PHOENIX — Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, legislative leadership, and state officials took the stage Friday afternoon during the annual legislative forecast luncheon to preview what to expect heading into 2024.
"We’ve got a lot of things that are very positive for Arizona, were going to be reducing gas prices by anywhere from 30 cents to a dollar a gallon we're estimating. We're going to increase teacher pay above the national average,” State Senate President Warren Petersen said during the moderated event.
While both parties are in support of increasing teacher pay, when it comes to addressing the budget deficit and ESA vouchers, Democrats have different ideas.
“I think the first step is we got to take a look at the ESA program and put in place some commonsense accountability and transparency measures so we can tap the brakes and have a prudent budget,” Assistant Democratic Leader Rep. Oscar De Los Santos said, adding that former Governor Doug Ducey’s tax cuts also contributed to the shortfall.
Republicans on the other hand see the budget as a short-term cash flow problem rather than a structural issue.
In addition to education, creating more affordable housing and water conservation are priorities for both sides of the aisle.
As the country gears up for another presidential election, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said election security and voting rights will be primary focuses, but he underscored concern for a potential doomsday scenario.
“The new electoral act has made it so that when you combine the new calendar with the lowered thresholds for recounts in Arizona — the threshold was lowered from .2% to .5%, we may end up in a situation, as it stands today without changes, the doomsday scenario is that Arizona will not be able to submit their electoral votes in time for the electoral count. So, we won’t be voting for president,” Fontes told the crowd during the luncheon. “County officials, state officials, the legislature, the governor's office, everybody has been coming together to try and solve this problem and it comes down to calendar days, it comes down to figuring out how we get from the Election Day to certification if we got to have a recount.”
Next on the political calendar is when Gov. Katie Hobbs delivers her second State of the State address.
