Hobbs Frames Second Term Around Arizona-First Solutions and Cost-of-Living Focus
In a recent op-ed published in the Arizona Daily Star, Governor Katie Hobbs laid out the foundational pillars of her second-term platform, arguing that the state’s most pressing challenges demand localized policy rather than what she characterizes as Washington-style division. The essay highlights a policy agenda centered on housing accessibility, public school funding, and long-term water security.
Hobbs anchors her governing philosophy in her working-class upbringing in Tempe, pointing to personal experiences that include relying on food stamps, working at Burger King, losing a home to foreclosure, and driving for Uber in 2016 to afford holiday gifts for her children. From that background, she pivots to an economic record that she argues has directly benefited working families across the state.
Tax Cuts, Prescription Costs, and Border Interventions
During her current term, Hobbs points to consecutive annual tax cuts for Arizona families, alongside measures to lower prescription drug prices and eliminate medical debt for nearly 700,000 residents. On public safety and border security, she notes that state efforts have intercepted more than 18 million fentanyl pills before they reached local communities. She also highlights her administration's role in repealing the state's 1864 total abortion ban—a statute that previously carried potential prison time for physicians.
Looking toward the next four years, the governor’s platform targets structural economic pressures, specifically housing costs and supply. “Owning a home is slipping further out of reach for too many Arizona families,” Hobbs writes, outlining a strategy to clear regulatory hurdles for starter homes while restricting out-of-state institutional investors from purchasing properties intended for local buyers.
Hobbs Proposes Public School Funding via State Land
Public education forms another major component of the second-term blueprint. Hobbs proposes utilizing state land assets to generate billions of dollars in new funding for public schools and to provide teacher salary increases without imposing additional tax burdens on residents.
At the same time, the administration aims to tighten oversight of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) entitlement program. Hobbs’s stated standard for the program is straightforward: funds designated for student education must be directed exclusively toward instructional needs rather than auxiliary consumer purchases.
Water Security and Rural Management
Water management remains a central pillar of the governor’s regional platform. Over the past four years, Hobbs points to actions taken to halt groundwater pumping by a foreign agricultural corporation utilizing local resources to export crops overseas. She is currently advancing a bipartisan proposal aimed at giving rural communities greater authority over local groundwater management to protect family farms.
“Arizona’s water security isn’t a Democratic or Republican issue—it’s an Arizona issue,” Hobbs writes, emphasizing that resource management must take precedence over ideological divisions as the state plans for its long-term future.
