A new data analysis.shows that Arizona is facing more of an affordability crisis than other states as the 2026 elections heats up.
Arizona households presently carry above-average debt across auto loans, credit cards, and mortgages. Arizonans are also falling behind on payments at rates well above the national average, according to new analysis by the Common Sense Institute (CSI).
In Arizona, CSI found that auto loan debt is 7% higher, credit card debt is 8% higher, and mortgage debt is 22% higher than the national average.
Arizona also sits at the bottom half of the nation in terms of average credit score, which is 666. The state ranks 30th overall, having fallen seven points in 2025 and experiencing the 10th-fastest drop in average household credit score among all states.
Arizona experienced the second-largest increase in per-capita debt out of 11 reported states. The state has experienced a rise in per-capita debt amounting to nearly 130% since 2003. Only Texas reported a worse increase in per capita debt, at 148%.
That metes out to an average per-capita household debt of $74,000. CSI reported that this average debt in Arizona has largely been driven by mortgage debt.
The same can be said for households elsewhere on that point. Nationally, household debt neared $20 trillion by the end of last year — much of that driven by mortgage debt ($13.2 trillion, an increase of 4.5%), followed by auto loans and student loan balances ($1.7 trillion respectively, reflecting increases of 0.7% and 3%) and credit card debt ($1.3 trillion, an increase of 5.5%).
Arizona didn’t lead by all negative metrics. Arizona’s higher education-related debt was 3% lower than the national average, and student loan debt was 8% lower than the national average.
And according to CSI, less than 23% of Arizona households have liquidity resilience, or ability to handle potential credit problems — far less than the average household nationwide. CSI attributed this to Arizonans possessing higher-than-average debt, higher delinquency, and a lower cash cushion than the average household in the nation.
The latest data from the Consumer Price Index also reflected that Arizona had more sluggish growth than the rest of the nation. Yet, Arizonans have been spending an average of more than $1,000 more per month than they would have if inflation had risen steadily at 2% since December 2020.
The average Phoenix-area household was spending about $6,900 per month as of June 2026, compared to the projected $5,800 under a 2% inflation trajectory.
In December 2020, the average Phoenix-area household was spending about $5,200.
The findings contrast with Gov. Katie Hobbs’ recent messaging on Arizona’s economy.
In April, Hobbs announced that Arizona ranked second in the nation for economic performance and fifth for economic outlook in the American Legislative Exchange Council’s annual Rich States, Poor States report. She also argued that her administration’s policies have lowered costs for working families.
A teachers’ union-backed initiative to end Arizona’s universal school choice program relied on a variety of violent felons to collect signatures in violation of state law.
In what some critics have called a twist of irony, the initiative allegedly failed to conduct background checks on those gathering signatures for a reform that would require background checks for providers within the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
An amended complaint filed by the Goldwater Institute this week identified nearly 28,000 signatures collected by multiple felons, including a child predator, kidnapper, human trafficker, meth dealer, and killer.
In all, the Goldwater Institute estimated that these signatures, combined with all other invalid signatures, would render the petition ineligible for the November ballot. The Protect Education Act ballot initiative would need about 256,000 signatures at minimum to qualify.
One of the signature gatherers was Jess Redhorse, Jr., convicted of sexual abuse of a minor. According to a mandatory notice issued by the Flagstaff Police Department, Redhorse was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor in 2015 and released in October 2017 as a Level Two sex offender. Level Two signifies intermediate risk to the community. Redhorse’s victim was a 14-year-old female.
Redhorse is not listed on Arizona’s sex offender registry.
Per the Goldwater Institute complaint, Redhorse gathered more than 600 signatures for the petition.
Save Our Schools and the teachers unions say they are fighting to “protect” Arizona’s children.@NEAToday@ArizonaEA@arizona_sos
This is who their campaign trusted to collect signatures.
According to the verified complaint filed by the Goldwater Institute, Jess Redhorse Jr.… pic.twitter.com/NUecaSieoa
— Arizona Free Enterprise Club (@azfec) July 22, 2026
Other signature gatherers had violent felony-level criminal pasts as well according to the Goldwater Institute:
Dwight Perkins, Jr., was convicted of aggravated assault in Arizona and cocaine dealing in Illinois. Perkins gathered nearly 3,400 signatures.
Aaron Soto and Jose Roberto Valencia Toscano were convicted of trafficking illegal aliens for profit in Arizona. Soto gathered more than 3,100 signatures and Toscano gathered nearly 1,800 signatures.
According to a complaint filed with the Arizona District Court in 2023, Valencia Toscano trafficked illegal aliens using an unregistered vehicle in March 2023.
Freddie Wilkerson, Jr., was convicted of conspiracy to sell or transport marijuana in Arizona. Wilkerson gathered more than 2,900 signatures.
Alvin Harrison, Jr., was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Nevada. Harrison gathered nearly 2,700 signatures.
News reports state that Harrison was convicted of manslaughter in the case of a slain security guard, Jose Parra. It appeared that Harrison robbed the man after he killed him, taking his watch and wedding ring.
Melvin Alston was convicted of attempted manslaughter in New York. Alston was included in the amended complaint but not included in the original complaint.
Mark Trusiak, Sr., was convicted on a drug paraphernalia-related felony in Arizona. Trusiak gathered more than 2,000 signatures.
Adam Lopez Milligan was convicted of assault, kidnapping, and weapons misconduct in Arizona. Milligan gathered more than 1,100 signatures.
Kisha Antoinetta Christian was convicted of importing methamphetamines in Arizona. Christian gathered more than 50 signatures. Christian was also convicted of trafficking illegal aliens in 2018.
Trevor Tatsuya Murphy was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful taking of a vehicle, and trafficking stolen property in California. Murphy was not included in the original complaint.
A police department in California issued a press release in 2014 identifying Murphy as one half of a pair responsible for a series of thefts and vehicle burglaries that concluded with the pair striking a victim with a stolen vehicle while fleeing.
Robert Smith, Jr., was convicted of attempted murder, arson, stalking, criminal threats, and drug-related charges in California. Smith gathered two signatures.
Scott Simpson was convicted of felony drug offenses in Arizona. Simpson gathered about 100 signatures.
Jennifer Smith was convicted of drug possession in California. Smith was not included in the original complaint.
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A ballot initiative to end the state’s universal school choice program is facing a new challenge to the validity of its signatures.
The Goldwater Institute filed the challenge in court on Monday.
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AZFEC) also announced that it joined Goldwater’s legal challenge, with AZFEC Vice President of Policy Greg Blackie serving as a plaintiff in the case. According to AZFEC, it worked alongside Goldwater and other school choice advocates to review petition sheets, identify alleged irregularities, and help ensure Arizona’s ballot qualification laws are enforced.
The Goldwater Institute said “a large amount” of the more than 415,000 signatures submitted appeared to be “fallacious.” The initiative needs about 256,000 signatures to qualify for the November ballot. The complaint raised more than 73,300 objections; the complaint asserted that, with all signatures removed as a result of the objections, the ballot initiative would be left with fewer than 256,000 valid signatures.
The 900-page complaint filed in the Maricopa County Superior Court stated that the signatures weren’t properly registered with the secretary of state’s office as required by law.
Specifically, the complaint raised objections including paid but unregistered circulators, signatures gathered prior to circulator registration, false residential addresses, permanent address contradictions, bad telephone numbers or email addresses, false identities, bad service addresses, and ineligible, missing, or mismatched IDs.
Additionally, the Goldwater Institute claimed that certain circulators were ineligible to collect signatures because they had been convicted of a criminal offense involving fraud, forgery, or identity theft; convicted of another felony offense in which their civil rights haven’t been restored; or adjudicated an incapacitated person.
Individuals named as ineligible circulators were convicted of felonies and other crimes related to drugs, human trafficking, manslaughter, sexual abuse of a minor, assault, kidnapping, weapons misconduct, forgery, false reporting, and credit card forgery.
Finally, the complaint claimed that certain circulators failed to write their full and correct assigned circulator identification number on multiple petition sheets.
Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi said the allegations raised questions about the campaign’s vetting and oversight of paid petition circulators.
“Save Our Schools and the teachers unions have spent years accusing ESA families of fraud and demanding greater scrutiny of parents. Now, their own campaign is facing serious questions about the people they hired to gather signatures,” said Mussi. “Arizona’s election laws must be fully enforced. If this campaign failed to collect enough lawful and valid signatures, it must not qualify for the ballot.”
Goldwater Institute CEO and President Victor Riches criticized the initiative for its heavy sourcing of out-of-state special interest funding.
“This is a shameless attack on Arizona’s parents, funded by an out-of-state union,” said Riches. “They’re trying to game the system by turning in tens of thousands of invalid signatures in an effort to destroy the most successful school choice program in the country. This won’t happen on our watch.”
The Goldwater Institute also stated in a press release that the original title of the initiative was misleading.
If enough signatures are validated and voters approve the measure, the Protect Education Act would impose an income eligibility cap on the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
Doug Ducey, former Arizona governor, was quoted in the Goldwater Institute press release saying the entire effort to dismantle the ESA program proved the true intentions of teachers’ unions. Ducey signed the bill into law that made the ESA program open to all students.
“Once again, we are reminded how little these out of state unions care about Arizona students and their parents,” said Ducey. “This measure would strip tens of thousands of Arizona families of educational choices they have made for their children, forcing students out of the schools that are serving them well and back into schools they chose to leave. That is unacceptable, and we will vigorously challenge this measure at every possible step.”
In response to the submission of the ballot initiative signatures earlier this month, Ducey launched a political action committee to secure school choice accessibility for military families.
Protect Education, Accountability Now (PEAN), the organization behind the ballot initiative, filed a challenge last week to the competing legislature-referred ballot initiative that would negate their proposed ballot initiative.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the city of Phoenix must release records of their closed-door labor union negotiations.
The ruling came from a challenge initiated in 2022 by the Goldwater Institute regarding the refusal of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association’s (PLEA), the police union, to publicize its draft contract proposals for public comment prior to negotiations with the city.
The PLEA proposal concerned its 2023-2024 memorandum of understanding (MOU) which contained expenditure terms for tens of millions of taxpayer dollars as well as the employment terms for law enforcement.
Rather than submitting drafts of the MOU for public review and comment by early December as required by city code, PLEA submitted letters of intent mentioning its aim to negotiate wages and benefits. The Phoenix City Council chose to accept those letters of intent as sufficient for the public to comment on without seeing draft MOUs.
Goldwater Institute requested those draft MOUs. The city refused, claiming these documents were exempt from public records requests under state law allowing exemptions based on the “best interests of the state” because disclosure “could create a chilling effect” on negotiations.
Only after the city and PLEA reached a final agreement did they publicize a draft MOU for public comment in April 2023. The city ratified the MOU about two weeks later, in early May 2023.
That MOU has since expired, having lasted only through June 2024.
The trial court had ruled that the city had sufficiently established “potential material harm” that could occur from disclosing draft MOU materials.
“While significant, the general concerns about transparency, advocacy, and accountability identified by [Goldwater] are different, however, from the particularized interest in preserving the ability to negotiate labor agreements free of political pressure, collusion, and unnecessary delay due to impasse,” said the trial court. “The City provided testimony from individuals directly involved in the collective bargaining process and with experience in labor negotiations with and for the City of Phoenix.”
However, the Arizona Supreme Court in its ruling said that speculative claims of harm were insufficient alone.
The court determined that the city would have to release some or all of the MOU records that it had withheld. In order to determine the nature of such a release, the court ordered the lower court to review the withheld documents.
The court ruled that it was the city’s burden to prove the likelihood of specific, material harm that would occur from the disclosure of contested public records, as well as the causal connection between the disclosure and that harm that could occur.
The Goldwater Institute said in a press release that the high court ruling affirmed citizens’ rights of public disclosure and an ability to provide input.
“City residents and taxpayers deserve to know what the union was demanding and what city leaders were offering during that process. But all of that was kept hidden from the public,” stated the Goldwater Institute. “Citizens have a right to know what their government is up to and should have an opportunity to provide feedback about labor negotiations and other public activities. As today’s decision affirms, that’s the whole point of our public records laws.”
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Arizona State University (ASU) has ceased its effort to take the home of an 89-year-old Phoenix man via eminent domain.
ASU sought to acquire the historic Louis Emerson House owned for more than 50 years by Robert Young. The university had intended to acquire the property as part of its new headquarters for ASU Health and its planned AI-driven medical school.
ASU dropped its eminent domain case on Friday.
The Louis Emerson House predates Arizona’s statehood by a decade. As AZ Free Newsreported last month, the property was developed in 1888 by the former adjutant general and attorney general, Clark Churchill, and its namesake came later in memory of a former owner who was a butcher with the Palace Meat Market in the early 20th century. It was Young who recovered these facts about the property and its history.
ASU had initially offered Young about $800,000 to sell, but Young declined the offer since it wouldn’t cover the cost to move the house. According to Young, accepting the offer would have meant the house’s demolition — an outcome he couldn’t accept given his desire to keep a piece of Phoenix history alive.
The Arizona Board of Regents then filed an eminent domain lawsuit to force the sale of the house with the Maricopa County Superior Court.
The ASU Health campus is projected to span 200,000 square feet, with a planned opening date scheduled for the fall of 2028.
Nearly 12,000 people signed a petition to save the historic Louis Emerson House from demolition.
ASU said in a statement that it would no longer seek eminent domain and instead allow the house to remain. ASU noted that it would adjust its construction plans to work around the home.
“ASU has been working toward a resolution with the Emerson House in downtown Phoenix, a house that sits next to land being developed for the headquarters of ASU Health,” said the spokesperson. “To honor the homeowner’s desires, the university has agreed to withdraw its court proceedings and allow the house to remain. The plans for the ASU Health site will be revised accordingly.”
Young credited John Rich, a country music singer and political pundit, for securing this victory. Rich was sworn in earlier this month by the Trump administration to serve as special envoy for American landowners.
Rich issued a statement to social media on Saturday explaining that ASU decided to drop the eminent domain case after he engaged in conversations with ASU President Michael Crow. Rich said Crow had promised to “take a look at” covering the court costs Young has undertaken to keep his home.
“Mr. Young, we took care of you, sir,” said Rich. “Big shout of to Dr. Crow, the president of Arizona State University, for having a heart and a soul and seeing this from Mr. Young’s perspective. I couldn’t ask for more. Big win for American landowners today.”
Rich also credited Turning Point Action for making him aware of Young’s plight.
Shout out to @FaithFamilyLiz from Arizona who initially helped me connect with Mr Young and his attorney. Without her help, it would have taken me much longer to win this battle. I've never met her in person, only here on X, but she was a HUGE help!🇺🇸 https://t.co/cnvBoHkJm5
Rich encouraged Americans to report unfair land grabs to USDA.gov/lawfare, the new reporting portal by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to address lawfare waged against farmers, ranchers, agricultural producers, and other USDA customers.
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