Over the past month, Minnesota has been hard at work to set the gold standard for jaw-dropping fraud scandals under the watch of Democrat Governor Tim Walz. The Somali daycare scandal has turned the state into a national punchline—hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars stolen in plain sight while Kamala Harris’ favorite “masculine” governor looked the other way.
Now, with Walz stepping aside from this reelection bid, a new contender for “most scandal-plagued governor on the 2026 ballot” has emerged: Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs. While Minnesota’s scandals have dominated headlines, Hobbs has been busy compiling a rap sheet that rivals what happened in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. But unlike Walz, Hobbs and her administration are under active criminal investigation.
A Pay-to-Play Scheme Engulfs the Hobbs Administration
The list of Hobbs’ scandals is a mile long and begins at the start of her tenure as governor. At that time, Hobbs set up a shady slush fund to provide donors with a conduit to buy political favor from her administration. While setting up and managing the fund, Hobbs illegally used public resources—like the state’s website—to solicit money for her inauguration. And she also tried to stop the disclosure of the names of those who donated to her inaugural fund.
After immense political pressure, Hobbs finally released the names of the donors. One of the names of the groups on the list was Sunshine Residential Homes Inc., a for-profit company that contracts with the State of Arizona. Sunshine Residential donated $100,000 to the secret fund, which was suspicious enough. But after some additional digging by local reporters, an even deeper level of corruption was revealed—an alleged pay-to-play scheme between Hobbs and the group home.
According to the report, it turns out Sunshine Residential Homes doled out $400,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party, Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign committee, and her aforementioned inaugural fund. Hobbs and her campaign finance manager even arranged a dinner with the government contractor to meet with the CEO in private.
After making the large donations, Sunshine was granted a 30 percent increase in their rates at a time when the Arizona Department of Child Safety cut loose 16 providers! On top of that, no other standard group home provider received a rate increase. This arrangement ensured that Sunshine Residential would receive millions in additional revenue at the taxpayers’ expense.
Hobbs’ is currently under three separate criminal investigations for this pay-to-play scheme, but it’s not the only financial scandal we’ve seen during her reign as governor…
For years, Arizona was governed by Republican majorities in the state legislature—with Republicans also holding the Governor’s and Attorney General’s offices. During that time, we transformed Arizona into one of the most enviable and prosperous states in the nation: a booming economy, a hot jobs market, a flat income tax, strong support for law and order, and universal school choice.
That all changed in 2023 when Katie Hobbs and Kris Mayes—both Democrats—took over the Governor’s and Attorney General’s offices. Since then, they’ve worked to impose a radical agenda and remake Arizona in the image of California. If not for the slim Republican majorities in both chambers of the Arizona Legislature, Hobbs and Mayes would have quickly succeeded.
As the leader of the Senate Republicans, it has been my honor to work with my colleagues to defend Arizona values and push forward conservative priorities. Despite divided government, we’ve used every tool in our toolbox to not only stop the radical left’s agendas, but to also lead. In doing so, we have set the standard for other states dealing with divided government. Here are just a few of the top victories we’ve secured on behalf of Arizonans.
Fully Funded and Protected Universal School Choice
Over the past two decades, Arizona has led the nation in enacting school choice, giving all families the freedom to choose the education that best fits their children. We dramatically increased K-12 funding (now approximately $13,000 per student) during this time, investing heavily in and safeguarding all forms of education across the state—district, charter, home school, online, and empowerment scholarship accounts. The left only wants to give you one choice to educate your child. Both Hobbs and Mayes have prioritized the dismantling of the apparatuses that let parents decide where their children go to school.
I believe educational freedom is a foundation of the American Dream. Families shouldn’t be trapped in failing schools based on their zip code; rather, they should have the right to choose the educational institutions that work best for their sons and daughters. Unfortunately, Hobbs and Mayes have repeatedly rejected this belief to the detriment of our state’s future.
Under my leadership at the legislature, we stopped them. School choice remains fully funded and protected—even in this divided government. Fighting for parental empowerment and school choice has been one of the most consequential and rewarding endeavors of my time as Senate President. I believe that we are rescuing an entire generation of Arizonans from the grip of a broken education system.
Tax Cuts for Arizonans
One of our top priorities has been to return money to Arizona taxpayers. Despite repeated attempts by Hobbs to block us, we’ve delivered real tax relief. We eliminated the rental tax in Arizona, saving families and renters hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Charging a rental tax is bad policy, and now these revenues will stay in the pockets of the people who need them the most.
Republican lawmakers forced the governor to sign additional bills that cut taxes for hard-working Arizonans. We raised the state’s business personal property tax exemption, reducing burdens on small business owners. We banned municipal excise taxes on residential leases, relieving tenants of additional tax liability and helping lower housing costs. And we passed the Arizona Families Tax Rebate to return funds directly to eligible families.
At a time when families are feeling squeezed, we’re doing what government should—getting out of the way and letting our hardworking taxpayers keep more of what they earn. These tax cuts are the result of smart, conservative leadership that puts everyday Arizonans first. This is the same pro-growth, American First approach that President Trump is delivering for our nation, and we’re proud to carry that torch here in the Grand Canyon State.
Fully Vetted Agency Directors
One of the most consequential powers of any governor is the ability to nominate and install agency directors, who do the bidding of their chief executive. These individuals wield enormous influence over how state government functions, and under Hobbs, many of her nominees have been extreme, unqualified, or relatively unknown to the public. That’s why one of my first actions as Senate President was to create accountability through a formal vetting process for the governor’s nominees. The purpose was to ensure the individuals chosen to lead integral government agencies were competent and aligned with Arizona values. Despite resistance from the governor, we succeeded. We held her nominees to high standards and protected Arizona from the consequences of unchecked political appointments.
End of DOJ Investigation into Phoenix Police Department
Over the past several years, the Phoenix Police Department was the target of a blatantly politicized witch hunt by President Biden’s Department of Justice. They twisted facts and law in a backhanded attempt to hijack another police department and bring it under the control of the federal government. After I contacted the Trump administration and met with several of the President’s top officials, the White House and DOJ ended this rampage against the men and women in blue from the Phoenix Police Department. The announcement from the Trump administration was complete vindication, and it removed the handcuffs off our law enforcement so that they may do their jobs to keep the City of Phoenix and our citizens safe from criminals seeking to cause harm.
Divided government is messy. The path forward isn’t always easy or clear. But through consensus building, unity, discipline, determination, and bold conservative leadership, we’ve proven in Arizona that progress is possible—even in the toughest of times. The rewards of this hard work are immense for those entrusted with leaving our state and nation in a better place for future generations of Americans. I hope that our efforts in Arizona have not only preserved our rich heritage of conservative values, but inspired other warriors around the country to follow in our footsteps.
Warren Petersen is the President of the Arizona State Senate and represents Legislative District 14.
Across rural Arizona, wells are going dry. Unmitigated groundwater pumping is depleting aquifers and leaving rural communities helpless.
In places like Sunizona and Salome, large industrial users are to blame. As corporate interests come in and drill thousands of feet deep, everyday residents on the surface are left with dwindling supplies.
Meanwhile, in areas like Prescott and Paulden, it is the proliferation of domestic wells that is putting strain on the local aquifers. As new residents move in, they drill faster than nature can keep up, adding hundreds of new wells without considering the impact to existing residents.
Rural groundwater is a “tragedy of the commons”
All of these challenges reflect one simple fact: Arizona’s groundwater basins are limited, subterranean resources with multiple landowners on the surface.
If anyone with a well can access the common supply, then there is nothing stopping people from pumping themselves—or each other—dry. That’s what legal scholars call the “tragedy of the commons.”
Lack of private property rights is the problem
The cause of this tragedy is not the large industrial users or new residents themselves, but rather the legal system that allows new users to come in, drill new wells, and pump more groundwater without having to demonstrate a water right first.
This is not accidental. It is the consequence of the “beneficial use” doctrine discussed in Part 1, which eliminated John Locke’s “no harm” principle and the “right to exclude” others from the groundwater beneath our feet.
As Arizona Justice Duke Cameron explained in his 1976 dissent, beneficial use “encourages wasteful over-consumption and proclaims a right that cannot be protected.”
“Two adjacent landowners may pump each other dry to the detriment of themselves and everyone else,” noting that “access to water is not based on ‘first in time, first in right’ … [but] rather … by a race for consumption controlled … by … the physical ability to extract water from the common supply.”
“To the small or family farmer,” he concluded, “[T]he right to water then becomes a cruel illusion, proclaimed by law, but unobtainable in practice.”
People know something is wrong
Rural residents understand intuitively that the lack of property rights is the cause of this situation, but no one has been willing to articulate their desired solution in clear terms—until now.
When rural residents say things like “we were here first,” “they’re coming into the basin,” and “they’re taking our water,” they are not asking for more bureaucratic regulation or government control; they are calling for prior appropriation.
Under prior appropriation, whoever is there first wins
Qui prior est tempore potior est jure. It means: “First in time, first in right,” and it represents the system of property law used in western states to effectively allocate shares of surface water, like streams and rivers, to landowners based on who was there first.
Under prior appropriation, when a user diverts water first, the user receives a senior right and can force others to cut back in times of need—avoiding the tragedy of the commons in streams and rivers.
When it’s applied to groundwater, senior users can prevent others from drilling new wells if there isn’t enough to go around, thereby protecting existing rights and upholding John Locke’s “no harm” principle.
This is exactly what residents in places like Prescott and Paulden have been asking for.
Arizona had a chance to adopt prior appropriation
Between 1931 and 1969, nearly all western states—including Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, and New Mexico—applied prior appropriation to groundwater. But Arizona did not, making it the only state in the broader Colorado River basin that does not recognize priority rights to groundwater.
When the Court was evaluating Bristor v. Cheatham in 1953, it had a chance to adopt prior appropriation, but it chose beneficial use instead, leading to the bifurcated system we have today.
This was the ‘original sin’ of Arizona groundwater law
From this misguided decision, all other groundwater challenges have followed.
From the growth of industrial agriculture in Sunsites and Salome to the proliferation of domestic wells in Prescott and Paudlen, all of Arizona’s most pressing challenges can be traced back to this fateful decision.
Had the Court established prior appropriation, many of these challenges could have been avoided. Residents in Sunizona and Salome could have stopped new industrial operations from coming in, while residents in Prescott and Paulden could have stopped new residential wells from being drilled.
Unfortunately, it’s too late to adopt prior appropriation today. Doing so would require a complete legal overhaul and would likely take years to implement.
And even if it could be implemented, there are very real questions about how it would work, such as whether thousands of well owners could be forced to cut back if a single, shallow well owner went dry. Additionally, prior appropriation is subject to the “use it or lose it” rule, which is not ideal for finite groundwater resources if the goal of adopting a new framework is to promote conservation.
Despite these challenges, some form of private property rights is needed; without them, there is little that rural residents can do to stop the tragedy of the commons from occurring in their basins.
Restoring private property rights is the only way
To truly address the tragedy of the commons, we must recognize it for what it is and explore solutions that are specifically designed to address it.
Ultimately, Arizona will be required to choose between two fundamentally different futures: one ruled by centralized bureaucratic control, or one that restores real, enforceable rights to the groundwater beneath the surface, allowing landowners to protect and conserve their supplies for future generations.
Without such a solution, the right to water will remain nothing more than a cruel illusion, “proclaimed by law, but unobtainable in practice.”
Friday’s jobs report shows the American labor market is turning a corner. The unemployment rate fell to 4.4%, and average wages grew 40% faster than inflation. Rising real wages are a stark contrast to the Biden administration, where 25% inflation caused an affordability crisis that President Donald Trump and Republicans are digging us out from.
The report also showed that unproductive government jobs have fallen by nearly 300,000 over the past year, reducing a significant drag on the real economy. The number of discouraged workers declined by almost 200,000 last month, and the number of Americans quitting their jobs increased significantly, indicating that workers are increasingly confident they can find a job.
Topline job creation remains mediocre, but hires are a lagging economic indicator. In fact, the labor market is far stronger than this headline number suggests.
Recent economic growth smashed expectations, with GDP rising by more than 4% in the most recent quarter. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model suggests growth will continue above 4%, representing a historic rise in living standards. Holiday spending also exceeded expectations, with Visa and Mastercard announcing growth of more than 4%, revealing a healthy American consumer.
Small businesses, America’s job creation engine, will respond to the strong economy and consumers by expanding and hiring, setting the stage for strong job gains in the months ahead.
According to a new Citizens Bank survey of small businesses, two-thirds of small businesses expect their revenues to increase in the first quarter of this year. And a new JPMorgan Chase survey finds that three-quarters of small businesses anticipate revenue growth.
Fast economic growth and increasing Main Street revenues don’t happen in a vacuum, as many left-wing pundits would have you believe. They are the direct result of good public policy that empowers businessmen, not bureaucrats.
Exhibit A is Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law last July, which cut taxes for entrepreneurs and employees. The bill restored and made permanent 100% immediate expensing for small businesses, encouraging expansion, development, and hiring. It also made permanent the 20% small business tax deduction, allowing more stores to become profitable.
It expanded the standard deduction and child tax deduction and exempted tip and overtime income, giving workers what should be their largest tax refunds in American history this spring. Funds that will help folks overcome Biden’s affordability crisis.
Sadly, every Democrat in Congress voted against these significant middle-class tax cuts and in favor of the biggest tax hike in American history. Republicans need to sell this win to independents and apolitical folks every day from now until the midterms to keep control of Congress.
Mass deportations, the Epstein files, and transgender bathrooms may be the issues that matter most to the MAGA base, but they are not the ones that will get Republicans the 51% coalition needed to win. They will not motivate Martha, three doors down the block, Jorge, in the apartment complex across the street, or David and Michael, the brother duo trying to get their Main Street cafe off the ground.
No matter what the latest America First social media influencer says, preserving and expanding the opportunity economy will always be the winning message the broad conservative coalition needs to overcome the Democrat siren song of “free stuff.”
The Trump administration and Congressional Republicans have notched numerous wins to advance this engine of increased well-being and affordability. Now it’s time to connect the dots for the general public. Big job gains in the months ahead will help drive these victories home.
Alfredo Ortiz is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, CEO of Job Creators Network, author of “The Real Race Revolutionaries,” and co-host of the Main Street Matters podcast.
Arizona has hardly had an opportunity to recover from the aftershocks of Biden-omics. The trillions of dollars injected into the economy through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act continue to work their way through the system in the form of higher prices and eroded purchasing power. Open-border policies that expanded the labor supply at the lower and middle ends of the wage scale have depressed wages. And the Biden Administration’s unprecedented regulatory burden on industry, a nearly $2 trillion drag on the economy, will take far longer than a year to unwind and correct.
Unfortunately for Arizona, efforts to fix these problems at the federal level cannot be fully realized here at home because Katie Hobbs remains our Governor.
Hobbs has harmed Arizona’s recovery, overseeing a massive fall from 4th in the nation in job growth to 47th. She inherited a booming local economy after a Republican legislature and Governor ushered in a 2.5 percent income tax, incentivized entrepreneurs and small businesses, prioritized deregulation, and expanded choice and freedom in education. Yet Hobbs has managed to squander that opportunity. In fact, it takes a special skill set to be perfectly set up for success and then drive a working model into the ground.
And Hobbs knows she’s to blame. That’s why she’s now desperately trying to reinvent herself by pushing Trump-esque tax cut rhetoric while clinging to the same big-spending, high-tax policies that caused the damage in the first place. At her core, she remains a California-style Democrat who would rather govern Newsom-style than embrace the Republican solutions that actually work. That’s why, despite a Republican legislature that has delivered tax relief bills, more disciplined budgets, and common-sense deregulation, she has earned a reputation as the veto queen.
As a result, Arizonans are dealing with real affordability woes, and they best not hinge their hopes on Hobbs.
Despite responsible budgeting and repeated tax relief efforts by Republican lawmakers, affordability pressures continue to mount. Taxes are creeping higher at every level of government. Utility bills have surged. Housing costs are outpacing wage growth. And programs intended to help struggling families are losing billions to fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
That is why the 2026 legislative session must focus on Affordable Arizona…
Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos. Also known as the ad coelum doctrine, it means: “Whoever owns the soil owns everything up to the heavens and down to the depths.” This includes gold, silver, oil—or groundwater—that may be below.
In basic property law, the ad coelum doctrine comes with the “right to exclude,” which is the right for landowners to keep, sell, use, protect, and conserve their property—including preventing others from taking it.
Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas, also known as the “no harm” principle, means: “Use your own property in such a way that you do not injure the property of another.” This includes groundwater.
Articulated by John Locke in his Second Treatise of Civil Government, the “no harm” principle represents the biblical golden rule: “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”
These principles form the foundation of American property law. And in Arizona, they were part of our groundwater code—that is, until 1953, when they were taken away.
Arizonans had property rights to groundwater
According to the Arizona Supreme Court in Davis v. Agua Sierra Resources (2009), Arizona’s common law on groundwater “evolved from the territorial-day view that a landowner has a property interest in groundwater underlying the surface estate.”
Indeed, as Ted Steinberg wrote in Slide Mountain: “Private property in the underground was real all right. At least there were a lot of people in Arizona who believed in it.” According to him, Arizona farmers swore they owned the groundwater beneath their feet, just like the ad coelum doctrine said they did.
In 1904, the Territorial Supreme Court of Arizona affirmed farmers’ beliefs, stating in Howard v. Perrin that “percolating waters are the property of the owner of the soil.”
After statehood, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the territorial view, stating in Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation District No. 1 v. Southwest Cotton Co. (1931) that groundwater was “the property of the owner of the land,” subject to the rules of the common law, which included the “no harm” principle and biblical golden rule.
These affirmations confirmed what landowners already knew: that the groundwater was theirs, and they had a right to use it as long as they did not harm the rights of others.
But this framework is very different than the ‘free-for-all’ we have today, which does not recognize private property rights or the golden rule.
What happened? How did we get here?
Arizonans’ property rights were taken away
In the mid-1900s, a dramatic shift occurred. Armon Cheatham, an industrial cotton farmer, sunk eleven wells near Laveen, creating a large cone of depression that dried up thirty-eight other landowners’ wells.
The small landowners had been using their water for modest means, like household use and ranching. Tom Bristor, one of those landowners, sued to protect his private property rights, enforce the ad coelum doctrine, and uphold the golden rule.
But in a sudden reversal of precedent, the Arizona Supreme Court in Bristor v. Cheatham (1953) rejected the territorial view and replaced the golden rule with a new doctrine called “beneficial use.”
This dealt the first blow—eliminating John Locke’s “no harm” principle and opening the door for anyone to pump as much as they wanted, “without limitation and without liability to another owner.”
Twenty-eight years later, the Arizona Supreme Court dealt the final blow, declaring in Town of Chino Valley v. City of Prescott (1981), that “there is no right of ownership of groundwater in Arizona prior to its capture and withdrawal from the common supply,” eliminating the ad coelum doctrine in our state.
Here, small well owners in Chino Valley sued to stop the City of Prescott from taking their water and piping it 17 miles away under the state’s new 1980 Groundwater Management Act.
Although their wells hadn’t gone dry yet, they argued that the city’s scheme (and the state’s new groundwater law) constituted a “taking” that required just compensation, including for future groundwater supplies that hadn’t been pumped but that residents wanted to ensure would be available for future use.
Unfortunately, the Court sided with big government and the city, ruling that the water beneath their property wasn’t theirs until they pumped it—ending the ad coelum doctrine and handing full control over to the government.
This was the final nail in the coffin for private property rights—eliminating the right to exclude and declaring all groundwater a public resource, shared by all but owned by none, preventing anyone from protecting or conserving a discrete supply and leading to the situation we have today.
Ownership of subsurface groundwater should never have been taken away
The judges who decided the 1953 case were all Democrats, and the governor who adopted the 1980 law was Democrat Bruce Babbitt. They broke from our state’s traditional values and sided with corporate industry over small landowners, leaving everyday citizens helpless against the political and financial elite.
Had Arizona’s leaders maintained the traditional values that founded our country, we would not be in the situation we’re in today.
Fortunately, the detrimental effects of these negative decisions can be reversed. We can correct the mistakes of the past and return private property rights back to the people.
Only then can we ensure a fair system that restores what was taken, upholds our founding values, and allows property owners to protect and conserve the groundwater beneath their feet.
