DOOCEY-DO TRIFECTA 2022:

Yep it is 'historic' this 8th State-of-The-State Speech with the last chance to appear with Arizona State President Karen Fann and Head of The House Rusty Bowers.

Here's a report from Jeremy Duda doubling-down ahead of time in a phone interview last Friday

Ducey says education, water, border security will be top priorities for legislative session

Arizona must “learn to live with” COVID-19, he says

By: Jeremy Duda - January 7, 2022 5:05 pm

 

"Education, water and border security will be among the top agenda items Gov. Doug Ducey plans to highlight in his State of the State address on Monday, which will kick off his eighth and final legislative session. 

“I think this is going to be as big an agenda as we’ve ever put forward,” Ducey said during an Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry luncheon at Chase Field on Friday. . .Ducey rarely provides much advance notice on what will be in his State of the State address, and this year is no exception. But there are some major issues that he and the legislature will be forced to confront. . .[...] Ducey said he’ll release his budget plan on Friday, four days after his State of the State address, but wouldn’t comment further on whether he’ll support lifting the spending cap. 

The governor was also cagey about whether he’ll support a likely push to repeal-and-replace a billion-dollar income tax cut he signed last year in order to eliminate the possibility that voters will reject the plan in November. 

Ducey originally ran for governor in 2014 with a pledge to reduce Arizona’s income tax rate to as close to zero as possible. Last year, he was finally able to make good his mission to slash income taxes, reducing Arizona’s top rate to 2.98%, with a 2.5% flat rate for all Arizonans going into effect as soon as 2023 if state revenues hit certain benchmarks. 

But Democrats who opposed the tax cuts as a giveaway to the state’s wealthiest residents collected enough signatures to refer the law to the 2022 ballot, which would give voters an opportunity to overturn the cuts. 

Ducey wouldn’t comment on whether he supports the repeal-and-replace plan being pushed by Sen. J.D. Mesnard and Rep. Ben Toma, the legislative architects of the tax cut plan. He told the Arizona Mirror that he can’t control what comes out of the legislature and that he’ll work to “control the controllables.” . . .

> While Ducey wants to ensure that Arizona has no vaccine mandates or school closures due to COVID-19, he signaled that he has no plans to take action to curb the spread of the virus, despite surging numbers in Arizona and across the country.