNIPPET OF INTERVIEW]
SCHUTSKY: Now, we're not exactly sure where that money is going to come from yet. Her staff didn't provide that. She's going to be coming out with her budget in a few days and so we will probably get some clarity on that.
BRODIE: She also talked quite a bit about education and specifically ESAs, empowerment scholarship accounts, basically school vouchers last year. She said in her State of the State and leading up to it that she wanted to end the universal program that clearly did not happen. What is she suggesting this year? And what are Republicans saying about that?
SCHUTSKY: This year, I think it's safe to say she took a little bit more of a measured approach. Instead of trying to get rid of the universal program, she's trying to make sure those dollars are spent how they're supposed to within state law. So she wants to or maybe restrict a little bit within state law. She wants to get rid of some of those extravagant, as she called them, expenses, stuff like luxury car, train, driving training and that kind of thing. She wants to make all purchases over $500 required,, have to be, reviewed by an actual individual. The Department of Education, which Superintendent Tom Horne says is actually already happening. She also wants to create some safety measures like ensuring that teachers at private schools getting these dollars have to have fingerprint clearance. Like teachers at a public school would now. Republicans even to something like that, you know, kind of said that it's a nonstarter saying that the schools are already doing this. They even if it's not required. So it was kind of an, all of them were nonstarters for Republicans, and Ben Toma who sponsored that legislation made that very clear. And here, here's him talking about that.
[SNIPPET OF INTERVIEW]
BEN TOMA: Sadly, she continues her outrageous assault against Arizona parents using their own tax dollars to provide their children with the best education possible through Republicans historic expansion of the universal school choice program.
[END OF SNIPPET OF INTERVIEW]
SCHUTSKY: So, as I said, Toma sponsored that legislation. He's made it clear over the past year that really nothing that's looking to rein in that program at all is going to make it through the House.
BRODIE: Does it seem as though there are any areas of agreement? I mean, the governor outlined a lot of priorities and Republicans in the Legislature also have a lot of priorities. And does it seem as though like the vet middle part of that Venn diagram, there's gonna be anything in it.
SCHUTSKY: So, if you go, based on the comments Republicans made yesterday, that's a hard, no, I didn't. I was hard pressed to find any Republican who is willing to say a nice thing about the governor's speech [Monday]. However, just looking at the actual priorities, there seems to be a few spots. The governor said she wants to extend Prop. 123 for instance, which,, is the voter approved measure that allows increase the amount of money from the state trust fund, that state land trust fund that goes to education. Republicans already introduced a plan to do that, and we haven't seen the specifics but they essentially want to use it just for teacher raises. The governor indicated she may want a little bit broader use of that teacher raises but other school employees as well. So it's going to be the details are gonna matter there. he governor also wants to increased oversight of sober living homes and long-term care facilities for seniors. You know, things that we've seen, well, publicized problems with in reporting by the Arizona Republic, an attorney general investigation into the sober living homes scandal. So that's the type of stuff we're, you would imagine Republicans could get on board with. However, they haven't said they will at this point.
BRODIE: Right. Well, and as you say, I mean, for a lot of these things, like you need to see the details, right? And be it with the budget which as you referenced, the governor will release her proposal on Friday or some of the water-related issues. Maybe there's some areas that once the details come out and some of the negotiations start happening, maybe there could be some agreement question mark.
SCHUTSKY: I think that's safe to say. There's, you know, there's a few Republicans on in both chambers who have shown a willingness to skirt their larger caucuses if it's a issue, they agree with. The problem is gonna be getting these things to the floor. We live within the reality that this is an election year for the legislators. We've got a speaker of the House who's running for Congress, and a lot of legislators running for re election to the Arizona House and Senate. So are they gonna want to skirt, are they gonna want to be the outlier in an election year? And are these leaders gonna allow these bills to get to the floor in the first place?
BRODIE: Let me ask you quickly before we go about something that the governor spent a fair bit of time talking about, which is the border. Obviously the Lukeville closure was a huge deal in the state, the reopening and equally big deal. What did you hear from Republicans about what the governor had to say about the border?
SCHUTSKY: Yeah, the governor, she spent the good first portion of her speech, laying out her plan, which honestly looks a lot like former Governor Doug Ducey's plan, which is providing a lot more support to local law enforcement down there. Obviously, the governor can't actually federalize and take care of actual border security. But again, Republicans, instead of, you know, we did see one Republican clap for her, maybe a few. But once they issued their response, they were very critical of Governor Hobbs on some bills she vetoed last year, like ones that they wanted to call cartels, terrorist organizations, removing Ducey's border wall made out of storage container, containers, that kind of thing. So they really didn't give her, give her an inch on that as well.
BRODIE: OK. That is KJZZ's Wayne Schutsky from the politics desk, Wayne, thank you.
SCHUTSKY: Thanks.
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