PHOENIX — Nearly three months in, and Arizonans can count on two hands the number of bills that have been signed into law so far in 2024.
Wednesday marked 73 days into the second session of Arizona's 56th Legislature. According to the House and Senate offices, as of Wednesday afternoon, 1,629 bills have been introduced between both chambers. Of those bills, which range from widely popular to strictly partisan, 16 had been sent to Governor Katie Hobbs for a signature. That's less than one percent of all introduced bills arriving on her desk.
When asked if he saw those numbers as a failure of the state government, state Senator T.J. Shope said he didn't.
"I think if you were to look at a calendar year and take the last 20 years or so, you'd see that we're probably exactly where we are as a normal session goes," said Shope, a Coolidge Republican.
It's hard to confirm Shope's statement because the Arizona Legislature's website does not generally provide session data from previous years in terms of what was accomplished on a monthly or weekly basis. Instead, it tallies up the number of bills introduced, passed, and signed as a whole by the end of the term.
However, looking at previous session statistics, it's clear that most years saw bills making it to the governor's desk by the hundreds. Arizona, which has long had a Republican-majority legislature and has been led by a Republican governor for 14 of the last 20 years, generally sees few vetoes.
That changed last year during Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs' first year in office. Hobbs set a state record for her number of vetoes - assigning 143 bills that fate. In 2023, Hobbs received a total of 348 bills from the Republican-majority House and Senate.
Under Hobbs' predecessor, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, the legislature usually sent 300, 400, and once, almost as many as 500 bills, to the governor. Ducey never vetoed more than a few dozen per session.
So far this year, Hobbs has received 16 bills, signed seven, and vetoed two. Seven of the received bills were transferred this week and the governor's office has not yet shared if Hobbs signed or vetoed any of them.
Melinda Iyer, with Arizona-based Civic Engagement Beyond Voting, said Republicans have not collaborated with the governor or with legislative Democrats this term.
"Voters chose divided government," Iyer said. "We elected a Republican-majority legislature and a Democratic governor, and that is a clear mandate that we want lawmakers to work together... what we're seeing is more like governance via tantrum."
Instead of working with Democrats on bipartisan legislation or considering Democratic proposals, Iyer said, Republicans are "advancing their own priorities, they're not hearing Democratic bills, they're not talking to the governor."
Shope insisted that "90%" of bills passed by the legislature are bipartisan.
This year, however, voters will get the chance to take legislation into their own hands. Republicans have repeatedly introduced some of their caucus priorities in 2024 as concurrent resolutions, or ballot referrals. Those proposals are able to bypass the governor - and her veto pen - entirely, ending up on the November ballot for voters to make the final decision on.
So far in 2024, as of Wednesday afternoon, 10 measures have been transmitted to the Arizona Secretary of State to make the ballot.
Iyer worries the number of ballot referrals being sent to voters could be overwhelming for Arizonans who will also need to be informed about their municipal, statewide, federal, and presidential candidates. Other big-impact items, like a constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to abortion in Arizona, are also expected to make the November ballot.
"You get to a point where voters look at the length of that ballot and become turned off," Iyer said, fearing voter turnout could be depressed with the ballot referrals.
Shope doesn't share those concerns.
"I think the voter is capable of handling all of these issues," he said. "I believe very strongly that they'll go ahead and make the best decisions."
Unlike in other states, it is relatively easy for lawmakers in Arizona to send issues to voters directly through ballot referrals. In the Copper State, the support of the majority of both chambers can be enough to get an issue on the ballot.
When asked if he worried Republicans were setting a standard of sending controversial issues to voters to avoid a governor on the other side of the aisle, Shope said he saw Republicans as continuing a standard that "has already existed."
"I think the biggest message to this is that this is 100% normal in a setting, in a situation, where you have divided government," he said.
Arizona's part-time legislature could still be months out from the end of its session, as budget negotiations for Fiscal Year 2025 continue.
Shope said many more pieces of legislation will end up on Hobbs' desk before the legislature wraps up for the year.
"I think what you're gonna see over the next few weeks is that now that committees are done, there are going to be dozens of bills voted out, probably in the low hundreds," he said.
