Gov. Doug Ducey wrapped up his seventh legislative session leading the state of Arizona and reflected on what he considers the most successful session of his time serving as governor. 

It was also the third longest legislative session in state history, marred by Covid from the start and a partisan audit led by Republicans in the Senate toward the end. The session finally concluded with a Republican budget that received unanimous GOP support hours before the fiscal year came to an end.  

Ducey took the approach of keeping his head down and away from major controversies that he wasn’t the center of and pushed to complete a robust agenda that focused on the biggest tax cut ever for Arizonans. 

In an interview with Arizona Capitol Times on July 14, Ducey recommended staying tuned for his final year, hinting that another tax cut may be on the horizon so he can accomplish his Day One goal of shrinking the state’s income tax down to “as close to zero as possible.” 

Your office has called this session one of the most successful in recent memory. What do you think makes for a successful session? 

Well, I want to say that I believe this session will go down in history as the most successful legislative session of our administration. I mean, despite everything we had to overcome within the pandemic, the distractions, the national recession the Legislature really delivered for Arizona. I’m really grateful for their hard work and focus here. The Legislature passed a historic budget, and made significant investments across our state, all while delivering the largest tax cut in state history. 

Going through your seventh session, what do you look for when you’re trying to define success? 

You can go back to the State of the State, you can make a to-do list from that speech, and then you can check off everything that we were able to do this legislative session as completed. And what I talked about is just the tip of the iceberg. The budget was the cap on one of the most successful legislative sessions in recent memory. We’ve signed more Democrat bills this session than any time since I’ve been governor. We modernized the tribal state gaming compact amendment. We were the first state in the nation to sign a bill that expanded telehealth coverage around our state. We had a special session to address the threat of wildfires, which resulted in an investment of $100 million to combat and prevent them. And we expanded access to higher education by allowing community colleges to offer four-year degrees, and the list could go on.  

You’ve long said you want Arizona “as close to zero” as possible for the state’s income tax. You still have one session left, are you going to try to cut taxes even further and get them down to zero or was this your swan song? 

It’s not my swan song, stay tuned to what’s next. 

Can you offer any hints at what we can expect to be on your agenda come 2022? 

First, I think it’s important that we have this positive relationship with the Legislature, I couldn’t have gotten this done without the leadership in both the House and the Senate … Arizona’s economy is booming. New people and businesses are moving here every day. At the state level, this has resulted in record revenue so there’s going to be plenty that we can do. We’re going to take a little break here – take an afternoon off and reorganize for what’s possible in this final year, but I’m excited.  

Can you take me behind the scenes on what your job looked like when we hit June and the clock really started to tick with the fiscal year ending? 

First, I want to say, I’m grateful for the leadership in the Legislature. I’m also grateful for the incredibly talented senior staff that’s experienced and has been around the block several times on this, so there’s a relationship built on goodwill and trust. At the same time, it was June, the clock was ticking, and we were thinking through contingency plans, if we couldn’t get the best possible budget – what was their leeway? Thankfully, it took the entire session, it took all of June with just hours remaining, but everybody was able to come together and not only were we able to get the tax cut done, we were able to end the budget year with a $1.1 billion structural surplus and 203-plus million dollars in cash balance, and there’s monies for schools, universities, community colleges, public safety, new roads and bridges. 

Most of this legislative session was clouded by the Senate election audit that is still continuing to go on. You mentioned earlier that there were some distractions. Is that one of the distractions you were hinting at? 

No, it wasn’t. 

Do you think it was a distraction? 

I didn’t say that. No.  

What made you decide to just let the per diem bill become law rather than take a stance on it? 

It was a discussion and a back and forth with the chambers. It was their money that was affected and that was the path forward. 

What do you think it says about what you accomplished that there are two groups that are trying to undo what you guys did with veto referendums? 

What we did was protect Arizona. We wanted to keep Arizona competitive, attractive and dynamic. What’s happening in our economy has not happened by accident, but protects the backbone of our economy in terms of small businesses, and I can’t for the life of me, understand why somebody would want to take Arizona’s tax rate to the same rate as Bernie Sanders’ Vermont or Washington D.C., or New York state. That’s not why people are flocking to the state of Arizona. So, you would have to ask them why they’re doing that and why they would want to put a malignant cancer in terms of the top tier tax rate on our state’s economy. We’re gonna fight to protect Arizonans, and protect Arizona small businesses.