Seven months into Trump’s return to office, the wreckage of the Biden administration continues to surface—especially in America’s transportation infrastructure. Previously, we highlighted the troubling impact of Pete Buttigieg’s tenure as Secretary of Transportation. His legacy of failure is becoming increasingly clear and public as new coverage reveals how his ideological grant programs, neglect of core responsibilities, and blatant mismanagement have damaged our economy, harmed communities, and sabotaged our personal freedoms.
As covered by the New York Post, Buttigieg, who was charged for four years to oversee the world’s most significant infrastructure network, instead made it his mission to “reimagine” the entire system, framing it as irredeemably racist and in need of dismantling as he famously told Al Sharpton in his “roads are racist” interview. Buttigieg funded his radical agenda through a series of state and local grants. Programs like “Reconnecting Communities” funded the removal of functional highways based on the claim they were originally designed to displace minority neighborhoods, even though those highways are used today by people of all races.
These weren’t transportation programs—they were anti-transportation programs. They prioritized “road diets,” bike lanes, and leveling roads in the name of equity while Americans sat in traffic and airports collapsed under system failures.
The AZ Free Enterprise Club was one of the only organizations sounding the alarm about the ideological hijacking of the USDOT which even despite mainstream knowledge of the corrosive teachings of critical race theory in k-12 education brought to light after COVID, seemed far-fetched to many. We documented how seemingly harmless programs like Vision Zero and the Safe Systems Approach—heavily funded through federal transportation grants—were actually vehicles for social engineering.
Now it is clear how thoroughly he indoctrinated the administration. While Buttigieg ignored the need to replace out of date air traffic control systems, he had plenty of time to spend appointing an equity advisory board. Buttigieg couldn’t be bothered with addressing the personnel staffing shortage at the Federal Aviation Administration, but had no problem finding the time to approve 400 DEI grants totaling over $80 Billion dollars.
Our organization flagged the anti-vehicle woke agenda that had seeped into every aspect of USDOT’s operations. It was clear that Buttigieg wasn’t about making travel easier for Americans – but a radical social and environmental paradigm that would have people limiting where and how much they travel.
The New York Post uncovered communications in which Buttigieg explicitly rejected modernizing air traffic control systems. His reasoning? Updating the systems would “just allow them to fly more planes,” and, as he told industry executives, “why would that be in [his] interest?”
In fact, Buttigieg’s radical agenda at USDOT influenced several transportation reforms spearheaded by our organization, including:
Legislation to Protect the freedom to move in Arizona, which would prohibit the taxing, tracking, and rationing of our vehicle miles traveled if passed by voters in 2026.
Bills to stop the integration of woke transportation jargon and other radical social justice ideas into local transportation planning.
Proposals to halt the deluge of road diets that served no other purpose than to make driving your car a miserable experience.
Thankfully, Pete Buttigieg is now far – though still not far enough – away from the important work being done at the US Department of Transportation. Under Secretary Sean Duffy, the agency has refreshingly abandoned nearly every endeavor championed by the previous administration. America’s infrastructure, and the freedom of mobility it protects, is finally back on track.
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This year, the tax cuts from the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 were set to expire. Failing to extend the cuts would have resulted in a 22% tax hike for the average taxpayer. For Arizonans, it would have meant an average tax increase of $2,824. And there would have been an even larger tax increase for Arizona small businesses. Thankfully, earlier this summer Congress finally passed Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), not only extending the personal income tax cuts from 2017 but making them permanent.
The OBBB also included several new tax provisions as well, such as no tax on tips and overtime, an increase in the standard deduction, full expensing and special depreciation for business, just to name a few. This assortment of changes to federal tax law now leaves states like Arizona with a big decision to make: provide partial conformity tax relief, full tax relief, or do nothing and provide no conformity tax relief at all.
This should be an easy choice, as choosing the non-conformity option would leave Arizona taxpayers with one big ugly tax bill to pay.
How big of a tax bill? According to nonpartisan budget analysts for the legislature, $425 million. That’s why the legislature and Governor Hobbs need to commit to full conformity tax relief as the starting point for the budget next session.
What does full conformity tax relief look like? At least $425 million in tax relief for Arizona taxpayers. Anything less is a tax increase on Arizona families and taxpayers.
Conforming to the tax relief provided by the OBBB doesn’t mean lawmakers need to align exactly to every provision of the OBBB. For example, the OBBB included a special new tax deduction designed to help seniors lower their social security tax bill, but Arizonans already are exempt from paying state taxes on social security.
As an alternative, Arizona lawmakers could instead adopt a reform introduced by Senator Mesnard last session that would allow for seniors to subtract their other retirement income (401ks and IRAs) from their taxable income up to the current standard deduction. It would even protect younger workers looking to save by extending this deduction to Roth accounts as well. Arizona should take full advantage of the opportunity provided by the OBBB and look to get out of the business of taxing our retirement savings.
Other provisions in the OBBB are critical for Arizona to adopt as well. The increased standard deduction, ending taxes on tips and rolling back taxes on overtime are just a few of the provisions that must be included in the conformity package. It makes little sense to provide this tax relief to hardworking taxpayers on the federal tax form, only to see it yanked away and taxed by the state.
The truth is that Arizonans have been overtaxed for decades, and the numbers prove it. Though 2021 brought a landmark, across the board tax cut for Arizonans with the adoption of the lowest flat tax rate in the country, no major tax cuts have been adopted since, and revenues are still nearly double what they were less than 10 years ago (as is spending).
President Trump and Congress delivered, preventing the potentially largest tax hike in generations by permanently cementing the 2017 tax cuts into law, and going even further. Now, Arizona lawmakers must deliver too, ensuring Arizonans get to enjoy the full benefits of the OBBB by fully conforming in an amount of at least $425 million, lest Arizona taxpayers foot the bill to fill the state coffers.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
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15 months. That is how much time we have left until Arizona can elect a new governor, and it couldn’t come soon enough.
Since taking office in 2023, Katie Hobbs has been a complete disaster. The heights of her corruption have certainly been well documented. From her illegal use of public resources to solicit money for her inauguration, to an alleged pay-to-play scheme between Hobbs and an Arizona group home that donated to her inauguration, to shelling out $700,000 to a company owned by the brother of the now-former Office of Tourism Director to create a new state logo, Hobbs has proven that the people of Arizona are her lowest priority. And there are no signs that will change any time soon.
In the latest reveal of her efforts to turn her office into a jobs program for her political friends, it was discovered that Hobbs handed out nearly $600,000 in taxpayer money to a former Democrat politician and her assistant for two newly created jobs. These just add to the long line of other phony baloney jobs Hobbs has created so that her buddies can get paid six-figure salaries to sit around and do nothing on your dime. In fact, just last year, she added six new jobs in the newly created Office of Resiliency (whatever that is), four new employees in the Office of Tribal Relations, and three new in-house attorneys, to name a few. All total, Hobbs has increased executive employment costs by over 50%!
With all these new government jobs, you would think Arizona must be leading the way in the nation for job creation, but no. It’s just the opposite. Since Hobbs became Governor of Arizona, our state has fallen from 4th in the nation for job growth to 47th. But what do you expect from a governor who has made it her top priority to attack educational freedom all while blowing a hole in the state’s budget?
The reality is that Katie Hobbs has had plenty of time and opportunities to ensure Arizona is headed in the right direction both economically and more. Instead, she’s been happy to serve as the ultimate obstructionist governor, spending all her time putting Arizona behind other states by blockading meaningful reforms.
In 2023, Hobbs broke Arizona’s veto record with 143 vetoes, blasting the previous record of 58 set in 2005 by another Democrat Governor, Janet Napolitano. But apparently, that was only scratching the surface. This year, Hobbs followed up with 178 vetoes. That’s 35 more than her own record two years ago and more than triple the amount of Napolitano in her record-setting year!
Surely, there must have been a good reason for these vetoes, right? Wrong.
Many of Hobbs’ vetoes this past legislative session were particularly egregious. Just take a look for yourself at this small sampling. In 2025, Hobbs:
Vetoed SB 1003, which would have protected women from using the same restroom as men in public schools.
Vetoed over a half dozen election integrity bills, including popular legislation (HB 2703) that would have ensured that Arizona gets election results on election night.
Vetoed HB 2099, which would have required state cooperation with ICE related to immigration enforcement.
Vetoed HB 2121 and HB 2122, which would have allowed Arizona to establish work requirements for SNAP (food stamps) and also prevented SNAP from being used to buy soda.
Vetoed a bill (HB 2867), which would have prohibited antisemitism from being taught in Arizona’s schools.
Hobbs vetoed parental rights bills, 2nd Amendment bills, water legislation, tax relief, and more. The list could go on and on and on. (You can see for yourself.)
It’s been a bad look for a governor who claimed to be seeking “common ground” with the legislature going into this year. That’s probably why she’s resorted to another attempt to buy votes with her latest stunt to “pay off medical debt.” But just like last time, it’s another one of her latest schemes that’s sure to end in controversy.
The people of Arizona are tired of it. They’re tired of the lies. They’re tired of the corruption. And they’re tired of being Katie Hobbs’ last priority.
It’s time for a new governor. November 2026 can’t come soon enough.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
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Following President Trump’s directive to scrub divisive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, practices, and language from public institutions, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Education (DOE) to ensure that schools comply with these requirements.
The Arizona DOE notified every school district and charter public school that they must submit a completed certification confirming compliance with the federal civil rights law. A public website was developed to track which districts and schools have completed the certification and which have not. Though the majority of schools are listed as “in compliance,” the question remains: have they all truly purged their websites and learning environments of DEI practices? A quick review and some basic research suggest that not all these schools are fully committed to the removal of this woke material.
Alhambra Elementary School District in Phoenix has a subcommittee titled “Culture, Conditions, & Climate” with a stated need to “increase its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion capacity to ensure it is an inclusive environment.” The district plans to achieve this by subjecting staff to DEI trainings designed to establish that these adults teaching your children become anti-racist activists.
Recently, Scottsdale Unified School District has been the center of controversy surrounding their adoption of new textbooks that teach about George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, and anti-law enforcement rhetoric. Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has spoken out against this anti-American, DEI-infested curriculum, emphasizing that schools must steer clear of promoting an “unbalanced political agenda.”
In Glendale, the Washington Elementary School District has published a “Statement of Commitment to Educational Equity,” in which it outlines how DEI principles are integrated into its educational framework.
In an application for federal charter school start-up grants for 2024-2028, Desert Sage High School in Tucson declares its commitment to “diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-bias education, and social justice.” Among its goals is increasing the percentage of Hispanic and Native American students—an effort aimed more at virtue signaling just to demonstrate how unbiased they really are.
And these are just the districts and schools that claim to comply with the federal civil rights law.
On the “Out of Compliance” list, the Flagstaff Unified School District website promotes an “Anti-Racism and Anti-Bias Advisory Committee” and Task Force. This Task Force’s job is to identify bias, racism, and inequity within the school district and recommend “solutions.” After they determined that the district’s staff was not diverse enough, they established a 10 percent diversity quota. Although the Task Force was originally created in 2020 as a six-month initiative, the hope was that the policies they put in place would have a lasting effect, meaning they eliminate racism—or the biggest problem: “whiteness.” In their 2020 report, a list of definitions includes the statement, “Whiteness gets in the way of our goals for educational equity and bias-free, anti-racist schools.” In other words, if you’re white, you are a problem. And the district plans to mandate other “anti-racism curriculum at all grade levels.” So apparently, even your six-year-old needs to understand how their “whiteness” is a barrier.
Kyrene School District in Tempe shares concerns similar to Flagstaff’s, namely the idea that even young kids are inherently racist, so they are kind enough to provide some helpful links on how to talk to kids about racism. The district hosts a whole page dedicated to “Equity in Education” and outlines its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The stated goal is to develop trainings for the purpose of “leveraging diversity” and promoting “cultural competency.” According to this page, inequity leads to opportunity and achievement gaps. Kyrene School District, which only consists of elementary and middle schools, is a textbook example of the toxic racist ideology Trump’s Executive Order is looking to quash.
The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) remains out of compliance with current federal law by maintaining an “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness (EDI)” page on their website. This shouldn’t surprise anyone given their longstanding history of thwarting anti-discrimination laws. Along with a DEI “Preamble,” their EDI page outlines a mission to pursue “desegregation” by eradicating the “manifestations of racism, discrimination, and prejudice.” This statement relates to TUSD’s mandated desegregation efforts from the 1970s ,which were only just deemed fulfilled in January of this year by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, releasing them from federal oversight. It would seem the district has exchanged one form of illegal discrimination for another.
At least these school districts were truthful in their refusal to certify compliance. Many that claim to be compliant are just lying. And this is only what can be found on their websites. If these districts are comfortable publicly advertising their illegal DEI pledges and racial quota programs, what more are they doing behind the scenes? These districts and schools need to be investigated and held to account.
Parents have been fighting these battles on their own for a long time, like the parents in Scottsdale and Deer Valley. The American people voted to stop progressive indoctrination in our public schools. That resistance will continue to happen until schools return to the pro-American, pro-Constitution institutions of edification they are designed to be.
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club will continue to actively monitor and report schools and districts to the Department of Justice for noncompliance with federal civil rights laws until all DEI programs are eliminated.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
Attorney General Kris Mayes has long fancied herself as a champion for ratepayers. After another round of rate hikes rolled in at the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), this time a proposed 14% increase by both APS and TEP, AG Mayes fired off a press release announcing that she will “vigorously oppose” these requests as “Arizona residents struggle to keep up with ever-increasing electricity bills.”
Setting aside the fact that the AG has little purview over ACC affairs, Mayes seems to think that her own time serving on the Commission back in the 2000s makes her uniquely qualified to stop what seems like an endless barrage of double-digit rate hikes by our public utilities. Unfortunately for ratepayers, having Kris Mayes involved will only pour fuel on the Net Zero fire currently raging at the Corporation Commission.
You see, Kris Mayes is the one that laid the foundation for the Green Scam rate hikes Arizonans are suffering through today. In fact, the biggest irony about having Kris Mayes jump into the rate hike fray is that it highlights the dangerous parallels between the Commission she served on in 2006 and the one that we have today.
Kris Mayes was actually appointed to the Corporation Commission as a Republican (even if in name only) by then-Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano. Despite an all-Republican commission (as we have today), Mayes was the leading voice for the original Green New Deal mandate. That first mandate, the Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff (REST), required 15 percent of all energy generation to be from renewable sources by 2025.
To meet the costs associated with the REST rules, the utilities received cost recovery from ratepayers to pay for these projects that accrued in the hundreds of millions. In 2012, there was another APS rate hike to cover, in part, the buildout of solar facilities, battery storage pilots, and transmission upgrades due to increased costs of integrating intermittent renewables on the grid. By 2019, the price tag for Mayes’ REST rules exceeded $1 billion, all paid for with rate hikes and fixed charges.
After Mayes’ departure from the Commission, she went to work as a lobbyist and consultant for the Green New Deal cabal. She even chaired the “Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona” campaign in 2017, an initiative measure bankrolled by California billionaire Tom Steyer to insert a clean energy mandate in the constitution.
So, after two decades of fighting for grid-crushing renewable mandates, you would think Kris Mayes would be ecstatic at the news that both APS and TEP have embraced her green agenda and have committed to go Net Zero by 2050. It’s exactly what she wanted—a carbon-free grid dependent on wind and solar to keep our A/C units running in the middle of summer.
Mayes should also be thanking the current Republican-controlled Commission for doubling down on her radical energy commitments. Just last year, the ACC approved integrated resource plans developed by APS and TEP that turbocharged her REST rules, putting Arizona on the path to having 90% of future energy generation come from renewables while closing all remaining coal generation by 2031.
But now, the bill for the green scam is coming due, and Kris Mayes wants to feign outrage at the rate hikes needed to fund it. Her plan is to blame the utilities and the Corporation Commission for the projected $42 billion this radical energy transition will cost ratepayers, even though they are implementing the plan she originally put together.
The green energy experiment in Arizona was never going to be cheap. What’s truly ironic is watching its architects pretend to be surprised by the cost.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
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