Gov. Doug Ducey indicated Tuesday he’s not obligated to follow the president’s guidance on when to reopen the state’s economy.

Ducey said in a wide-ranging press conference that people can expect to return to some sense of normalcy “as soon as possible” and that could be as soon as May 1, depending on some conditions.

That’s when his stay-at-home order issued in March is set to expire, but that could be extended or shortened depending on what public health data shows and the guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When that opening comes, it will come in stages, not all at once, Ducey said.

“As we get closer to that date, we will be tracking even more closely the data, and continuing to work with public health officials on what comes next,” Ducey said. “We also want to plan ahead and be ready for when the time comes to restart our economy.”

This comes after President Trump tweeted Monday that he had the “ultimate authority” to reopen states that have instituted “stay-a-home” orders, not governors. While Trump is aiming for April 30, Ducey said today that his goal isn’t based on what Trump is doing and that he will “make the best decision for Arizona.”

“When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total,” the president said at a press conference Monday when asked about plans by some governors to start reopening their economies.

“And that’s the way it’s got to be,” Trump continued. “It’s total. And the governors know that.”

Ducey said he understood that Trump was saying he was in charge of federal guidance, but Trump said the president’s “authority is total” and “governors know that.” Ducey also said he didn’t “see the need” to join coalitions formed by Democratic governors, groups which coordinate health care supplies and share best practices and plan to decide together on when to open the economy.

Opening the economy is something that’s on his mind “every day” and that there’s “no way we can continue like this forever,” Ducey said, which is why he’s working with the Arizona Commerce Authority and Arizona Office of Tourism to field input from the business community for an economic recovery plan. This comes as the state faces a gloomy projected budget shortfall of $1.1 billion and continues to lose at least $35 million in state tax revenue and $1.2 billion in visitor spending from tourism, a field that has lost 40 percent of its workers.

Ducey again stressed that balancing public health and economic interests is tough and that there’s nothing “magical” about May 1 but that he wants to be hopeful. Whatever the state decides to do will be based on current public health modeling data, some of which Department of Health Services Director Cara Christ said she and her department are working to release after they simplify it for the public.

It’s unclear how safe it would be for the state to reopen come May 1 because the state and nation can only rely on projections that change by the day. That date coincides with some projected peaks for COVID-19 cases, but Christ downplayed the significance of that.

Christ said different models show different peaks and it’s not the only thing the state relies on when making those decisions.

“We will continue to make the decisions based on what we’re seeing in Arizona, based on the health of our health care system, the number and the rise of the tests that we have,” Christ said.  “There’s a lot of different information that we’re looking at, and we’ll continually make those decisions.”

Those decisions range from if and when to reopen the state economy, whether Arizona could host Major League Baseball games with no crowds, something Ducey said he’s open to, and how the state conducts its elections.

Ducey also issued three new executive orders aiming to curb the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, two of which expanded on previous executive orders. The orders expand telemedicine to workers’ compensation, require hospitals to report more COVID-19 related data and revised job training requirements for caregivers.

To date, Ducey has signed 24 executive orders aimed to expand the state’s understanding of the virus with more data that better informs other orders that increase social and economic interventions — like increased social distancing, closing businesses and amending social programs — and when to reopen the economy. These orders are temporary, Ducey said.

“When we get on the other side of this pandemic and we will get there it’s just a matter of time, these orders and authorities evaporate,” Ducey said. “We will be getting as close and as back to normal or better than normal, but this decision making and authority comes with the job, and I’ve embraced it.”