By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — Calling it a “problem-riddled agency,” a Republican senator wants to abolish the Arizona Commerce Authority.

Jake Hoffman says the agency has “ballooned into the epicenter for waste, mismanagement and luxury spending at a time when Arizonans are struggling in Democrats’ failing economy.” His legislation, Senate Bill 1044, would put the agency out of existence.

That measure, if it survives the legislative process, would meet with an almost certain veto.

Gov. Katie Hobbs praised the agency for its work during her State of the State address on Monday. And press aide Christian Slater called the authority “critical” to the state’s booming economy and the creation of “good-paying jobs for middle class Arizonans.”

But Hoffman doesn’t need for his measure to pass to achieve its goal.

The authority, like most state agencies, undergoes a periodic review. And it requires an affirmative vote of the Republican-controlled Legislature to continue, with Hobbs, a Democrat, urging lawmakers to extend its life for another eight years.

More to the point, if lawmakers do not approve an extension of the agency’s life, it automatically self-destructs at the end of June.

It’s not just Hobbs pushing lawmakers to keep the agency alive.

“I think it’s unfortunate that they have decided to do something like that, after what I established and how much it has generated in revenue for the state of Arizona,” said former Gov. Jan Brewer who worked with lawmakers to create the authority in 2011. And the former governor, a Republican, noted the move comes even as the state is currently running a deficit for not just the current fiscal year but for the new one that begins July 1.

And Danny Seiden, chief executive of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said his organization will oppose any effort to kill it.

Seiden credits the public-private partnership for helping rescue the state from the recession nearly two decades ago. He said the work it has done in promoting the state and attracting new businesses here has help diversify the Arizona economy and made it more resilient.

That success, Seiden said, has led to the fact Arizona leads every other state in the nation in foreign investment.

He pointed out the agency was created in 2011 at the behest of then-Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, to replace the old Arizona Department of Commerce. It continued to flourish with the backing of Doug Ducey, another Republican who took office in 2015.

But Seiden said that the ire of Hoffman — and 10 other GOP lawmakers — appears political.

“It seems to suggest that everything they don’t like about the ACA happened in the first year of Gov. Hobbs’ administration,” he told Capitol Media Services.

“That’s not true,” Seiden continued. “The ACA and the things they’ve identified they don’t like goes back to decades of Republican administrations as well.”

What make the issue ripe right now is a review of the agency last year by Auditor General Lindsey Perry.

Among her findings was that the Commerce Authority spent more than $2.4 million in taxpayer funds to wine and dine corporate CEOs and others at the Super Bowl and Waste Management Open over the past six years.

That included the agency spending $2.1 million sponsoring last year’s Super Bowl, a deal that came with 140 tickets for games and other events, most of which went to CEOs and business bigshots.

And Hobbs took some heat for a related report, related to the ACA, that she gave half of the dozen free tickets the Arizona Office of Tourism got for the game to top aides.

Hoffman, in a press release, called those “troubling, potentially illegal handouts under the Hobbs administration.”

But Seiden said that rewrites history about what have been called “CEO forums.”

“Those things started at the ... Super Bowl in 2015,” he said, saying Hoffman made “no mention of that.” And that, Seiden said, is selective.

“It does seem very much like a political jab at Gov. Hobbs,” he said. “And that’s unfortunate.”

More on point to the chamber’s interests, he said this is the “top job-killer bill” his organization ever has seen.

It’s not just that the agency would be gone if SB 1044 were to become law.

“It repeals all the programs — programs that people like Jake Hoffman have voted for,” Seiden said, various financial incentive to lure businesses here.

Most recently, he said, there was legislation last year that increased the amount of money that would be given to cities, towns and counties to reimburse them for any public infrastructure improvements, including water and sewer lines and roads, that they had constructed to benefit a manufacturing facility.

Seiden said that program is dependent on Sandra Watson, executive director of the Arizona Commerce Authority, determining which facilities are eligible. With the agency gone, he said, so is the reimbursement program.

The measure was approved by the Senate on a 21-9 margin, with Hoffman voting in favor.

And that’s just a piece of it.

The statutes Hoffman’s SB 1044 would repeal also eliminate all of the competitive funds that are available to companies that relocate or expand here. Also gone would be laws granting tax relief to computer data centers, the office that coordinates expansion of broadband, and various incentives ranging from producing motion pictures in Arizona to engaging in activities to promote healthy forests.

And Seiden said that Hoffman’s own legislative district has benefited from the activities of the Commerce Authority, including an announcement last year that LG Energy Solutions plans to invest $5.5 billion to build a battery complex in Queen Creek. One facility will manufacture batteries for electric vehicles while the other will construct batteries for energy storage systems.

“LG is here because of the Commerce Authority,” Seiden said.

He said there might be a legitimate debate about whether and what kind of growth Arizona needs.

“We can agree to disagree on that,” Seiden said. “But this attempt to just repeal it is irresponsible.”

Seiden said this legislation, which has 10 co-sponsors — all Republicans — also has political implications that will be noticed by businesses that support the kind of economic development the authority promotes.

“It turns the Democrats into the ones protecting jobs now,” he said, with the GOP “giving up all their classic Republican strongholds.”