Arizona will remain 15 counties, at least for the time being.
In an 18-12 vote on March 7, the state Senate rejected R-Queen Creek Senator Jake Hoffman’s proposal to divide Maricopa County into four parts.
SB 1137 divided Hohokam, Mogollon, and Oddam counties, leaving a small Maricopa county with about 1.7 million people compared to its current population of 4 million.
The vote is a setback for lawmakers like Hoffman, who argue Maricopa County, which already accounts for 65% of the state’s population, is too big.
But most legislators decided that the last thing Arizona needed was three governments, each with its own elected officials and employees.
“I will not vote for anything that quadruples the government,” said R-Phoenix Senator Steve Kaiser.
Kaiser said there are alternatives to more government.
At the heart of the matter is that county governments cannot be managed by five supervisors and one other elected official, including the sheriff, assessor, treasurer, registrar, and senior court clerk. , is too big.
“We are now in over 26 states,” Hoffman told colleagues in Maricopa County.
“We want a county that accurately reflects the area it represents, can advocate for solutions on water policy, is closer and more representative to the people it represents, and better represents its unique strategic needs. They have to be able to have their local challenges and priorities,” he said.
Kaiser said dividing the county into four separate parts isn’t the only way.
One, he said, would be to increase the number of supervisors. By definition, according to Kaiser, a small district is created, both geographically and in terms of population.
Also, smaller districts will require fewer signatures on petitions if residents want to bring back unresponsive supervisors, he said.
“It doesn’t create a new government,” Kaiser said.
The other, he said, is to make surrounding counties such as Pinal, Pima, Yuma, La Paz, Yavapai and Gila “eaten and shrink into Maricopa county.”
Kaiser said both ideas were proposed as amendments to SB 1137, and “both of those ideas were rejected.”
However, Hoffman was unsure of which was a better alternative than dividing Maricopa County into four parts.
And even though he told his colleagues he would often not admit that the county was too big to work effectively, he argued that existing county officials had no problem. He said he was there for political reasons.
“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’re put on the spot at a press conference, they repeat it,” Hoffman said, though he didn’t give an example. When asked about their ability to reach out in a timely manner, they laugh.”
The idea of dividing counties is not new.
Arizona, then a territory, formed its first county in 1864 with just four counties: Mojave, Pima, Yavapai, and Yuma.
When the state was established in 1912, it increased to 14, and after its separation 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.
But none of them have taken root.
