In her annual State of the State address, Gov. Katie Hobbs laid out what she called “the Arizona Promise,” highlighting affordable housing, child care, border security, reproductive freedom and water conservation as her priorities for the 2025 session.

Hobbs is midway through her term as governor and her reelection campaign will be top of mind as she and lawmakers attempt to make headway on some of the biggest issues in the state. But she will have to work alongside a Republican majority that was only strengthened during the November election. 

The governor said her focus in 2025 is “the Arizona promise.”

“The promise that everyday people can find opportunity, security and freedom,” Hobbs said. “The promise that through hard work and perseverance, you can build a good life for yourself and your family and leave your kids with a better tomorrow.”

Hobbs said that promise is slipping away, due to high living costs, attacks on freedoms and a lack of security.

“For too long, politicians have been focused on the wrong things – chasing headlines, playing

politics, and looking toward their next election or their next office rather than standing up for the

people we represent,” Hobbs said.

She pledged to work alongside Republicans to find bipartisan solutions to protect the border and conserve groundwater, but did not provide specific examples for policies she hopes to pass this session. However, she did caution that she would take action to protect groundwater if lawmakers are unable to pass legislation as they have been in years past. 

As for specific proposals, Hobbs said she plans to introduce the Working Families Child Care Act to lower child care costs by two-thirds, create the Homes for Heroes Fund to end veteran homelessness and extend the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

She also pledged to increase law enforcement pay by 5% and firefighter pay through her executive budget proposal, but did not mention funding for border law enforcement agencies that have asked for more money to enforce Proposition 314. 

Even after Arizonans voted to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution during the 2024 election, Hobbs said more needs to be done to protect reproductive freedom and called on lawmakers to pass legislation protecting contraception and fertility treatments. She said she will also advocate for the repeal of the state’s abortion reporting law, which requires clinics to provide data on abortion procedures. 

For the third year in a row, Hobbs called on lawmakers to reign in the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program and pledged to introduce reforms as part of her executive budget. She also emphasized the importance of reaching a compromise on Proposition 123, the education funding measure that will expire at the end of 2025.

Hobbs acknowledged that it will take bipartisan efforts to accomplish many of her ideas, and urged lawmakers to keep that in mind during the session.

“We know what is possible when we put our differences aside and do what’s right – no obstacle is too great and no divide is too wide to overcome,” Hobbs said. 

In addition to state lawmakers, Hobbs’ speech was attended by all statewide elected officials, members of the Arizona Supreme Court, the three public university presidents and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Karrin Taylor Robson. Robson is aiming to oust Hobbs in 2026 and Republican lawmakers will try to help her do just that this session. 

The speech was uneventful, met with polite applause and occasional standing ovations from the Democrats in the room. Republicans stood to applaud for law enforcement and military officers Hobbs recognized during her remarks, but shook their heads when Hobbs spoke about reforming ESAs. 

After the speech, newly-elected House Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Goodyear, said the governor’s speech was “out of touch” with the issues voters want lawmakers to address. 

“The governor spent millions of dollars trying to sell the same vision we’re hearing today, and the voters rejected it,” Montenegro said. “Not only rejected it, they increased Republican majorities. We made a commitment to Arizonans to focus on the areas where we have and we have to come through.”

The new House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos, D-Laveen, said after Hobbs’s speech that the governor was consistent with many caucus priorities. He specifically noted the governor’s plan to reduce child care costs by two-thirds.

“That’s going to be a gamechanger and we have to pass the Working Families Child Care Act. That’s going to be a top priority for House Democrats,” De Los Santos said. 

Republicans have been resistant to calls from Hobbs over her term as governor to reform the ESA program and De Los Santos said he expected more of the same opposition this session. 

“I’m not backing down,” De Los Santos said. “If Republicans want to be on the record spending taxpayer money on flat Earth curriculum, on luxury sewing machines – $10,000, – let them.”

In a video response to Hobbs’ speech, Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, and Senate President Pro Tempore T. J. Shope, R-Coolidge, criticized the governor’s proposals, claiming Democrats have been working for the past three years to undermine the freedom of Arizonans. The two lawmakers agreed with Hobbs that housing has grown more unaffordable but denounced the governor for pausing home construction to preserve groundwater. 

“Arizona knows how to conserve water right now, we have legislation to allow us to continue to grow and build homes while conserving water,” Shope said. 

The two lawmakers also pledged to support the Trump administration as it looks to secure the border and threatened to take Hobbs and any other elected leader to court if they interfered with those efforts. 

Hobbs will introduce her executive budget on Friday, which will provide more insight into her legislative agenda and how she plans to use state funds to achieve it.