Arizona Senate Republicans released their 2026 Majority Plan on Monday, outlining policy priorities aimed at reducing the cost of living, strengthening public safety, supporting economic growth, and increasing oversight of state government.
The plan follows several years of divided government at the Capitol and builds on what Republicans describe as recent legislative accomplishments, including balanced budgets and multiple tax cuts passed without raising overall taxes. Caucus leaders say the 2026 agenda is intended to address challenges facing Arizona families, particularly rising housing costs, inflation, and concerns about government accountability.
“Arizonans want affordable living, safe neighborhoods, and a government that strengthens — not weakens — our economy,” Senate President Warren Petersen said in a statement. “While the Governor’s vetoes stall progress, Senate Republicans remain focused on protecting taxpayers, upholding Arizona’s freedoms, and preventing the radical left from turning our state into California.”
A central component of the plan is a proposed tax and budget framework aimed at providing relief from rising prices. Senate Republicans say they are pursuing reductions in state taxes on tips and overtime, expanded deductions for seniors, and policies to support small businesses. Caucus leaders estimate the proposals would return more than $1 billion to taxpayers over three years while pairing tax relief with restrained government spending.
Housing affordability is another major focus. The plan cites regulatory barriers, slow permitting processes, and executive-level actions as factors contributing to Arizona’s housing shortage. Republicans say they support reforms to speed up construction, reduce fees, and limit local restrictions on new housing, while aligning development decisions with water availability data.
“Arizonans can’t afford policies that stall development, inflate housing prices, or jeopardize our water security,” Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope said. “Senate Republicans are advancing practical, data-driven solutions that support responsible growth and keep Arizona livable for the next generation.”
Water policy is addressed alongside housing, particularly as negotiations over the Colorado River continue. The plan emphasizes the Legislature’s statutory role in those talks and calls for shared conservation efforts among basin states to avoid placing disproportionate burdens on Arizona.
Public safety proposals include addressing staffing shortages in correctional facilities, increasing oversight of state agencies, and strengthening accountability for violent offenders and probation violators. The plan also reiterates support for Second Amendment protections and public safety pension stability.
Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh criticized the current administration’s record, saying, “Arizonans deserve leadership that solves problems, not a wolf in sheep’s clothing who blocks solutions and hopes voters won’t notice.”
Additional priorities outlined in the plan include border security enforcement, election integrity measures, education policy, transportation and infrastructure investment, emergency preparedness, artificial intelligence safeguards, family court reform, veterans’ services, and oversight of agencies such as AHCCCS and the Department of Child Safety. Opening day of the second regular session of the 57th Legislature is scheduled for January 12, when many of the proposals are expected to be introduced.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
A new report from the Common Sense Institute (CSI) revealed a crisis in Arizona’s district public school system, marked by declining enrollment, expanding infrastructure, and misallocated resources that fail to serve students effectively.
Despite a 5% drop in district school enrollment since 2019, Arizona’s public-school districts have continued to expand facilities, increase capital spending by 67% to $8.9 billion, and boost transportation costs by 11.3% to $561.2 million, even as eligible bus riders plummeted by 45%.
As Arizona’s population surged, districts expanded, constructing thousands of school buildings, hiring teachers, and extending bus routes to accommodate a growing student body.
Since peaking in 2008 with 931,000 students, district school enrollment has steadily declined, dropping to 859,519 students by 2024—a 5% decline since 2019 alone.
According to the report, this trend is accelerating, driven by demographic shifts and changing parental preferences.
Arizona’s school-aged population (ages 5–17) shrank for the first time in 2022, with a loss of 30,000 children by 2023.
Meanwhile, school choice has reshaped the educational landscape with 40% of incoming kindergarteners now opting for charter or private schools, which operate with leaner facilities and no formal transportation systems.
In the meantime, Arizona’s district schools have doubled down on expansion. Since 2019, districts added 499 new buildings, increasing gross square footage by 3% to 148.6 million square feet—78 million square feet more than needed, enough to accommodate 630,000 additional students.
The fastest-shrinking districts have increased capital spending the most, with 20% of districts (serving 73% of students) receiving 81% of capital funding.
Math proficiency in Arizona’s district schools fell 25% since 2019, and English proficiency dropped 5%, according to NAEP assessments.
Staffing has grown by 1.5% to 108,330 employees, with teacher salaries rising 24.1% to $65,113, yet class sizes remain stable at 17.7 students per teacher.
Administrative staffing has surged 6.7% since 2019, outpacing classroom staff growth, but these investments have not translated into academic gains.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
One of President Trump’s most important campaign promises was to bring accountability and transparency to federal government spending. Under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), his administration didn’t waste any time getting to work.
Within weeks of Trump’s inauguration, DOGE had uncovered billions of dollars in waste and abuse of taxpayer funds under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Here are just a few of the ways the Trump administration discovered USAID was spending your tax dollars:
$1.5 million to “advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”
$2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala.
Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab.
$1 million to boost French-speaking LGBTQ groups in West and Central Africa through the State Department.
$15 million for condoms to the Taliban through USAID.
This list barely scratches the surface of the waste and abuse that was discovered. But now, it appears it’s not just the federal government that’s been throwing your money around to outlandish woke initiatives. Arizona may have its very own USAID scandal…
In a speech on the House floor earlier this week, Arizona Republican Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZ-01) blasted leftist activists and vandals who allegedly affixed a swastika to his wife’s Tesla.
Schweikert expressed exasperation speaking to the House saying, “It’s not, ‘Hey David, we’re concerned about Medicaid. Here are ideas for how you could deal with debt and deficits so we have the resources.’ No, because [instead], it’s this really high-brow intellectual conversation from our brothers and sisters on the other side: Stick Nazi things on people’s cars. This is what you’ve come down to? This is what’s going on?”
The congressman reflected that when his wife bought a Tesla a few years back, they were teased by fellow conservatives. Then, he excoriated the leftists resorting to “stick[ing] Nazi signs on people’s cars.”
“The wheels are coming off, and instead, the brain trust of some of these folks… okay, I accept that the tonal quality from some of the folks out of the White House isn’t warm and cuddly, but [is the answer really to] go around neighborhoods and offices and stick Nazi signs on people’s cars?“
The congressman, a well known critic of out-of-control government spending, explained, “Over the next 10 years, we’re going to spend $86 trillion. We’re talking about at best on the house budget resolution cutting $2 trillion over those 10 years. That’s 2.3%. Oh, god, dear heaven, you’re butchering government. 2.3%. You’re telling me if we didn’t grind through government, look at our programs, look at all the reports the GAO gives us of waste and fraud and programs that haven’t been authorized in decades, you couldn’t find 2.3%? But it’s easier to stick this sort of crap on my wife’s windshield than to do the intellectual work of saying, ‘I think we have more elegant ways to spend and make it better, faster, cheaper for the American people.’ No, we’d rather burn things down. Are we all proud of ourselves?”
As reported by the Fountain Hills Times, protesters marched on Schweikert’s Scottsdale District Office as recently as Sunday. Ten days prior, protesters delivered a petition to the Congressman’s office demanding he conduct a townhall meeting with 30 protesters holding signs outside of the building at Northsight Boulevard and Raintree Drive.
Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZ-01) raised an alarm about what he believes is the oncoming fiscal demise of the U.S. in a speech from the House floor.
Schweikert explained that a simple series of calculations “point to a shrinking labor force, and lack of young people in our society, and the reality that in 8 years, the United States will have MORE deaths than births,” citing the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
"The fact of the matter is, and @RayDalio said it himself, there's a shortage of borrowable money in the world. We've run out of global savings. Our goal is stability, not collapse." – Chairman @RepDavidhttps://t.co/2dkQCJcYIG
— Joint Economic Committee Republicans (@JECRepublicans) March 26, 2025
The congressman’s speech coincided with the release of a devastating report from the CBO, which warned that the federal government’s capacity to borrow through “extraordinary measures” will be exhausted by the end of August or September.
Speaking to the House, Schweikert laid out the dire projections of the CBO report, as well as the remarkable insufficiency of the metrics the government is using, in the face of three unassailable facts: “debt, deficits and demographics:“
“I’m going to walk you through just how dangerous the game we are playing right now, because when you look at these charts — and this is online. Go on C.B.O. from last Friday. It’s not a hard read. Why are my brothers and sisters so terrified to tell the truth to the public? You have a country that — and I’m going to show the charts, that in 7 1/2 years we have more deaths than births. You have a country that, when we get out of the extraordinary measures…remember right now we are borrowing from different funds because we are up against the debt ceiling, we may be borrowing almost $70,000 every second of every day. For those of you who turn to me and say, ‘David, I demand you balance the budget.’ I could do it tomorrow. Lets’ see…if I use the 2024 numbers for every dollar we took in tax collections, we spend $1.39.
“Tell me the 39 cents you want me to cut. And the problem with that math is that when you look at the charts, you see what’s in blue. That’s everything a member of Congress gets to vote on, defense and nondefense. The only problem is. it’s 26% of the spending. So, if you ask a member of Congress right now to balance the budget, we can do it, we can do it. Gotta get rid of all defense, all non-defense, discretionary. That’s basically the park service, the EPA, all the agencies. And then tell me what portion…because you have to pay your interest or you blow up the world economy.
“Tell me what portion of social security, medicare, medicaid, other things you want to hack away at. The reality of it is, in this fiscal year, our projection is…for every dollar we take in tax collections, we are going to spend functionally $1.36.
“Do you understand how screwed—excuse me, yeah that’s the technical economic term— how SCREWED WE ARE when we don’t tell the truth about the math?
“And it is not fixable, but it is possible to stabilize. We can stabilize this. We just have to think and do things that are hard. So often around here, the thinking part is complex and it’s hard and we have to go home and tell our constituents the truth about math.
But remember, the math will win. How many have you heard about how people are protesting and terrified there are going to be cuts? Ok, let’s actually have a moment of truth about math. This was baseline. Over the next 10 years, we are going to spend $86 trillion. Next 10 years, CBO baseline, we are going to spend $86 trillion. The reconciliation budget had $1.3 trillion in cuts, and if we get lucky, we’ll get to $2 trillion over 10 years on $86 trillion of spending.
That’s what the left over here is losing their minds over because they need something. They have lost the working middle class. They’ve lost so much, and American voters no longer trust them because the spent decades not telling them the truth about the math. And it’s not hard, except the problem is 30% of that is borrowed. 30% of that is borrowed. And people are losing their mind that we are trying to cut $2 trillion on $86 trillion of spending. That’s what this place has become. This place has become a clown show of math.
“Think about this. We are functioning and going to spend about $7 trillion this fiscal year. We’re going to take in about $5 trillion. And this is in a time when the economy is good. We’re not in a pandemic. We’re not in a war. We’re not in a recession. And understand when you take some of these charts of interest exposure into the future, one of my charts, it shows in nine budget years interest, just interest is over $2 trillion a year. Just interest. Why aren’t we running around terrified here? If you care about your retirement or someone that’s crazy like my wife and I, we are older parents. I have a 2 1/2-year-old and a 9-year-old. You do realize for my 2 1/2-year-old, when he turns like 24 or 23, 25, every tax in the United States has to have been doubled just to maintain baseline services. This is the morality of this place.
“The United States and other countries are binging on debt. The United States borrows about 40% of all the world capital that goes into sovereign loans. His argument is, your problem is, there’s not enough savings in the world. We are consuming more money. China, Europe, now Germany’s going into the debt markets as they’re raising their spending caps. What happens in a world when there’s a shortage of borrowable money? Remember, every day when we borrow, what, $6 billion a day, functionally that debt has to be sold. Most of it’s actually financed domestically. You know, it’s in this pension, it’s in this bank…And then foreigners, except the foreigners have been lowering their U.S. Debt because they’re having to finance their own governments. And you start to look at our interest payments, and there’s this concept called a term premium. When we make the bond markets nervous, we pay a higher interest rate.”
Congressman Schweikert summarized the fiscal nightmare scenario saying, “And you look at the next 10 years, it’s the point I’m trying to make. Is, ok, here’s the growth. 24% of the growth in spending over the next 10 years is interest. 31% of the growth of spending over the next 10 years is Social Security and disability. 28% of the growth of spending over the next 10 years is Medicare. Other mandatory and discretionary growth, about 13%. But a portion of that is actually you think defense and other things in that. The fact of the matter is your government is an insurance company with an army.”
