by Staff Reporter | May 6, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Under the direction of Governor Katie Hobbs, the Arizona Department of Administration (ADA) sold the state’s first private prison rather than repurposing it for illegal alien detainment.
The State House overwhelmingly rejected a bill last Thursday to lease the prison, Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility adjacent to Tucson, to the federal government for illegal aliens and other violators of immigration law for just $1 a year. The bill failed due to bipartisan rejection despite its party-line passage in the Senate.
“The federal government should have access to the empty Marana Prison to house these dangerous criminal illegal aliens so that Arizonans are protected from further threats,” said the bill’s author, Senator John Kavanaugh.
One Republican lawmaker representing Marana, Rep. Rachel Keshel, rejected repurposing the prison for immigration violations over concerns of bringing criminal illegal aliens into their community.
Keshel and fellow lawmaker to the area, Democratic Rep. Kevin Volk, alleged in remarks to Capitol Media Services that Kavanaugh failed to consult with local leaders about his proposed plan.
“Now, I do agree that something needs to happen with it instead of it just sitting there. But why was I not consulted with?” Keshel asked. “Why wasn’t I able to go to the mayor, the vice mayor, the town council of Marana, and figure out what their desires were for their community?”
The prison’s buyer, Management and Training Corporation (MTC) out of Utah, had operated and managed the prison. MTC purchased the 500-bed facility for about $15 million last Wednesday.
MTC owns nearly 40 correctional facilities, community release centers, and treatment programs across the nation.
The Marana prison was the state’s first private prison, established over 30 years ago. The minimum-security facility housed around up to 500 prisoners requiring substance abuse intervention. The declining prison population in the state prompted the prison’s closing and its recent sale.
The sale comes less than two years after Governor Katie Hobbs announced the prison’s closure in late 2023. The prison closed with under half of the number of prisoners that would constitute capacity.
Hobbs said the closure was a means of saving taxpayer dollars and eliminating government waste. The governor projected a savings of $15 million between the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years.
Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) absorbed the Marana inmates into other prisons throughout the state. ADCRR operates 15 prisons, six of which are private.
“So not only are we demonstrating significant savings, we’re demonstrating, with actions, our ability to be more efficient with the resources already provided to us,” said ADCRR Director Ryan Thornell.
The move by the Hobbs administration put off some local leaders. Marana Mayor Ed Honea said Hobbs gave notice to nearly 90 prison employees and staff of their impending job loss just three weeks before Christmas. The prison had the capability of employing over 200 individuals at full capacity.
Per Honea, the Marana inmates also provided affordable labor for the town. The inmates managed and cleared roadways, and during storm seasons would also clear debris.
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by Daniel Stefanski | Oct 20, 2023 | Economy, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
As Arizonans continue to pay high prices at the gas pumps, a recent revelation exposes a possible contributing factor from the state’s chief executive.
On Monday, the Joint Legislative Ad Hoc Study Committee on Air Quality and Energy issued a press release after a hearing with Michelle Wilson, the Regulatory Compliance Administrator for the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures, publicizing that Wilson “admitted the Hobbs Administration was passive when oil companies in March warned of refinery shutdowns.” The Committee added that “according to Wilson, for the first time in five years, the Governor’s office received a request from refineries to ask the EPA for a waiver, allowing for an alternative fuel type to provide an adequate supply for drivers and preventing a hike in gas prices” – yet after the Governor’s Office “had conversations with the EPA about submitting a request for a waiver,…the EPA convinced Hobbs to not submit one.”
According to Senate Republicans, “this catastrophe reduced the supply of the type of gasoline drivers in Maricopa County are required to fill their tanks with, known as ‘Cleaner Burn Gas’ (CBG), in order for Arizona to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act requirements.”
“Rather than making a case on behalf of Arizonans struggling to fill their tanks with prices hitting $5 per gallon, Governor Hobbs chose to not push back against the EPA and was complicit with the Biden Administration’s pro-inflation, radical environmentalist agenda,” said Senator Sine Kerr, the Committee’s co-chair. “As a result of Hobbs’ inaction, Maricopa County drivers were forced to shell out an extra several hundred million dollars just to get to their destinations during this supply disruption.”
“It’s clear Governor Hobbs is taking her marching orders from the federal government, instead of serving the best interests of our citizens,” said Senator Frank Carroll, a member of the committee. “While Republicans were securing a tax rebate to give $260 million dollars back to Arizona families hurting from historic price hikes, the Governor sat on her hands and cost families at least half that amount at the pump. We plan to analyze potential changes to policy to protect Arizonans from these irresponsible actions by the Executive Branch and reckless big government overreach.”
In the leadup to the hearing, legislative Republicans signaled they sought to investigate “the driving force behind (Arizonans’) pain at the pump and how to provide relief to motorists.” They promised to “analyze one of the contributing factors pushing Arizona’s gas prices to level higher than the national average, which is the unique blend of gasoline required by state law since 1997 called ‘Cleaner Burning Gasoline.’”
This isn’t the first time Hobbs has taken political heat for her actions (or lack thereof) on this issue. Earlier this year, Senator Jake Hoffman unleashed a blistering rebuke of Hobbs’ reported failure “to do the right thing by requesting this waiver to allow prices at the pump to drop.” Hoffman’s statement followed accounts of a letter that had been sent to Hobbs in March by independent petroleum refiner HF Sinclair, warning the state’s chief executive “of a critical supply shortage in Arizona due to an unexpected equipment failure stopping the production of ‘Cleaner Burning Gasoline’ (CBG) required by the Biden Administration in Maricopa County, as well as parts of Pinal and Yavapai Counties.”
Per Senator Hoffman’s release, HF Sinclair had argued that Hobbs would be within her right to seek the waiver from the EPA, writing, “Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7545(c)(4)(C)(ii), EPA may temporarily waive a control or prohibition respecting the use of a fuel when extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances prevent the distribution of an adequate supply to consumers. EPA may grant such a waiver where such circumstances are the result of a natural disaster, Act of God, refinery equipment failure, or another event that could not reasonably have been foreseen or prevented, and where doing so would be in the public interest (e.g., when a waiver is necessary to meet projected temporary shortfalls in fuel supply in a state or region). Such circumstances presently exist in Arizona.”
In his June release, Hoffman said, “Katie Hobbs’ incompetence as Arizona’s Governor continues to take center stage, and hardworking Arizonans are paying the price for it. The average price for a gallon of gas right now in Maricopa County is a full $1 higher than the national average. This is extra money that could help with groceries, medications and other necessities many of our taxpayers are having a difficult time affording because of the Biden Administration’s reckless policies leading to historic inflation.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Mar 23, 2023 | Economy, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Another Republican-led proposal to stimulate and incentivize business development in Arizona is moving through the legislature – though it is unsurprisingly meeting serious resistance from the other side of the aisle.
Senator Steve Kaiser sponsored SB 1559, which deals with a reduction in the income tax and fees for new businesses across the state. According to the purpose of the legislation provided by the State Senate, the bill “prescribes a threshold of five percent of state contracts the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) is encouraged to award to new businesses each year and exempts a new business and a person who is establishing a new business from filing fees to establish the new business.” It also “establishes an individual and corporate income tax subtraction in prescribed amounts for a new business’s first three years of operation.”
The prescribed amounts for individuals (income received from the new business) and corporations (Arizona gross income) are 100 percent for the first year of operation, 50 percent for the second year, and 25 percent for the third.
Earlier this week, Senator Kaiser’s piece of legislation passed the chamber with a party-line 16-12 vote – with two Democrat Senators not voting (Burch and Gonzales). This action followed two, prior partisan votes in Senate Committees– first in the Finance Committee back in February, where SB 1559 cleared 4-3; and in the Rules Committee, 4-3.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) previously published data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics, showing that there were 7,919 business formations in Arizona in 2022. The JLBC also projected that “the number of new businesses will grow to 8,523 in 2023, 9,173 in 2024, 9,872 in 2025, and 17,561 in 2026.”
Earlier in the Senate Finance Committee, Democrat Senator Mitzi Epstein explained why she was voting against the transmission of the bill to the full chamber, saying that though she was a small business owner and understood the need for these businesses to receive help and access to resources, she believed the provisions of this legislation would be “ripe for abuse.” She feared that SB 1559 would “create a whole new industry” of entrepreneurs helping small businesses take advantage of the tax and fee incentives provided by this proposal (if enacted).
In the committee, Senator Kaiser, the bill’s sponsor, touted his previous experience as a business owner and empathized with young business owners (especially those businesses under five years old) trying to keep their operation afloat and financed in the early years. He stated that “we need to really support our young businesses as much as possible. They do produce the most new jobs compared to existing small businesses and large businesses, and whatever we can do to help them survive and thrive is going to be helpful.”
Another Democrat Senator, Brian Fernandez, told the Finance Committee that he was a no, but he possibly could be swayed to flip his position if there were changes to the bill, inferring that his suggested tweaks mirrored the concerns expressed by his colleague, Senator Epstein.
Representatives from the Arizona Firearms Industry Trade Association and North Phoenix Chamber of Commerce supported this legislation through the Senate process, while a representative for the Arizona Center for Economic Progress registered opposition to the bill.
Before the vote on the Senate floor, the Arizona Senate Democrats Caucus tweeted that “SB 1559 is another handout for businesses,” and warned that “a new business income tax subtraction could cost Arizona’s General Fund an estimated $34.3M in FY25, $36.5M in FY26, and $38.9M in FY27.”
SB 1559 now heads to the Arizona House of Representatives for consideration.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
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