by Matthew Holloway | Jul 8, 2025 | Economy, News
By Matthew Holloway |
Although the causes are attributed to various factors by different sources, largely dependent on political leanings, one irrefutable fact emerged on Monday. During Governor Katie Hobbs’ tenure, Arizona has plunged from a ranking of 4th place in the nation in job growth, to 47th.
On Monday, Russ Wiles, writing for the Arizona Republic noted, “AZ no longer ranks near the top for job creation,” and asked rhetorically, “What went wrong?”
Citing figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Republic reported that Arizona now ranks in 47th place among the fifty states, just ahead of Massachusetts, West Virginia, and Iowa. The report cited a net loss of 1,900 jobs year-to-date in 2025.
In 2020, at the height of the first Trump Administration and under former Gov. Doug Ducey’s tenure, Arizona ranked third in the nation for economic momentum.
In 2019, the Phoenix Metro area even beat out the largest cities in California, Texas, and Florida to take the #1 slot for job growth.
More recently, in a March 2024 statement, Hobbs touted that Arizona ranked 4th in job growth, and tripled the national average in workforce growth. In the pronouncement, which has aged quite poorly, the governor even dubbed herself “Governor Katie Jobbs,” and credited the “81,800 jobs created,” to “investments in housing, healthcare, infrastructure, childcare, and education.”
Meanwhile, a Goldwater Institute op-ed in January, predicting an acrimonious budget battle that materialized over the next five months, pointed out Hobbs’ askew priorities. While the beleaguered Democrat focused on defeating Arizona’s popular Empowerment Scholarship Account program (ESA) and presided over a surge in crime, her failure to account for $800 million in statutorily required Medicaid spending and an affordable housing crisis represented “fiscal mismanagement at its worst.”
AZCentral’s Russ Wiles, in working to answer “What went wrong?” addressed one factor in the decline as “slowing migration, with fewer people moving here from other states,” which dovetails with the affordable housing issue and the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) rule cracking down on new developments.
Lee McPheters, director of the Economic Outlook Center for Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, noted to the outlet, “With domestic migration trending down and international migration dropping off a cliff in 2025, the impetus for population growth has diminished and undoubtedly plays a role here.”
In May, Goldwater launched a legal battle against the Hobbs administration over the ADWR’s controversial new rule imposing the requirement of a 100-year “unmet demand” groundwater supply rule across wide swaths of the state, essentially choking out new housing development.
In addition, as Wiles notes, construction employment has been further weakened by rising material costs, with overall job growth stunted by tariff uncertainty and high interest rates.
Large scale layoffs, such as Nikola Corp.’s 855 jobs lost to its February bankruptcy and Joann Fabrics’ layoffs of 374 employees in January, also factored in heavily. While not directly attributable to Hobbs’ actions, the losses drew a spotlight to a lack of decisive action from Hobbs to attract new employers to Arizona in the short term.
Another factor, unmarked by AZCentral however, has been the $1.6 billion deficit under Hobbs which forced budget cuts, including Department of Economic Security layoffs that directly contributed to the 1,900 net job loss. As Common Sense Institute of Arizona (CSIAZ) explained in June, rather than being caused by Arizona’s flat tax, the shortfall was caused by a massive increase in spending under Hobbs.
“If spending had followed historical trends, Arizona would have had a $4.3 billion surplus rather than a $1.6 billion cash shortfall last year,” CSIAZ wrote.
Hobbs’ vetoes could present the most egregious contribution she’s made. By vetoing 178 total bills in 2025, 73 in 2024, and 143 in 2023, totaling 424 to date, or approximately a third of all bills sent to her desk, Hobbs has prevented the implementation of a comprehensive policy for economic growth from either her administration or Republican leaders in the state legislature from materializing.
Ultimately, Hobbs’ unwillingness to work productively with Republican lawmakers and her active obstruction of legislation to reduce tax burdens, ease regulation, and stimulate job growth may have proven to be as prominent in Arizona economics as it has been in politics. And as prominent Democratic President Harry Truman famously said, “The buck stops here.”
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.
by Matthew Holloway | Nov 9, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
With Arizona’s Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs languishing at a 36% favorability rating and her efforts to flip the state legislature blue appearing to have failed, Arizona stands poised to hover in political limbo for the next two years. In effect, Hobbs, who has vetoed 216 bills since taking office, could now be a lame-duck governor.
In an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Hobbs confirmed her 216 vetoes to the host, proudly extolling the inaction of the log-jammed government in the most insulting terms possible.
“We have a legislature that is run by literal insurrectionists and indicted fake electors. And they didn’t get the message that voters wanted sanity over chaos, and so they kept sending extreme measures that I had to veto. But here’s the good news about our ballot. In addition to all the garbage that the legislature sent, we also had the chance to vote on a ballot measure to enshrine abortion in our state’s constitution.
Right now, the results of that are looking very good. So I’m optimistic about that passing and us being able to restore our rights here in Arizona. “
Dan Coulson of Citizens for Free Enterprise shared video of the moment on X writing, “In a really awkward interview, @KatieHobbs claims that Arizona Republicans ‘didn’t get the message’ from voters… Hobbs currently has a 36% approval rating and Republicans in the State Legislature expanded their majorities so I have no idea what the hell she’s talking about.”
Conservative Political Consultant Constantine Querard observed, “Among what Katie Hobbs calls ‘garbage’ that the Legislature sent to the ballot is border security, cracking down on those who traffic kids for sex, support for our police, and more. I see she’s in fine form as she launches Campaign 2026!”
As reported by AZCentral, unofficial election results showed Republicans poised to expand their advantage in the Arizona House. The State Senate also appears likely to remain in GOP control, as of this report.
Should these opposing forces in the legislative and executive branches of the Arizona government remain unchanged, then it is likely that even basic business of the government will be brutally fought, and no real reforms will be possible for either party, until the inevitable 2026 rematch for the Governor’s office.
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.
by Staff Reporter | Jul 5, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Governor Katie Hobbs’ high rate of vetoes in election-related legislation was featured in a new Ballotpedia report released this week.
That report also detailed the thousands of election-related bills considered nationwide, highlighting those passed and vetoed in Arizona specifically.
Arizona with its divided government saw the passage of three key election bills, and the veto of seven.
The digital nonprofit featured several key bills passed by the Arizona legislature this year: HB 2785, which modified the statewide primary date by one week; SB 1342, which provided compensation to political party designees for post-election audit hand counts, with a limit of 75 percent of those conducting the hand count from being members of the same political party; and HB 2482, which required county election officials to notify voters of registration record changes within 24 hours.
Ballotpedia also highlighted the seven bills vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs: SB 1060, allowing federal candidates to choose observers at polling centers; SB 1330, replacing the term “drop box” with “ballot box” or “container”; SB 1097, making school board races partisan; HB 2393, allowing for an alternative presidential preference election for overseas military voters; HB 2404, prohibiting county recorders from issuing voter registration cards to out-of-state addresses; HB 2612, prohibiting individuals convicted of ballot abuse offenses from holding elected public office; and HB 2031, reducing the threshold for asking voters to expand the board of supervisors from 150,000 to 125,000.
Hobbs’ vetoes pushed Arizona to the top in terms of highest vetoes nationwide.
Although Arizona was featured as one of the key states reviewed, the state didn’t make the top 10 for most active overall in passing bills. With the exception of Maryland and Virginia, all of these states had Republican trifectas. In order from most activity to least: Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, Idaho, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, South Dakota, and Maryland.
Arizona was, however, most active among the 10 states with divided governments.
In its report, Ballotpedia tallied the total of election-related legislation considered across Arizona and the rest of the nation: over 3,700 bills.
The nonprofit also noted that legislation topic or type was often determined by the political party leading the state. In Republican-led states, the election-related bills focused on ballot harvesting or collection, voter registration drives, noncitizen voting, or ranked-choice voting. In Democrat-led states, the bills focused on ballot curing for absentee or mail-in voting, voter suppression, and election disinformation or misinformation.
Bipartisan support existed for about eight percent of bills on topics such as voter list maintenance, protections for elections officials and workers, presidential electors, and voting by eligible but incarcerated individuals or felons.
States with a Republican trifecta and Republican or other sponsorship of the bills enacted the greatest majority of election-related legislation: 64 percent (196 bills). Democratic trifecta and Democratic or other sponsorship of the bills enacted 19 percent of the legislation (57 bills). “All other” totaled 17 percent (52 bills).
However, states with Democratic trifectas considered more changes to election laws than those states with Republican trifectas or divided governments. Ballotpedia noted that this was true for the third year in a row of their tracking history.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Jun 23, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
If it wasn’t already apparent, the Republican-led Arizona Legislature and the state’s Democrat chief executive will not be coming together anytime soon on measures pertaining to election integrity.
On Wednesday, Senator J.D. Mesnard issued a press release to announce that Governor Katie Hobbs had vetoed a number of his bills “aimed at increasing voter confidence, convenience, transparency and timeliness of election results.”
The bills Mesnard was referring to were SB 1595, SB 1596, and SB 1598. SB 1595 would have “prescribed additional requirements for an early ballot to be counted and valid, required a voter to present valid identification by the prescribed days after an election for a ballot that was delivered by a voter’s agents or a voter who does not provide sufficient identification, removed the requirement that the period of early voting must end at 5:00pm on the Friday preceding the election, and deemed the early ballot of a voter who is issued an early ballot during the early voting period after confirming identification and stamped as ready for tabulating.”
SB 1596 would have “required a state, county, city, town or school district office to provide sufficient space for use as a polling place for an election when requested by the officer in charge of elections.”
SB 1598 would have “allowed a candidate for federal office to designate a representative who may act as an observer at a counting center and prescribed requirements relating to the conduct of party representatives, challengers and observers.”
Senator Mesnard released a statement in conjunction with his release, saying, “To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. Elections are becoming more chaotic and more controversial in Arizona with each passing cycle. We’ve seen it take weeks, sometimes more than a month, to count ballots and determine the winners of races. Following the last election, I heard more complaints across the political spectrum about the length of time it takes Arizona to finish counting than I did any other issue, and it’s a problem we can easily solve. Ignoring these problems is a complete disservice to our voters who are taking their precious time to exercise their civic duty. We can’t just kick the can down the road every year. My proposals were commonsense, practical to implement and would have made a real difference in tackling some of the issues voters continue to complain about. I look forward to trying again to provide impactful election reform next session.”
The governor didn’t have much to add in her veto letters for the three bills. For SB 1595, she wrote, “This bill fails to meaningfully address the real challenges facing Arizona voters.” For SB 1596, Hobbs explained: “This bill creates an unfunded and untenable mandate for schools and communities. This bill once had an appropriation, demonstrating that it needs funding to be viable. However, it was not included in the budget, and as such, I cannot support it.” And for SB 1598, Hobbs stated, “As it is not clear what problem this bill is attempting to address or if any such problem exists, I cannot support it.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Apr 1, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
A push to protect Arizonans’ constitutional liberties for future health emergencies hit a dead end after clearing both chambers of the Arizona Legislature.
This week, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed SB 1250, which dealt with vaccine requirements and religious exemptions to those mandated medical shots. The governor’s veto was her 20th of the legislative session.
In a letter to President Warren Petersen on Thursday, the governor explained her reasoning for rejecting the legislature’s proposal: “This bill is unnecessary, as legal protections for an employee’s religious beliefs already exist in federal employment law. This bill also threatens employers with a civil penalty and a hefty fine, which could be devastating for Arizona’s many small businesses.”
Hobbs encouraged legislative leaders to “work to find bipartisan solutions that promote the educated and healthy workforce that is essential for Arizona’s economy.”
Senator Janae Shamp, the bill’s sponsor, was not pleased with the governor’s action, releasing the following statement in response: “I spent my entire career as a nurse, being an advocate for my patients and ensuring that their beliefs are respected and protected. The reason I’m here at the Senate, is because I was fired from my job as a nurse after refusing to get the experimental COVID-19 vaccine. My top priority is this bill because during the pandemic, Americans’ medical freedoms were taken from them, myself included. For me, the Governor’s veto is personal. Not just for me but for every Arizonan who lost their job in the same manner.”
Shamp also addressed the governor’s call for bipartisan solutions, saying, “To call out those who stood to protect our health from an experimental shot that is proving to be toxic for many, is beyond an insult. If we truly care about our healthcare and getting people back to work, then maybe we should come together to get nurses back into our hospitals.”
The senator promised “to continue to fight for Arizonans’ medical freedom.”
On Twitter, Senator Shamp went further, calling Governor Hobbs “an open medical tyrant.”
SB 1250 instituted these main provisions (among others) for state law:
– “Requires employers to allow employees that complete a religious exemption form to opt out of vaccination requirements for COVID-19, influenza A, influenza B, flu or any vaccine authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use only.”
– “Prohibits employers from discriminating against an employee regarding employment, wages or benefits based on vaccination status; and from inquiring into the veracity of an employee’s religious beliefs practices or observances to the extent beyond what is allowed under federal law.”
– “Allows a terminated employee who was not offered or was denied a vaccination religious exemption by their employer to file a complaint with the Attorney General.”
This legislation closely tracked an opinion request from former Senator Kelly Townsend to former Attorney General Mark Brnovich, which was answered on August 20, 2021. Townsend asked three questions, including whether an employer could require a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment. Brnovich, who had several lawsuits over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates (including the first one in the nation that was filed in Brnovich v. Biden), found that “under federal and state law, employers who mandate vaccinations must provide reasonable accommodations to employees who cannot obtain the COVID-19 vaccine due to a disability or a sincerely-held religious belief.”
Brnovich’s opinion also outlined that “a sincerely-held religious belief about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine includes a moral or ethical belief against receiving a COVID-19 vaccine that has the strength of a traditional religious view.” On the 2022 campaign trail, current Attorney General Kris Mayes was asked about forced vaccine mandates by private businesses and responded, “Of course they can. It is a private business.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
