Finally, when a bipartisan group of senators thrashed a ludicrous plan to split up Maricopa County, it raised a rarely seen sane head in the Arizona State Capitol.
Senator Jake Hoffman, like other members of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus he chairs, believes that these demonic overseers in Maricopa County (four of the five are Republicans) I’m sure you made a correction to the election.
His answer was to divide Maricopa County into four counties. Republicans run his three seats and Democrats run one seat.
Hoffman’s plan would raise property taxes in three of the four new counties, but that’s just the price he would have to pay for refusing to pay Donald Trump and Kari Lake.
As it turns out, it’s not.
Four Republican senators broke lockstep
As Republicans marched in almost unison on their way to the veto pit, four senators split on Tuesday, joining the Democrats to nullify Hoffman’s bill.
We lost 18-12.
“I will not vote for anything that quadruples the government,” said R-Phoenix Senator Steve Kaiser. Joining him were Republican Senator Frank Carroll of Sun City West, John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills and Ken Bennett of Prescott.
And just like that, our leaders, more flexible officials like Cochise County, who tried every way to get out of complying with state laws that require Republican overseers to prove the 2022 election. I’m tired of (part of) the dream of
After bad hand count:Supervisors are trying to change election administration
Hoffman is a Queen Creek Republican best known for his role as one of 11 fake electors who tried to hijack the Arizona vote after the 2020 presidential election.
And an internet troll farm he ran for months during the 2020 election that paid teenagers to post fake posts on social media about conservative issues and help Trump get re-elected. I posted an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory.
Hoffman’s firm, which paid more than $2 million to help Lake win the election last year, is the person to crush Governor Katie Hobbs’ appointee as chairman of the newly formed Senate nominating committee. There is also.
Hoffmann claims it’s about good governance
This is his second attempt to divide Maricopa County, which is the fourth largest county in the United States and is home to 65% of the state’s residents.
Then-Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers threw out last year’s bill. But Bowers was ousted by Republican voters last year for refusing to buy into his 2020 plan to overthrow democracy in Arizona.
His absence has resulted in a spurt of free-wheeling ideas within the legislature, many centered on the far-right’s desperate attempts to maintain its influence in a declining state.
it brings me Senate Bill 1137.
Hoffman argues that Maricopa County is simply too big and big to use his proposal not as a political reward or as a plan for future elections, but as a good government move.
“We have to be able to have a county that accurately reflects the area it represents,” he said. We can advocate a more representative solution.”
This is from the man who voted Tuesday to strip Phoenix and Tucson of their charter city status — these mini-constitutions that allow citizens to have more say in how their local governments operate.
The bill is courtesy of Senator Justin Wadsak (R-Tucson), who doesn’t like the way Tucson conducts elections.
In that case there is a cheaper solution
Governments closest to the people are all good until they piss off the state legislators who live there.
Or a group of state legislators trying to move Maricopa County leaders who rely on the law and evidence rather than the disinformation that has become the lifeblood of the conspiracy theory and MAGA movement.
If Hoffman’s goal was really to make the government more representative of the people, why simply divide the supervised area into smaller areas and create more areas?
Hoffman’s bill would have quadrupled the county government at a cost of at least $155 million a year.
Still, it probably wasn’t a bad deal for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley residents.
Legislative budget analysts predicted property taxes in newly formed counties in the Northeastern Valley would plummet given the region’s declining wealth and population. Meanwhile, the other three newly formed counties tax rate may increase.
But it was embraced Tuesday by the 12 Republican senators who backed the plan, seven of whom represented areas where tax increases were planned.
That’s the price they were willing to pay (their voters).
Who voted for SB 1137:
Below is a list of Republican senators who supported the division of Maricopa County into four new counties.
Sonny Borelli of Lake Havasu City, David Farnsworth of Mesa, David Gowan of Sierra Vista, Jake Hoffman of Queen Creek, Anthony Kahn of Glendale, Sign Kerr of Buckeye, JD Mesnard of Chandler, Wendy Rogers of Flagstaff, Janae of Surprise. Shamp, TJ Coolidge’s Shope, Tucson’s Justine Wadsack, and Gilbert’s Warren Petersen.
reach roberts laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.comFollow her on Twitter. @ Laurie Roberts.
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