Journalists’ Roundtable: Governor’s slush fund, APS bills and more

It’s Friday, which means it is time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Mary Jo Pitzl of “The Arizona Republic” and azcentral.com, Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services, and Jim Small of Arizona Mirror.

This week’s topics:

• Governor Hobbs’ slush fund
• Bills involving APS and utilities
• Other signings and vetoes
• Mayes vs. Farmers on Saudi water
• National Monument targeted
• Senator Gallego presidential buzz

On Governor Hobbs’ slush fund

Howie Fischer: “Now what’s true is, it is legal. They rewrote the law back in 2016 to say any sort of legal defense or legal funds can be contributed and not be disclosed. But for a Governor who promised to be the most accountable and most transparent when she was running for office, not a great look.”

Mary Jo Pitzl: “If you stick to the strict letter of the law, you’re good to go. I wanna know though what she’s worried about being sued on, what’s the need for the legal defense.”

Jim Small: “I think the optics are bad. And I think to Howie’s point, Hobb’s declarations that she was gonna run the most transparent administration as Governor, I think that this really does cut against that and kinda flies in the face of that. It raises all those questions about who is giving the money, what are they asking the Governor to do for them.”

On bill involving APS and utilities

Howie Fischer: “If you can sell off some of your debt, low-interest bonds, theoretically [it] makes a lower cost down the road for your ratepayers. The problems become that it takes some of the control out of the utility rates away from the Corporation Commision.”

Mary Jo Pitzl: “This was a real interesting bill, because at its unveiling at the first hearing, people were walking away holding their jaws in their hands saying my goodness this would give total immunity to a power utility if it’s sued for its power lines causing wildfires.”

Jim Small: “When the bill first came out, its initial version was just like complete immunity and inoculated utilities from having to bare responsibility for anything. Through lots of negotiation, bringing lots of people to the table, and I think a lot of compromise, I think the final bill is a result of a lot of that compromise. Obviously, a lot of people are still unhappy with it and view it as a gift to the utilities.”

On Senator Gallego presidential buzz

Mary Jo Pitzl: “I think he’s just spreading the word about policies that he believes in and that he’s gonna champion. But it is certainly widely being seen as him testing waters, this Senator of 4 or 5 months tenure. He’s got a great biography, he’s a latino, he’s younger, a lot of things a somewhat demoralized party could use a pickup.”

Howie Fischer: “He does, as Mary Jo says, have a good story. Is he prime time ready? No, but again, was Barack Obama primetime ready, and that’s the comparison.”

Jim Small: “You could drag out the Obama comparison out a little more. He [Gallego] gave what was a pretty well regarded speech at the DNC last year, that was what launched Obama from an Illinois senator onto the national scene.”