Former Governor Doug Ducey officially handed over the governor’s office to the governor on Monday.

Ducey, 58, is the first Arizona to serve two four-year terms since Bruce Babbit resigned in 1987. During his eight-year tenure, Ducey presided over significant changes that will continue to affect the state.

As chief executive of the state, the governor signed into law conservative policies ranging from economic policy to education. Starting next year, Arizonans of all income levels will pay a flat 2.5% tax, and many families will receive taxpayer money to pay for their education. This is both the result of legislation backed by the governor.

Elsewhere, things have changed under Ducey’s feet since taking office in 2015.

The “Red for Ed” movement, which provoked teachers across the state to strike, ultimately led to teacher pay increases approved by the governor in 2018. President Donald Trump is almost unrecognizable from the state party that helped elect Ducey to a second term in the governor’s office.

April 10, 2018 Members of Arizona Educators United protest Gov. Doug Ducey during KTAR’s weekly interview. Dozens of teachers, students and other public education advocates marched outside as temperatures in Phoenix hit 100 degrees for the first time this year. (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)

Ducey often says he left the state “better than we found it” and always cites Arizona’s economy as a prime example of his success.

“He did a great job with the economy. There’s no question about that,” said Chuck Coughlin, a longtime Republican consultant. Specifically, Arizona is adding jobs not only in traditional areas such as housing construction and development, but also in various industries, especially high-tech manufacturing, Coughlin said.

New manufacturing projects include a battery and electric vehicle manufacturer with stores in Pinal County and a semiconductor manufacturing plant under construction in North Phoenix. In December, even President Joe Biden flew to Phoenix to celebrate chip factory progress.

When it comes to legislation, Ducey’s signature accomplishments came mostly near the end of his tenure, and they carry out a full range of conservative policy priorities.

In the final Congress of 2022, the governor signed a massive expansion of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account Program, better known as School Vouchers. The law removed eligibility requirements from the program and allowed any Arizona family to obtain state funds to cover their child’s education costs, including private school tuition.

Also last year, lawmakers put forward a billion-dollar package based on the governor’s vision to bring more water to the state. It’s desalination. A commission set up to manage more than $1 billion in investments (out of the state coffers over three years) has taken steps that could lead to financial support for a desalination plant in Sonora, Mexico. I am already teaching.

And in 2021, with the governor’s support, lawmakers passed the state’s historic flat tax.

These moves were made possible thanks to Arizona’s rising revenues and enviable budget surplus. In 2015, his first year in office, Ducey signed a budget of just $9 billion. In 2022, that amount has doubled to $18 billion, but it still includes provisions to replenish the state’s rainy day fund, which is now worth $1 billion. is exceeded.

The governor’s former chief of staff, Daniel Scarpinato, said the fiscal tightening in Ducey’s first year when the state faced a $700 million deficit paved the way for future spending packages. I believe that

“I don’t think we would be in a position to do all this today if it (the deficit) had dragged on,” Scarpinato said.

Tax cuts and voucher expansion were, as expected, partisan efforts, but the water project ended up with broad bipartisan support. In another area, public school funding, the governor’s legacy may still be controversial.

Ducey finally signed into law in 2018 that was intended to raise public school teacher salaries in the state by 20%, but Arizona is close to last in average teacher salaries nationally, with public schools The school’s class size has continued to increase in recent years. Scarpinato said the bottom line was that teachers got a big raise while Ducey was governor.

But Democratic strategist Stacey Pearson said Ducey shouldn’t be lauded for effectively restoring education funding cut by former Gov. Jan Brewer.

“Trying to make him celebrate that he’s the second-to-last or the third-to-last to die is ridiculous,” she said.

Another important piece of legislation Ducey signed into could have a counterintuitive impact.

Abortion Act 2022 (passed in anticipation of being overturned by the Supreme Court) Law vs. Wade) Banning abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, except for medical emergencies, may actually have the effect of easing abortion restrictions in Arizona. That’s because the Arizona Court of Appeals finally ruled. It’s the month the 15-week ban replaces more restrictive state laws dating back to the 19th century.

Outside of legislation, Ducey’s second term was largely defined by the Covid pandemic. Phoenix was one of the first cities to report a case of coronavirus in January 2020, and in March 2020 Ducey drastically shut down the state, including closing schools, restaurants, gyms and other businesses. Signed a series of emergency orders to close.

But lockdowns were abruptly lifted in May, and the virus began spreading rapidly across the state that summer. Hospitals are overwhelmed, thousands have died, but governors have resisted calls to impose health and safety measures such as face mask mandates that will hurt the state’s economy, and lockdowns will hit mental health claimed to give

By the time Ducey resigned, more than 30,000 Arizonans had died from Covid, and the state had the undesirable trait of having the highest per capita Covid death rate of any state.

After a press conference on November 29, 2016, Sonora Governors Claudia Pavlovich and Doug Ducey of Sonora, Mexico announced that Lucid Motors has agreed to open a plant in Casa Grande.

On border issues, Ducey, in some ways, brought a more restrained approach than his predecessor Brewer, who signed the controversial “Show me your papers” law, SB 1070. But he also took aggressive actions aimed at border security.

He started the “Border Strike Force” in 2015. This was a program intended to stop drug trafficking, but it was ultimately criticized for living up to its name. And in 2022, he began bussing immigrants into liberal cities on the East Coast and building border barriers of shipping containers without federal permission. Until the federal government gets a legal agreement to remove it.

Ducey had the good fortune to work with a Republican-dominated Congress during his tenure, but a small majority led to some conflicts. In his final legislative session, he signed a budget with bipartisan support in the form of increased funding for public schools after some far-right lawmakers refused to participate in Ducey’s budget plan. included concessions to Democrats in

The Arizona Supreme Court is, from left, Justices Bill Montgomery, John Lopez, Anne Scott Timmer (Deputy Chief), Robert Brutinell (Chairman), Clint Bollik, James Bean, and Kathryn King.

Ducey’s numerous judicial appointments, among other actions that will reverberate long after his departure, are that his decisions will shape how the state’s legal system will operate for years to come. It means that it is useful for

Most notably, he expanded the Arizona Supreme Court from five to seven judges, but argued that the move would not cram the courtroom. When he leaves office, his five of the judges are his Ducey appointees. (The other two were appointed by Brewer.)

Even when Ducey was still in office, judges were involved in securing some of his most important policy achievements.

In 2021, the Arizona Supreme Court effectively overturned voter-approved Proposition 208. The initiative was intended to raise taxes on high-income Arizonans to provide more funding for public education. (The Arizona Supreme Court remanded the case to first instance court, essentially with instructions to force the judge’s decision.) The signed flat tax program would have been significantly altered.

Compared to Brewer, who fought hard with Congress and waved his finger of disapproval when then-President Barack Obama visited Arizona, Ducey took a more low-key approach and chose not to pick many fights, at least publicly. I did.

For the most part, even Pearson, the governor’s critic, gave Ducey the credit.

“I may disagree with his policy, but the man did exactly what he set out to do…and he did it without scandal.

Still, it was a moment when Ducey clashed with the incumbent president and underscored the political shift underway during his tenure.

In 2020, he silenced a call from Trump when he proved the results of the Arizona election. and was part of a broader divide between Ducey and more far-right elements of the Republican Party.

One question that went unanswered when the governor’s office changed on Monday is what Ducey will do next. Although he has refused to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate, he has reportedly expressed interest in running the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. does not provide

Editor’s Note: This article was revised on January 9, 2023 to include a passage on the Covid pandemic.