Dillon Rosenblatt//June 19, 2020//[read_meter]
Walking around the Executive Tower after a legislative session in a pandemic-filled world is a ghost town.
Arizona just hit 2,392 positive cases for a single day, the highest total by far to date, the barricades around the Capitol have been removed after more than a week and Gov. Doug Ducey – sans face mask – walks into a conference room that is decked out with sports memorabilia.
Not too long ago he and the Legislature wrapped up his sixth session, but easily the most unusual he or maybe any Arizona governor before him had witnessed.
Ducey signed 90 pieces of legislation in 2020 (one-third of which were either budget or continuation bills), the fewest since 1963, when then-Gov. Paul Fannin signed only 103 bills. That year, lawmakers filed just 562 bills, compared to the more than 1,600 they filed this year.
Most of this session was overshadowed by the pandemic, but what do you think was the most positive accomplishment of the year before that happened?
We started the year with the largest balance in the general fund – over a billion dollars; a billion dollars in the rainy day fund. I get a report every month that shows where state revenues are and the percentage increases, and I think mid-February, we had never had that high of a revenue collection with that large of an increase, and then COVID-19 hit and everything stopped momentarily. And then very quickly, everything changed.
So it’s hard to look at this year and accomplishments. This is about steering the state through the pandemic, doing everything we can to protect and promote public health and that’s really been the focus. Since that changed, the idea of moving a legislative session forward and putting the largest budget in state history into effect, it’s been 100% focus on public health.
At what point do you remember realizing the severity that this pandemic was going to take, especially on the rainy day fund?
The last time I was on a commercial flight was, I believe, the weekend of March 9, and I had flown back to Chicago to visit with a dear friend of mine, and it seemed like a relatively carefree weekend. Upon return, starting to see the effect nationally, internationally, and what we were going to potentially deal with in Arizona, everything seemed to change from that time in March going forward.
And then you issued a state of emergency two days later.
Yes. I mean [we were] aware of a case in late January, stood up an emergency operation center … Dr. Christ has been through Ebola, H1N1, measles – so same type of protocols in any potential spread of a disease like this. But it was that time in March that it became that this is going to be different.
You saw a lot of criticism from a niche part of the Republican caucus this year. How do you continue to work with those lawmakers knowing all of the criticism that they were trying to overturn your executive orders and trying to undo the things that you were doing?
Well, thanks for informing me. I’ve been focused on this and if you were to ask me, my relationship with the Legislature, I’d say we just completed the sixth year of a honeymoon relationship. There’s been criticism from both sides during this pandemic, that our decisions that have had to have been made, they haven’t been easy. I’ve done my best to make the best, most responsible decisions, given the facts and information in a situation that we’ve not seen in 100 years in this country.
But when members of your own party are practically leading the criticism – it’s almost expected from the opposite party – how do you move on from that?
Well, that’s what you signed up to do. I mean it’s the responsibility of leadership. I’ve made decisions, I’m going to live with those decisions. There’s more decisions in front of us, and there will be an agenda to move forward next year.
Do you have a specific group of legislators that you will go to first knowing that you’ve had a better working relationship with them?
I look at it when I’ve got an idea or something I want to move forward, that I’ve got to build a coalition to do that; and I think we’ve been pretty diverse in building that coalition. So I wouldn’t say there’s a cohort of somebody that I look to first. We find people that have some of the same passions we do around an issue – we’ll work with them to promote it.
Out of the legislation your office pushed this year that couldn’t find its way past the finish line, what can we expect to see again next year?
There won’t be a priority that falls off in terms of what we’d like to move forward. I will say that the world has changed and it’s changed for the foreseeable future. So if I were to set priorities right now, it would be first and foremost getting our arms around this public health crisis – and there’s more work to be done there. Two, making sure we navigate through in a way that protects our budget situation, and because of the difficult decisions we made over the previous six years, we’re in a position to do that. And then recovering jobs, and I believe Arizona has the opportunity to lead the nation in economic rebound and recovery. … So I would say there’s a shift in terms of the budget and policy agenda that you saw put forward on January 13, 2020, was one of abundance. The one that you’ll see put forward in January 2021 will be one of recovery and rebound.
So you’ve made it a point in every one of your State of the State speeches that you want to cut taxes. Given the financial uncertainty of what’s been going on with the pandemic, I’m curious if that’s still in the cards for next year.
Yes.
Looking ahead, there’s an important election coming up in November where it’s very possible Democrats could flip one or both chambers. How will you handle the possibility of that happening?
Well, first I’d say my priority is around the public health crisis. First and foremost with 100 percent focus on solving the problem to the best of our ability with the best policy and no politics. The second part is what we’re dealing with financially in the state. And the third part is, is the economy – what we’re so proud of, and what I believe we’ve got the opportunity to bring back faster than any other state.
With all that being said, there is an election. A lot of things have changed. A lot of things have been pushed back, but Election Day is still November 3 and I intend to have some say and in the outcomes. I want to deliver Arizona red. I think the policies that my administration has put forward have served the state well to date. It’s been a pleasure working with the Legislature – both parties in these houses. So what you’re suggesting is to be determined, but I will find a way to work with our Legislature, however it’s comprised. I’ve got good relationships on both sides of the aisle, and I suspect that will continue. And as the chief executive, you get to set the agenda and advocate for it, so regardless of what happens in terms of the way the chambers are comprised, that won’t change.
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