Better luck next year?
Tucson officials made clear what they want from the Legislature ... But lawmakers don't always listen ... Questions remain about ballot measures.
Last week, we laid out what Tucson officials want state legislators to do next year. We invited Hank, a longtime legislative reporter at our sister newsletter the Arizona Agenda, to give Tucson’s wish list a hard look to see if any of it is likely to come to fruition.
The Tucson City Council recently crafted its wish list for the upcoming legislative session: a slate of progressive priorities like worker heat safety standards, rental assistance programs and prevailing wage laws.
But if history is any guide, the city will spend most of its energy playing defense at the Capitol again this year.
There’s a natural tension between city councils and state lawmakers in Arizona – lawmakers have repeatedly cut funding that cities rely on, while pushing more state costs onto them.
But the state Legislature has almost made a sport out of sticking it to Tucson, one of Arizona’s most liberal cities.
Not only is Tucson the butt of Republican jokes at the state Capitol about high taxes, poor infrastructure and liberal policies run amok – it’s also frequently the target of punitive legislation.
From attacks on school programs aimed at boosting outcomes for Latino students to trying to force Tucson to reform its elections to trying to stop Tucson’s efforts to curb gun sales, it seems that every year, lawmakers find a reason to pick on Tucson.
And with Republicans’ newly thickened margins in the state House and Senate, we expect this year will be no different.
Across Arizona, city leaders are figuring out what they want to ask their local lawmakers to do on their behalf when the bills start flying on January 13.
For conservative city councils who have good relationships with their local lawmakers, it’s time to draft a wish list. For cities like Tucson, it’s time to start assessing threats.
Last week, members of the city council heard from their new lobbyist, former House Democratic leader Andrés Cano, a Tucson native who quit the Legislature in 2023 to pursue a one-year master’s program at Harvard.
And while few of the city’s priorities are shared with the Republican majority, the divide between Tucson’s wants and the Republican agenda in Phoenix is stark.
Tucson’s proposals reflect the council’s progressive values, such as increased funding for affordable housing, expanded renewable energy incentives, and stronger environmental protections.
It goes without saying that many of the council members’ asks, like reversing former Gov. Doug Ducey’s tax cuts, appear dead on arrival with the conservative majority.
A few exceptions may include the city’s ask for more focus on workforce development programs like small business incentives and funding for apprenticeship programs, or more equipment and technology for first responders.
The city’s legislative agenda also contains a few new ideas, like promoting AI-driven technologies to improve public services.
“It’s here – we're using it, and so are adversaries,” City Council Member Nikki Lee said of artificial intelligence during the council discussion. “So I'm really hopeful that the Legislature will make this a priority and balance the need for innovation with the need to protect infrastructure and privacy.”
Still, in many ways, the city’s 2025 legislative agenda looks much like the 2024 and 2023 versions. Most of the city’s priorities in the upcoming legislative session are old gripes.
City council members still want more local control and autonomy from lawmakers, including by asking them to back off of mandates on local governments, or at least to help pay for the mandates the lawmakers put on cities and counties.
They’re also still fighting to restore funds that were cut more than a decade ago, including road funds that lawmakers started diverting away from cities and counties during the Great Recession.
At the Capitol, Tucson is mostly on the defensive.
A quick look at the city’s lobbying efforts shows that out of more than 1,700 pieces of legislation introduced last year, Tucson only supported one bill.
Its lobbyist opposed 13 measures.
We know cool stats like these because we built Skywolf, an AI-powered legislation tracking service for political professionals. If your organization or company needs to know the latest about the bills in Phoenix this year, let us give you a tour of Skywolf.
About a third of the bills Tucson opposed were aimed at increasing the housing supply by prohibiting cities from imposing various regulations and zoning restrictions. Another third dealt with attacks on immigrants or the LGBTQ+ community.
Those are all still red lines for the council, which notes in its policy agenda that it will oppose anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, as well as any attempts to cut education funding or curtail reproductive healthcare.
The city also had to fend off a few Tucson-specific attacks last year, including a bill from outgoing Tucson-area Republican Sen. Justine Wadsack aimed at stopping the city from requiring background checks for gun sales.
Despite the City of Tucson's opposition, the bill passed through the House and Senate without a single Republican dissenter.
But while Tucson’s opposition couldn’t stop the bill, Gov. Katie Hobbs’ veto did.1
Immigration plans: Now that Arizona voters approved Prop 314, the border ballot measure, and President-elect Donald Trump is promising mass deportations, how do local officials plan to deal with immigration laws? Tucson police say they won’t detain anybody solely for suspected immigration violations, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero says she’ll fight “hate and racist laws,” and Sheriff Chris Nanos says his deputies won’t participate in immigration enforcement, the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel reports.
Asking for clarification: County Treasurer-elect Brian Johnson says he won’t authorize any payments under Prop 312 until a legal process has been set, the Tucson Sentinel’s Natalie Robbins reports. The measure, approved by Arizona voters this month, allows property owners to get refunds on their property taxes if local officials don’t enforce public nuisance laws. But the Pima County supervisors don’t know how it would work, and the Legislature still has to figure out the process.
Also asking for clarification: After voters approved an abortion-rights ballot measure this month, the stage is set for legal battles over state laws that are already on the books, but conflict with the ballot measure and could complicate decisions for doctors, like the 15-week abortion ban, the Associated Press’ Sejal Govindarao and Gabriel Sandoval report.
Heading to the courtroom: For decades, the states that use water from the Colorado River have tried to avoid litigation, but that tradition could end soon, the Star’s Tony Davis reports. A recent meeting in Phoenix showed the seven states, including Arizona, are not making enough headway with negotiations as a water shortage looms on the horizon.
Drones to the rescue: Three Points residents are using drones to find garbage piles in the desert, the result of illegal dumping, KOLD’s Raya Torres reports. The UAV Trash Hunters say they’re frustrated by “silly” and “lazy” people who won’t take their trash to the dump. And they’re getting requests from other communities in Pima County to find and clean up garbage.
Taking stock: Pima County officials are seeing some success with a transition center at the jail. The Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington breaks down how the center works, how the county is spending the roughly $1 million annually in federal dollars on the center, and the challenges ahead.
3 hours, 30 minutes: The record-breaking time Tyler Stites needed to finish the 102-mile El Tour de Tucson.
Lawmakers passed seven bills that Tucson opposed. Hobbs vetoed four of those seven.