PHOENIX โ The 2023 legislative session gets started Monday, Jan. 9, with perhaps the worst-kept political secret: Republican lawmakers are going to send bills to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs even knowing ahead of time she will veto them.
The frank admission by the top GOP lawmakers in both chambers came Friday as they and their Democratic counterparts gave a brief overview of the upcoming session at a luncheon hosted by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
โWe want to try to work with the governor,โโ said incoming Senate President Warren Petersen. And the Gilbert Republican said he had set a record several years ago as the lawmaker who got the highest percentage of his bills signed by the governor.
Petersen said every lawmaker has the same goal.
โHow you have a high percentage of bills passed is you look at the landscape, you look at the legislators, you look at the chairs (of the committees through which the bills have to pass),โโ he said. And that calculus, Petersen said, includes the governor.
His record, however, was set when fellow Republican Doug Ducey was the stateโs chief executive.
Now that situation has changed. But Petersen said that wonโt affect the decision whether to transmit bills to the governor.
โThere may be some bills that you do know that are going to get vetoed,โโ he said.
โI wouldnโt imagine there would be a million of those or a huge block of those,โโ Petersen continued. โBut those may be important to advance your cause.โโ
Ben Toma of Peoria, set to be installed as House speaker, agreed.
โI guess Iโm stating the obvious at some point here,โโ he said. โBut there will be bills that are going to be important for our caucus to get on the governorโs desk that are going to be important for her probably to veto.โโ
What it comes down to, Toma said, is that Republicans and Democrats just donโt see things some things the same way.
โIt just highlights the difference of opinion on what is best for the state,โโ he said.
Neither GOP leader gave specific examples of what issues they are likely to advance even anticipating Hobbsโ rejection.
The confession of sorts came as no surprise to Murphy Hebert who is in charge of communications for the new governor.
โIt seems to be how it works,โโ she said. But Hebert also said that lawmakers should not be surprised when those bills come back.
โGovernor Hobbs has made it very clear sheโs willing to use the veto stamp,โโ she said.
And not just any veto stamp.
Hobbs was given a veto stamp that once belonged to Janet Napolitano, the last Democrat to hold office, which apparently had been kept by one of the former governorโs aides. And he, in turn, presented it to Hobbs.
It comes somewhat used.
In her six years as governor โ she quit in early 2009 to become Homeland Security secretary in the Obama administration โ Napolitano vetoed 180 of the measures sent to her, including a record 58 in 2005 alone.
Contractors remove former Gov. Doug Duceyโs barrier from the Coronado National Forest. The unauthorized project cost taxpayers more than $100 million to install and remove.ย
