by Jonathan Eberle | Mar 17, 2025 | News
By Jonathan Eberle |
Arizona’s ongoing housing crisis is taking center stage as state lawmakers, led by House Majority Leader Michael Carbone, voice strong opposition to Governor Katie Hobbs’ water policies, accusing them of exacerbating the state’s housing shortage. In a statement released last week, Carbone applauded House Speaker Steve Montenegro for authorizing a lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) over its adoption of a controversial 33.3% groundwater tax. Carbone claims that this policy is driving up the cost of housing and ultimately harming Arizonans who are already grappling with soaring housing prices.
At the center of the dispute is a policy known as the housing moratorium, which has been criticized for preventing the development of large swathes of land that could otherwise be used to build affordable homes. According to Carbone and other critics, the moratorium was adopted illegally, and it has led to a situation where hundreds of thousands of acres of land remain undeveloped. This, in turn, limits the amount of available space for new homes, driving demand to already crowded urban areas and increasing housing costs.
Carbone explained that “water policy is land use policy, and land use policy is housing policy,” suggesting that the restrictions on land development, while related to water conservation, are having broader economic consequences.
As a result of the moratorium, many Arizonans are facing higher costs when it comes to purchasing new homes. The housing moratorium is expected to increase home prices by $19,600 to $23,700 per house. Additionally, the proposed 33.3% groundwater tax has been predicted to add an extra $5,100 to $7,900 to the cost of new homes. These measures have raised concerns about the affordability of housing, especially in a state already struggling with rapid population growth and a housing shortage.
The Arizona House of Representatives, alongside the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona (HBACA) and members of the Arizona Senate, have joined forces in a legal battle against the ADWR’s actions. The lawsuit seeks to halt the 33.3% groundwater tax, which lawmakers argue is not only illegal but also harmful to Arizona’s housing market. Carbone criticized the governor’s policies, stating that they are not about ensuring water security but rather a means of “government control.”
“The Governor wants to dictate where and how Arizona families live, limiting all future growth to cities and driving up home prices,” Carbone said. “Affordable housing is central to the American Dream, and we are committed to fighting these illegal policies that will only make the housing crisis worse.”
The legal battle focuses on the ADWR’s authority to implement such a tax and whether it complies with state law. Proponents of the lawsuit argue that homebuilders have long demonstrated a commitment to responsible water management, having replenished 100% of the groundwater they use annually since 1995. Therefore, they contend, penalizing the homebuilding industry with additional taxes is unfair and counterproductive.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Mar 4, 2025 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
How much water does Arizona currently have? That’s the question on the mind of Arizona lawmakers this legislative session.
Last week, Arizona House Republicans revealed that a small group of legislators had previously sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR), asking the agency “to provide basic information on the following details related to Arizona’s rural groundwater basins:
- The average depth-to-water level in each basin
- The maximum depth of each basin
- The average depth of each basin
- The total volume of groundwater in each basin
- The number of index wells in each basin.”
The letter, which was authored by State Representative Gail Griffin, Senator Tim Dunn, and former Senator Sine Kerr, was transmitted to ADWR on December 23, 2024.
Speaking about the reasoning behind the letter to ADWR, Representative Griffin said, “The intent was to give Arizonans a better understanding of the groundwater supply beneath their feet. For the last two years however, none of the Department’s assessments have included this basic information – such as ‘how much water do we have’ and ‘how long will that water last.’ This information is a fundamental component of the ‘supply’ side of the ‘supply and demand’ equation and needs to be included in each of the Department’s five-year ‘Supply and Demand’ Assessments.”
According to the press release issued by House Republicans, ADWR “provided a preliminary response to the December 23 letter, stating the number of active index wells in each basin and the maximum depth of each basin at its deepest point.” The response shared that the “Wilcox and Gila Bend groundwater basins are 4,800 feet deep at their deepest point.” However, as the release highlights, “The Department has yet to provide the total amount of groundwater that is available to each of these depths.”
Representative Griffin is not at all satisfied with ADWR’s incomplete answers. She said, “Just because you drill a well does not guarantee that there will be one hundred years’ worth of water. Republicans and Democrats both agree we need to know how much water is available in order to make informed decisions on critical groundwater policy. It’s also essential to our ability to plan for the future. How are we supposed to plan if we don’t know how much water we have?”
With these questions in mind, Griffin introduced a bill (HB 2271) this legislative session “to update the 5-year Supply and Demand Assessment statute and require the Department to include this information in its reports, moving forward.” If the proposal was signed into law, it would “provide critical answers to these basic questions, such as, ‘How much water do we have?’ and ‘How many years will that water last at the current rate of decline?’” Answering these questions would allow legislators to “plan to add new tools that work for rural Arizona, such as groundwater recharge, replenishment, and reuse.”
Focusing on her bill, Griffin said, “we understand that additional steps may be necessary to gather this information, but we also believe that taking these steps is a necessity to do our jobs effectively. I think the Department wants to make decisions based on science and that, if we give it the time and opportunity to gather this information, it will result in a better and more constructive dialogue for everyone.”
HB 2271 was approved by the Arizona House of Representatives last week.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Jan 31, 2025 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
A southern Arizona lawmaker has introduced multiple bills to help restore transparency and accountability to a key state agency.
Earlier this week, State Representative Lupe Diaz announced that he had filed two proposals to “address the lack of transparency and regulatory overreach within the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR).” Those bills were HB 2692 and HB 2550.
According to the press release issued by Diaz, HB 2692 would “slash ADWR’s budget [and] explicitly direct the agency to prioritize its core responsibilities, such as updating its recent groundwater models with the latest information, quantifying the total volume of groundwater available in rural basins (measured in years), and defending Arizona’s water rights on the Colorado River.” HB 2550 would “accelerate ADWR’s sunset date to July 1, 2026…to prompt a thorough review of the department’s regulatory overreach and ensure accountability to the people.”
In a statement accompanying the announcement of his introduced bills, Representative Diaz said, “As Arizonans, we depend on our state agencies to follow the law, uphold their statutory duties, and stay within their lane – especially when it comes to managing our most critical resource: water. Unfortunately, ADWR, under the direction and control of Governor Hobbs, has been sidetracked by extrastatutory activities that lack legislative authorization. The agency has been diverting critical time and resources away from its core functions to frivolous policymaking councils and focus groups, driving up housing costs for thousands of Arizonans. My legislation sends a strong message that the agency must be held accountable to the people it serves. Arizona’s water policies should be guided by the law, not radical political agendas.”
Representative Diaz added, “If there is a ‘Deep State’ in Arizona, it is Governor Hobbs’ Arizona Department of Water Resources. By the stroke of a pen, unelected bureaucrats in Central Arizona are centralizing control over the state’s water resources by unilaterally adopting rules without proper statutory authority, picking winners and losers, and deciding which uses of land and water are worthy of economic development. Their actions are driving up the cost and limiting the availability of food and housing for thousands of rural and urban residents across the state. The Hobbs’ administration claims it must act unilaterally because it cannot work with the Legislature, but what it fails to understand is that the Legislature represents the will of the people.”
The two bills will be heard in committees and, if given a favorable recommendation, considered by the full House chamber this session. The proposals will likely be dead on arrival, however, in the Governor’s Office if passed by both bodies of the Arizona Legislature due to the political chasm between Hobbs and Republicans on water issues.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Jan 27, 2025 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Republicans in the Arizona Legislature are wasting no time to improve the state’s groundwater situation in this 57th Regular Session.
On Tuesday, the Arizona House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, Energy & Water gave a green light to House Concurrent Memorial 2003, which “states the Legislature’s interest in having the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Arizona State Land Department focus on increasing groundwater recharge through groundwater recharge infrastructure projects,” according to the overview provided by the State House of Representatives.
In a statement, State Representative Gail Griffin, the measure’s sponsor, said, “County supervisors, flood control districts, and natural resource conservation districts have the authority to construct stormwater detention basins and other constructive infrastructure that increase groundwater recharge. Local and county officials should push the Governor’s Department of Water Resources and State Land Department to develop these projects within their communities to increase local water supplies.”
Griffin added, “Over 95 percent of rainfall in the state evaporates before it can naturally recharge aquifers. Increasing the amount of natural recharge by only a few percentage points would increase the amount of local water supplies substantially. The solution to unleashing economic prosperity in rural Arizona through increased water supplies is investing in additional groundwater-stormwater recharge. Local communities have tools to address groundwater issues. We need to work together to utilize those tools to secure our long-term water supplies.”
The press release from the Arizona House Republicans Caucus shared that “projects like Horseshoe Draw Recharge Project in Cochise County and Hualapai Flood Control Project in Mohave County are examples of projects that increase local supplies without expanding the size of government or imposing top-down government regulations on rural industries.” There are “331 sites on state trust land that the agencies have identified as suitable for maximizing groundwater recharge.”
According to the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, representatives from the Arizona Farm and Ranch Group, Audubon Arizona / National Audubon Society, and Arizona Cotton Growers Association, signed in to support the bill. Representatives from the Sierra Club – Grand Canyon Chapter and CHISPA Arizona – A Program of League of Conservation Voters, signed in to oppose the legislation.
Republicans and Democrats will continue to do battle over water issues in this divided state government, as they have for the previous two years. Governor Katie Hobbs has been largely unwilling to adopt Republican policies on these matters, vetoing bills over the past two sessions that would have strengthened Arizona’s position on water conservation, management, and proliferation for current and future generations. The two sides still appear to be far apart on water issues as another legislative session heads into its second month.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Jan 25, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Governor Katie Hobbs is now facing a serious legal challenge from the Goldwater Institute, acting on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, to put a stop to what Goldwater described as “one of the most significant bureaucratic overreaches in Arizona’s history.”
On Wednesday, Goldwater announced the lawsuit against Arizona’s Democrat Governor stating that Hobbs is “taking illegal actions” that would worsen the state’s ongoing housing crisis by imposing a certification requirement in parts of Maricopa County that, in addition to showing a 100-year groundwater supply, must also meet the dubious standard of “unmet demand.”
Writing for Goldwater, Stacy Skankey explained, “Although the phrase ‘unmet demand’ does not exist in Arizona law, this new rule now requires homebuilders to show a 100-year groundwater supply across the entire water management area (a specially designated area with a reliance on groundwater) rather than at the site of the proposed development. In other words, if a groundwater shortage is projected anywhere within a management area, the Department of Water Resources now claims that there is insufficient groundwater elsewhere in the Valley.”
As reported by AZ Free News in December, Goldwater penned a letter to the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) urging the agency under Hobbs to reconsider its “AMA Wide Unmet Demand Rule,” noting that the new rule was in violation of the law having been imposed without legislative approval or via the required rulemaking process.
According to ADWR, “Unmet demand occurs when the model cannot simulate pumping of all demands included, thereby creating a pumping shortfall or deficit. This pumping shortfall or deficit occurs when there is insufficient saturated aquifer to satisfy the pumping demand (i.e., the depth-to-water level reaches bedrock) or when the depth to water exceeds 1,100 feet after 100 years of simulated pumping.”
Essentially, unmet demand occurs when the state’s modeling is insufficient to predict demand. In other words, the basis for shutting down Arizona housing development is that the Hobbs administration’s simulation doesn’t work.
As noted in an op-ed for the AZ Capitol Times by CEO of the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona Jackson Moll and Goldwater Institute Vice President for Litigation Jon Riches, the Phoenix Active Management Area (AMA) Groundwater Model being used by the Hobbs administration, coupled with the ‘unmet demand’ standard, moves the goalposts on developers who have mitigated impact on the state’s water needs for nearly 30 years by replenishing pumped groundwater back into the water table.
Riches said in a statement, “Decisions on vital statewide concerns like the availability of affordable housing and the responsible stewardship of our natural resources should be made through a transparent, democratic process—not imposed by executive fiat.”
Moll added, “Gov. Hobbs’ deeply inaccurate and flawed claim that Arizona is running out of groundwater is having devastating effects on housing affordability in the state, which already ranks among the worst in the country.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
