Arizona

Arizona's Democratic governor faces uphill battle as Republicans keep tight grip on legislature

Published

1 year ago

January 13, 2025

Arizona's Democratic governor faces uphill battle as Republicans keep tight grip on legislature

PHOENIX — Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs knows she is outnumbered this legislative session, with Republicans having expanded their majorities in the statehouse after the last election.

But the first-term governor sees room for bipartisan compromise as she looks to advance policies that have long been stymied under the GOP-controlled Legislature.

While President-elect Donald Trump swept the battleground state, Hobbs noted in a recent interview with The Associated Press that Arizona voters also elected Democrat Ruben Gallego to the U.S. Senate, sending the message that they want their political leaders to work across the aisle to solve the thorniest of issues.

“The issues we’re facing — affordability for families, water security, protecting our border and keeping communities safe — those are not Republican or Democratic issues,” she said. “They’re just Arizona issues that our elected leaders, myself included, need to work together to solve.”

Hobbs, who will be up for reelection next year, is expected to outline her priorities when she addresses lawmakers at the start of the session Monday.

Here’s a look at key policy areas:

It was just two weeks after the November election when Hobbs visited the Arizona-Mexico border and vowed to work with Trump’s administration on issues like stopping fentanyl trafficking. But she also acknowledged some families are worried about the president-elect’s deportation threats.

While not wanting to speculate, Hobbs says Arizona will focus its limited law enforcement resources on keeping violent criminals off the streets, regardless of their immigration status.

Arizona voters last year approved a measure empowering local police to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the border, so it’s unclear what new restrictions on immigration Republicans might push beyond ensuring adequate funding for law enforcement.

Hobbs will look to pressure lawmakers again to plug regulatory holes to protect groundwater sources. Her calls last year to update the state’s water laws failed to win legislative approval, leaving her administration to take executive action in December to curb unchecked pumping in one rural area.

This time around, Hobbs is optimistic she can reach a deal with lawmakers on revamping groundwater regulations. In the absence of a pact, Hobbs says she won’t hesitate to act unilaterally.

The stakes are high as Arizona has grappled with long-term drought and needs to come up with a plan by the end of 2026 to manage its dwindling share of water from the over-tapped Colorado River.

Reining in Arizona’s school voucher program remains on Hobbs’ wish list.

The program, which started in 2011 for disabled children and expanded to all students in 2022, lets parents subsidize private-school tuition and other educational costs with public money.

Hobbs and fellow Democrats have criticized the program, saying it contributes to a drain on the state’s coffers. Republican lawmakers have championed the program as a cornerstone of the school choice movement. The budget approved by lawmakers last year after weeks of negotiations with Hobbs’ office included only a small cut in spending for the program.

Unlike last year, the state isn’t facing a budget crunch. The latest revenue projection for the next fiscal year is up $231 million compared to the forecast last summer, according to legislative analysts.

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Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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Arizona

Jordan Burks’ clutch plays enable UCF to edge Arizona State

Published

8 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Jordan Burks’ clutch plays enable UCF to edge Arizona State

January 28 – Jordan Burks hit a go-ahead 3-pointer and forced a turnover in the final 34 seconds as UCF rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to pull off a 79-76 Big 12 win over Arizona State on Tuesday night in Orlando, Fla.

Riley Kugel paced the Knights (16-4, 4-3 Big 12) with 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Burks added 15 points and three steals while Jamichael Stillwell posted 14 points.

Maurice Odum produced 18 points and six assists for the Sun Devils (11-10, 2-6), who never trailed in the second half until 1:11 to go. Anthony Johnson added 12 points and Bryce Ford had 11.

UCF took its first lead of the second half on Carmelo Pacheco’s 3-pointer with 1:11 to go. Odum answered with a pair of free throws to regain a 1-point edge.

Burks then took a diagonal feed from Kugel and canned the wide-open 3-pointer for a 78-76 lead. After Burks swiped an Odum pass, Themus Fulks tacked on a free throw. Ford’s deep ball at the buzzer was errant to give the Knights the comeback victory.

UCF shot 45% from the floor and held a 40-28 advantage in rebounding. The Sun Devils hit 47% from the field and made 10 of 23 (43%) from deep.

UCF sprinted to a 9-2 lead behind Bol’s layup and dunk, but the Sun Devils battled back and grabbed a 12-11 lead on Johnson’s 27-footer three minutes later.

Nearing the 10-minute mark, Kugel faked a defender, drove to his right and threw down a vicious dunk for a 16-14 lead to bring the UCF crowd to life as part of a 7-0 run.

Allen Mukeba’s tomahawk dunk on a 3-point play put the Sun Devils up 24-22 at the 6:13 mark. Odom’s deep ball at 5:34 gave the visitors their largest lead at 27-22 on the way to a 39-35 lead at the break.

The second half was played tightly over the first eight minutes, with the Sun Devils holding a slim lead that extended to five, 52-47, on Andrija Grbovic’s trey at 11:22.

Grbovic stroked another 3-pointer and Noah Meeusen converted three free throws. Odum’s 3-pointer with 8:26 capped a 9-0 run that pushed the lead to 61-51.

With 6:09 remaining, the lead grew to 70-58 on Massamba Diop’s two freebies — Arizona State’s largest advantage — but the Knights mounted a charge and tied it with 2:39 left on Fulks’ pair of free throws that wrapped an 11-0 run.

–Field Level Media

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Arizona

Data centers are good for Arizona. Here’s why | Opinion

Published

20 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Data centers are good for Arizona. Here’s why | Opinion

Data centers have gotten a bad rap lately, but here’s why we think they are actually good for Arizona. It starts with jobs.

Stephen Richer and Josh Heywood
| For The Republic

Arizona data centers have generated a lot of political heat in recent weeks.

At her State of the State address, Gov. Katie Hobbs questioned the social benefit of data centers and signaled an interest in reinstating a sales tax on data center equipment purchases. Neal Carter, a Republican state legislator, agrees with Hobbs. So too might Republican state legislator Leo Biasiucci.

A month ago, the Chandler City Council unanimously rejected a proposed data center despite the lobbying efforts of former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Hundreds of Chandler residents filled the auditorium for the vote, and 256 residents submitted online comments opposing the data center.

In Tucson, the city council unanimously rejected connecting a large data center (Project Blue) to the city’s water system. Attorney General Kris Mayes is now looking deeper into Project Blue, Tucson Electric Power and the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Here at The Arizona Republic, the opinion section published an editorial on Jan. 20 (Arizona data centers bring hidden water risks), and the news section printed an article on Jan. 18 (Gas power plant for data center project stirs concerns in Surprise), both of which cast data centers in a less-than-flattering light.

And earlier this week, handfuls of speakers at the Corporation Commission blamed data centers for proposed APS rate hikes.

Each situation has its own complexities and justifications (and I’ll get into some of them in future weeks). Some opposition is more factually substantiated than others. But they’re all rooted in a suspicion that these large warehouses of computer servers that power the modern world are no longer great things for Arizona.

Arizona data center benefits starts with jobs

If we may be so bold, and to set the stage for future articles here at the Republic, here are a few reasons why Arizona should celebrate our position as a top 10 state for data centers:

Jobs. It’s not just the people employed by data centers (many of which are high-paying jobs), but the ancillary jobs needed by data centers: contracted electricians, carpenters, pipefitters, HVAC technicians, etc. PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”) found that data centers accounted for 81,000 jobs in Arizona as of 2023.
Taxes. It’s the start of the state legislative season and, sadly, this is going to be one of those years in which we hear lots about the things we can’t afford. But data centers help that equation. According to the same PwC report, data centers generated $2.3 billion in state and local tax revenue from 2017 to 2021. That means money for schools and roads. Or lower state income taxes (as happened).
Tech center. It’s a truism that tech begets other tech. We’ve said this as we’ve celebrated the massive expansions of TSMC and Intel. It’s also true of data centers. And if proprietors of data centers – companies like Amazon and Microsoft – are happy with Arizona as a data center home, they’ll likely consider Arizona a home for other tech investments.
Buying unwanted power. Normal businesses use power during the day (8 am-5 pm). Homes use power during the evening (5-11 pm). But few users demand power overnight (11 pm-8 am). This means we often have to dump unsold power. But data centers need power around the clock, and they can buy that overnight power, generating revenue for Arizona utility companies that then doesn’t have to be generated from Arizona households.

Those are the benefits.

Detractors focus on power, water and land. They’re all important, but solvable.

On power, public utilities can, and should, ensure data centers pay for all the power they use–not the public. The Salt River Project (SRP) website states this explicitly on its website. APS announced a proposed 45% increase on data center electricity costs to “make sure that (data centers) will continue to pay their fair share.” The recent agreement between Tucson Electric Power and Project Blue intends to do the same. And some data centers are even looking at generating their own power.

Data centers aren’t our biggest water worry

Regarding water, data centers have gotten so efficient at water use that, in some cases, they would use less water than vacant warehouses (of which there are, sadly, many). The Project Blue data center before Tucson City Council promised to be water-positive for the city, and other cities, such as Chandler have proposed caps on water usage by data centers. These caps are the same that apply to other businesses; data centers don’t get a special water deal. And, really, if you’re looking to pin water woes on any industry, it’s not chip-manufacturing, and it’s not data centers. It’s farming (over 70% of Arizona’s water supply goes to agriculture).

Lastly, regarding land, of course people don’t want to have neighborhoods disrupted by massive warehouses. And nobody should feel like they got into a bidding war with a data center for a home in a cute, quiet neighborhood. That’s why we have noise ordinances and zoning laws. Arizona still has plenty of space. The smart people in city planning can figure it out. And unlike big box stores, data centers don’t have 18-wheelers constantly delivering supplies.

Arizona is a state known for growth. We’ve grown massively in residents. We’ve grown massively in housing (and need to do more). We’ve grown massively in tourism. We’ve grown massively in healthcare. We’ve grown massively in education. And we’ve recently grown massively in semiconductors.

There’s no reason we can’t keep growing in data centers.

Stephen Richer is the CEO of Republic Affairs, a fellow at the Cato Institute, and a former Maricopa County Recorder. Josh Heywood is operations manager at Republic Affairs.

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