A bill to strengthen the prohibition on using public resources to influence an election is winding through the Arizona legislature.
Sponsored by Sen. John Kavanagh (R-LD3), SB 1036 was passed by the Arizona State Senate last month. The bill clarifies penalties for violations and grants residents the ability to file lawsuits against government entities accused of misusing taxpayer funds for political purposes.
SB 1036 expands Arizona’s existing laws prohibiting public entities—including cities, towns, counties, and school districts—from using government resources to sway election outcomes. Under the bill, a resident of a jurisdiction where a violation occurs can file a lawsuit in superior court. If the court rules in favor of the resident, any civil penalties collected would be paid directly to the resident. The definition of “influencing an election” is broadened to include any presentation of information that is not neutral or impartial, and courts may impose fines of up to $5,000 per violation, plus additional penalties equal to the value of misused public resources.
Arizona law has long prohibited public entities from using government resources—such as taxpayer funds, public facilities, and government personnel—to support or oppose candidates or ballot measures. However, concerns over enforcement and legal loopholes have led lawmakers to introduce additional measures like SB 1036.
Supporters argue that the bill strengthens accountability by giving residents the power to challenge government misuse in court. They believe it will deter public officials from using taxpayer money for political purposes.
SB 1036 passed through the Senate’s Government Committee with a 4-3 vote. The bill now sits in the House for further debate.
Senator Kavanagh has emphasized the importance of maintaining the integrity of taxpayer-funded resources, stating, “This bill ensures that public funds are not used to tip the scales in elections. Voters should have confidence that their tax dollars are not being used for political agendas.”
As the legislation progresses, Arizona lawmakers and voters will continue to debate the balance between election transparency and government communications.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
President Trump, by his own declaration, loves tariffs. In fact, tariff is his “favorite word.” Tariffs purportedly produce funds, “billions and billions, more than anybody has ever seen before,” which can be used for essential spending or to reduce taxes and meanwhile will “bring back jobs.”
The president is all in on his enthusiasms. As matters now stand, he is imposing both universal baseline as well as country-specific tariffs, affecting more than $1 trillion of imports. This compares to the mere $380 billion in tariffs passed in 2018 and 2019 by the first Trump administration but will rise to $1.4 trillion when/if the temporary exemptions for Mexico and Canada expire in April.
There is a logic to tariffs which appeals to those with a protectionist bent. If foreign producers are selling in your country and taking profits which could otherwise be earned by domestic enterprises, why not make the cost of doing business higher for them and keep the profits at home?
Yet the history of tariffs is, to put it kindly, dismal. The 1930 Smoot-Harley tariff is America’s best known and most instructive experience with protectionism. In 1929, the League of Nations passed a resolution declaring that tariffs were destructive and should be ended by all. When Smoot-Hawley was introduced, Franklin Roosevelt campaigned against it. After the bill passed, 1,028 economists and even some business leaders like Henry Ford urged a veto.
President Hoover termed the measure “vicious, extortionate and obnoxious.” He signed it anyway at the urging of his advisors. Americans, especially the agricultural sector, were facing a perceived problem with overproduction, mainly due to electrification and other laborsaving innovations. Republicans generally agreed that prices were too low, and it would help pull us out of our economic slump if American producers were shielded from foreign competition.
Big mistake. Trading partners had warned of retaliation and indeed boycotts and reciprocal trading restrictions soon broke out. Canada, our most loyal trading partner, imposed tariffs on 30% of our products and formed closer economic ties to the British empire. France, Britain, and Germany all formed new trading alliances.
Yet initially, the medicine seemed to be working. Factory payrolls, construction contracts, and industrial production all profited from the reduced market competition.
But the loss of the inherent advantages of trading soon became clear. From 1929 to 1933, U.S. imports fell 66% and exports decreased 61%. World trade nearly ground to a halt, falling by two-thirds from 1929 to 1934.
Unemployment was about 8% when Smoot-Harley was enacted, but the promises to lower it further never panned out. The rate jumped to 16% in 1931 and 25% in 1932-33, falling back to pre-depression levels only during World War II.
Tariffs didn’t cause the Great Depression, but they clearly deepened and prolonged it. Without Smoot-Hawley, it might have just been another temporary recession, not much worse than many other economic downturns in our history.
The take-home message is that free trade is a voluntary interaction that reliably promotes prosperity, both in theory and in practice. It is a classic win-win for participants, in contrast to protectionism which is based on the principle that the stronger party wins by defeating the weaker one.
The 2018-19 tariffs imposed by Trump and expanded by the Biden administration proved the point once again, by reducing long-term GDP by 0.2% and resulting in the loss of 142,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
Still, Trump favors strength and domination, based on negotiations where he “holds the cards.” The lack of success last time has not dissuaded him from unleashing a barrage of tariffs with impositions, pauses, increases, suspensions, and escalations that have left producers around the world desperately scrambling to protect their businesses by anticipating his next move.
Trump is playing with fire here. If he does ignite a trade war that results in another downturn, he may find that the American economy is not as resilient as it once was. Decades of uncontrolled deficit spending have left us deeply in debt and without the reserves necessary to withstand much more fiscal abuse.
The lessons of history and the laws of economics are clear. Tariffs don’t work. Proceed with caution.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
A rash of copper theft has exploded over the Phoenix metro area with Lumen Technologies, the parent company of CenturyLink, observing a 76% year-over-year spike. The increase in theft has been connected with both small-time criminals and drug addicts, as well as organized criminal enterprises targeting critical communications infrastructure.
In an emailed statement, Lumen Technologies’ Sr. Media Relations Manager Rachael Adair described the level of damage occurring as “rivaling natural disasters.” She warned that “these thefts can disrupt essential services, affecting access to online health and emergency services, and endangering people with medical devices. Manholes containing gas and power lines pose severe risks if tampered with.”
In an interview with AZ Free News, CenturyLink’s Head of Corporate Security Dan Chason, a 33-year law enforcement veteran, explained: “The Phoenix area of Arizona is in the top five of total losses when we rank by state. They’re in the top five as far as the amount of losses, and those losses have increased 76%.”
The losses Chason referred to include copper thefts, fiber cuts, and any equipment losses that Lumen sustains in the Arizona market. As previously reported by AZ Free News, the Tucson area was hit by a wave of copper thefts in late 2024 that left whole neighborhoods literally in the dark with street lights and traffic signals stripped.
When asked why the spike CenturyLink has seen is happening in Phoenix, Chason was answered, “The crimes now seem to be more located in the metro area of Phoenix. And there’s a reason. If I showed you a map, and I can show you a map. There’s 17 resellers in a 20 block area. Some of these are fly by night. Some of them are legit. But for the most part, they all have to abide by the law and the law is you have to have an identification and a photo ID, and you have to be the one who possesses the copper.”
The former police officer tied the phenomenon directly to drug abuse adding, “But what happens is these organized, I call them gangs, but these organized groups. They send a girlfriend, a cousin, or somebody in there to sell the copper so their name doesn’t appear on the log, yet they’re logging in. We had one situation in another state where we had a reseller that was trading crack cocaine for wire. So that tells you the type of people we’re dealing with. You got people who are looking for that next fix. They are the ones predominantly doing it. They’re looking for that next fix, and if they can go in that pedestal and make 60 bucks, they’re tickled. And that’s how they support their habit.”
He also noted Arizona’s location on the border with Mexico as a potential vector for resellers to offload the stolen copper. “You have organized groups who actually make their living doing this. The problem with Arizona? It’s not beyond the scope of imagination that you can put all this together. Get a load of cable and it goes across the border, never to be seen again. That’s the other aspect of the Southwest. It’s where it’s resold.” He noted that the resale value is higher in Mexico.
Chason also noted that while CenturyLink has seen spikes in theft in the past, “This one is right in-line to be as bad as it was before. And our losses the last time exceeded $1,000,000. So we’re very concerned about it. The problem with this issue is these thieves go out and it’s like, they’re shopping. ‘Where can I make a quick buck?’ And when you have less than scrupulous resellers that buy it without tracing where the source of it is, they go and they cash it in. They get the money.”
He said that although CenturyLink has increased security at key facilities, that isn’t always where thieves strike. “They cut down aerial wires, rip out the pedestal wires, even go into our manhole, into what we call vaults. And they go in there and it’s like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
Lumen Technologies and CenturyLink are appealing to Arizonans for help as summer approaches. “The thing that we ask the public is to be eyes and ears because this crime is not a victimless crime. Think about it. Your grandmother is at home, lives out in the sticks, falls, and breaks a hip. How does she call 911?” he asked.
“Our services affect public safety, hospitals, prisons, and your personal life up to and including your cell carrier. The big cell carriers use our fiber and our lines to provide their service so you can knockout cell carriers just by cutting some of these wires.”
Focusing on what the industry needs from lawmakers, Chason said he would ask the authorities to “stop defining this as a property crime. It’s not a property crime. It is a critical infrastructure crime.”
He continued, “Because when you hit us, you affect every possible service out there. For example, they cut some copper and fiber in Tacoma, Washington that fed the port of Tacoma and shut down the entire port. The same cut shut down a prison. It shut down a hospital. We hear these horror stories over and over and over again. And here’s where it’s going to lead. It’s going to lead to the loss of life. That’s exactly where it’s going, and all we’re asking the AG is this. We are working with our legislative branch. We have a legislative and government affairs branch that is working on legislation in Arizona right now.”
Chason concluded that the issue will persist “until we get these designated as a serious crime that has serious penalties.” He continued, “Because our biggest issue is police response because they view it as a property crime. I had a detective tell me that ‘if it ain’t bleeding, don’t call me.’ We defund the police. We don’t give the police the resources that they need, and I’m sensitive to that because that’s where I come from.
“But the fact remains, we are part of that tax base and part of that community, and our job is to be able to serve our customers with the promises that we make. And when you have customers that are without services for weeks because of having to reroute our crews to service the same cuts over and over and over again…. We had one cut, we were repairing an aerial cable in the curve of a road, our crew is on the upper curve repairing, and the thieves are back on the other again, cutting it again! It’s a vicious cycle.
“And it’s not going to change until the public says that’s enough. I’m not feeding your drug habit anymore. That’s enough. If you see something, say something. And once we get that and we can make enough noise, the police will respond.”
The Arizona State Board of Education (ASBE) declined to approve the new handbook for the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program.
ASBE discussed the proposed 2025-2026 ESA Handbook during its meeting on Monday. Though it had the opportunity to approve the handbook during the meeting, a majority of the board indicated a desire to abstain from voting on the handbook until their upcoming April meeting.
Arizona Department of Education (ADE) Superintendent Tom Horne motioned for ASBE to take a vote on the handbook, but no other board member seconded his motion.
The ESA executive director, John Ward, said the new handbook was more user friendly, with information clarified and organized, redundancies reduced, hyperlinked statutes and rules, a clarified list of spending limits on items associated with risks of abuse, and a new chapter on enrollments.
A point of concern for ASBE board members related to ESA Program approvals of expenditures, namely of the sort opposed by Attorney General Kris Mayes.
Mayes’ Government Accountability Unit launched an investigation into the ESA Program over its expense authorizations last July. Mayes accused the ESA Program of approving supplementary materials without documentation of a curriculum nexus, approving certain curriculum materials without curriculum documentation, and approving textbook expenses without documentation demonstrating a qualified school or eligible postsecondary institution requires it.
During Monday’s meeting, Ward clarified there were certain “common” educational items for which the ESA Program didn’t require curriculum in order to not burden families, such as pencils and paper. Ward said the attorney general’s letter prompted them to split the supplemental materials listings into two: those that will always require a curriculum nexus and those that are general educational items which, pending the ongoing court case’s outcome on the matter, may never require a curriculum nexus.
There were over 87,600 students reported within the ESA program as of Tuesday.
The ESA Program continues to be a source of conflict between statewide officials.
Governor Katie Hobbs targeted the ESA Program during her State of the State address in January. Hobbs’ criticisms prompted a rebuttal from Horne; he said the governor was ignorant to the administration of the program.
In his explanation of the new ESA Program Handbook earlier this month, Horne dismissed one major opposing claim: that the program needs to reimburse parents without question of the expenses.
Horne said the ADE’s oversight of expenditures successfully prevented abusive charges, such as a $5,000 Rolex watch and a $24,000 golf simulator.
“[These are] abuse of things that are not really for the educational benefit of the child. It’s obvious there has to be some limitations,” said Horne.
Unlike his predecessor, Horne has repeatedly stepped up to defend the ESA Program.
“Parents should have the choice to be sure their child is in a school that meets the needs of that child,” said Horne. “The ESAs are really not really a challenge to the public schools; they supplement them and make sure that all students are in an environment where needs are being met.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
The Arizona State Legislature is advancing a measure to urge the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to prioritize affordable and reliable energy sources over intermittent renewable energy alternatives such as solar and wind.
House Concurrent Memorial 2014 (HCM 2014), introduced by State Representative Justin Olson, calls on the ACC to prevent regulated utilities from shutting down dispatchable energy sources, including natural gas and coal, in pursuit of Net Zero goals.
The legislation, which does not carry the force of law but serves as a formal request to the ACC, asks the Commission to ensure Arizona’s electrical grid remains powered by affordable and reliable energy sources; prevent regulated utilities from phasing out critical, dispatchable energy sources such as coal and natural gas in favor of renewable alternatives that may be costly and unreliable; and adopt a national model policy, “Only Pay for What You Get,” which requires utilities to recover costs only from the reliable portion of new energy generation sources.
The bill passed the Arizona House of Representatives on February 26, 2025, with a vote of 33-26-1, and was referred to the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee for further consideration.
HCM. 2014 comes amid a broader debate on the future of Arizona’s energy policies. The ACC, which regulates the state’s investor-owned utilities, has faced increasing pressure from policymakers, industry groups, and environmental advocates over how to balance affordability, reliability, and sustainability in energy production.
Supporters of the measure argue that shifting too quickly to renewable energy sources without proper reliability safeguards could lead to increased costs for ratepayers and potential grid instability.
If approved by the Senate, copies of HCM 2014 will be transmitted to the Chairperson and each Commissioner of the ACC, urging them to align state energy policies with the resolution’s recommendations. While the ACC operates independently, legislative pressure could influence future regulatory decisions regarding Arizona’s energy transition.
As Arizona continues to navigate its energy future, the debate over affordability, reliability, and sustainability is expected to remain a contentious issue among lawmakers, utility providers, and consumers.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
