In Tuesday’s vote of 18-12, the Senate rejected Sen. Jake Hoffman’s (R-Queen Creek) proposal to create new Hohokam, Mogollon and O’Odum counties, cutting Maricopa County out of the current four counties by about 170. It was reduced to 10,000 counties. a million.

The vote is a setback for lawmakers like Hoffman, who argue Maricopa County, which accounts for 65% of the state’s population, is simply too big.

Most senators decided that the last thing Arizona needed was three more governments. Each government has its own set of elected officials and employees.

“I will not vote for anything that quadruples the government,” said R-Phoenix Senator Steve Kaiser.

County government is governed by five supervisors and one other elected official, including the sheriff, assessor, treasurer, registrar, and senior court clerk.

Of Maricopa County, Hoffman said, “There are now more than 26 states. We need to be able to have counties that accurately reflect the areas they represent and can advocate for solutions on water policy. They are more representative of the people they represent and are better able to represent the region’s unique strategic needs, challenges and priorities.

Kaiser said dividing the county into four separate parts isn’t the only way.

One, he said, is to increase the number of county commission supervisors. By definition, smaller districts will be created, both geographically and in terms of population, Kaiser said.

Smaller districts will require fewer signatures on petitions if residents want to bring back unresponsive supervisors, he added.

“It doesn’t create a new government,” Kaiser said.

The other is to have the surrounding counties such as Pinal, Pima, Yuma, La Paz, Yavapai, and Gila “eat into Maricopa County and shrink”.

Kaiser said both ideas were proposed as amendments to Hoffman’s Bill SB1137. “And both of those ideas were rejected,” he said.

However, Hoffman was unsure of which was a better alternative than dividing Maricopa County into four parts. He told his colleagues that there were political reasons for existing county officials to argue that there was no problem, he argued that counties were too large and often unable to do their job effectively. He said he would not admit that he could not.

“When there are some elected officials who are trying to keep their secrets and save a small kingdom, they will never say it,” he said.

“But when they are put on the spot at a press conference, they repeat it…in a quick and timely manner.”

The idea of ​​dividing counties is not new.

When Arizona was a territory, it formed its first counties in 1864 with four counties: Mojave, Pima, Yavapai, and Yuma. When the state was created in 1912, it increased to 14, and after splitting from Yuma County in 1983, La Paz ranked 15th.

There have been multiple efforts to divide Maricopa dating back at least 30 years, and there has been a major push to create what is now Red Mountain County from Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek and the surrounding areas. None of those efforts took hold.