Governor Katie Hobbs gave the annual State of the State speech on Monday at the opening of the 2025 legislative session. Her speech contained a considerable number of vague statements, including conservative sounding rhetoric, attacks on the Republican-controlled legislature, and a lengthy defense of abortion.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) and President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope (R-Florence) provided a rebuttal afterwards.
This description of Arizona was typical of Hobbs’ many vague lines: “A place where your children and grandchildren can triumph beyond our wildest imagination, a place where the promise of tomorrow is as fast as our blue skies and luminous as the Arizona sun.”
Hobbs frequently threw in conservative rhetoric, such as this volley: “Our cost of living is too high. People are working harder and struggling more. Our freedoms are under attack. Our sense of security has faltered.”
When speaking about border security, she also sounded like a Republican. Her theme was the “Arizona promise,” which “means if you immigrate to this country, follow the law, pay taxes and contribute to your community, the Arizona promise can be yours too.”
Hobbs’ rhetoric on this issue was similar to her former opponent in the gubernatorial race, Kari Lake. “Safe communities are a core pillar of the Arizona promise, and why I’ve made border security a top priority,” Hobbs said. She bragged about the National Guard on the border and seizures of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Shope responded, “When the governor promised to prioritize border security last year, her actions didn’t match her words. She vetoed our border bills.”
During an appearance two years ago on PBS, when asked if she would leave the troops on the border that were placed there by Governor Doug Ducey, Hobbs responded, “The border is a federal issue, and there’s been frustration that the feds haven’t stepped up. I think we have other priorities in our state that we need to direct our resources to.” Shortly after entering office, Hobbs proposed a budget that eliminated the Border Strike Force created by Ducey in 2015. As a state legislator, she voted against spending money on the Border Strike Force as part of a larger budget vote.
Hobbs praised Joe Biden for eliminating the Title 42 restrictions at the border. She voted against tougher penalties for criminal illegal immigrants and for sanctuary cities. She voted against the border wall, opposed filling in the holes, and “imagined no wall in Southern Arizona.”
Sounding again like a Republican, Hobbs spent a significant amount of time discussing how costs must come down for first time homebuyers.
In his response, Shope agreed, but pointed out that Hobbs caused much of the problem. “We agree with the governor,” he said. “The homeownership has become unaffordable for many Arizonans, but the executive mandate halting home construction in two of the most booming areas of the valley was completely irresponsible, and first time homebuyers are suffering the consequences of sky high prices.”
Hobbs went on a long rant about how the government should pay for childcare. She said she is introducing the “Working Families Child Care Act” to lower the cost of childcare by two-thirds. Four top Democratic leadership positions in the legislature were filled by progressives who were endorsed by the Working Families Party, which is closely tied to the Communist Party USA. Hobbs said nothing about having a parent at home to raise children.
Shope responded, “We’re working to return to the era where a family can be supported on a single income.”
Hobbs bragged about the semiconductor industry expanding in Arizona, and claimed the state’s Commerce Authority was necessary to accomplish it, although she did not explain how. That agency has come under criticism over the years for wasteful spending. In 2000, the alt fuel scandal rocked the state, becoming one of the top 10 scandals ever in Arizona.
The agency helped legislators draft the law, which was so lax that instead of costing the state $10 million, it ended up costing taxpayers over $200 million. The program provided tax breaks of up to $18,000 to purchase vehicles, but there was no requirement to use alternative fuels, only that there be few gallons of natural gas in a supplemental tank. The poorly drafted bill allowed Arizonans to use the tax breaks to buy luxury vehicles that they only filled up with regular gas, and enjoyed using the carpool lanes due to the alt fuels license plates.
Hobbs complained about public schools not getting enough funding, and said teachers need pay raises. However, whenever the legislature passes bills to provide more funding for teacher pay raises, the Democrats find ways to divert the money into administration or more school buildings.
In his response, Shope said Republicans intend to increase teacher pay above the national average.
Hobbs, who has opposed school choice, including Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs), criticized ESAs. “It means bringing overdue accountability to the ESA program that costs taxpayers nearly $1 billion every year. Do we finally put guardrails around ESAs to protect against fraud, waste and abuse, or do we continue to write a blank check with taxpayer money?” She said there are “virtually no safeguards” and she said she will institute “income caps” so fewer Arizonans can use them.
However, the Common Sense Institute reported on Arizona’s ESAs, “Compared to other public programs and given available data, the Arizona ESA program has experienced relatively low rates of misuse. A handful of high-profile cases appear to have disproportionately shaped public perceptions of the program. Most ESA participants are middle-income households receiving relatively modest scholarships.”
The group said that there are safeguards, and they are more onerous than those for comparable programs. “Generally, the accountability standards used to track expenditures of ESA funds are stricter and more onerous than those used in comparable programs. These additional accountability measures make the use of the ESA program more cumbersome for parents when compared to other programs, like a Tuition Tax Credit Scholarship administered by a School Tuition Organization.”
Arizona is ranked number one among the states for academic growth and charter schools. Matthew Ladner, director of the Arizona Center for Educational Opportunity, a researcher with the Arizona Charter Schools Association, and former vice president of research for the Goldwater Institute told The Arizona Sun Times in 2022, “If you had to choose between states with the most funding or states with the most academic growth, which one would you choose?” Ladner added that low-income students score better in Arizona than they do in any other state by large margins.
Again sounding like a Republican in her speech, Hobbs said, “The Arizona promise also means freedom, the freedom and the ability to make your own medical decisions and access the health care you need when you need it.” However, Hobbs has toed the Democratic Party line on COVID-19 restrictions and the COVID-19 vaccine. She rescinded an executive order from Ducey that classified any vaccine requirement by a county, city or other political subdivision as a Class 3 misdemeanor.
Hobbs devoted a considerable amount of her speech to praising the passage of Proposition 139, which legalizes abortion up until partial-birth abortion, similar to California’s abortion laws. Many believe there was fraud involved in passing it, since it received over 60 percent support while Prop. 314 also received over 60 percent. There was fraud involved in getting Prop. 139 on the ballot, in part caused by petition signature gatherers caught on video falsely telling voters abortion was illegal in the state.
Hobbs said she is pushing for legislation to provide a “right to contraception” and “access to fertility treatment,” but she didn’t explain how women don’t currently have a right to contraception or access to fertility treatment.
She denounced “this legislature’s lack of action on water security,” and spoke in broad generalities about water concerns.
Petersen responded, “We use the same amount of water today that we did 70 years ago, and we have 6 million more people today. Arizona knows how to conserve water right now, we have legislation to allow us to continue to grow and build homes while conserving water. Governor, sign our agri-urban bill. You vetoed it last year. Don’t make the same mistake twice.”
Hobbs referred to herself as middle class during her speech, but she earns $95,000 annually as governor. Her husband is described as a “reputed professor at UCLA” who began teaching as a law professor there in 2001. He was awarded the UCLA School of Law’s Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching and from 2010 to 2015, he was selected the UCLA School of Law Professor of the Year. The average salary a UCLA professor earns is around $226,360.
Watch the State of the State address:
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
