Senate Republicans withdrew membership from Governor Katie Hobbs’ Water Policy Council, after recent actions from the Executive Forum they believe are “questionable and unethical” and an attempt to to disenfranchise farmers and ranchers from providing meaningful input on rural groundwater management.
In a letter sent on Friday to Hobbs, Majority Whip Sine Kerr, Chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy & Water, and now former member of the Council, shared her “disapproval” of the Governor’s Council. Kerr alleges that the Governor rejected “meaningful feedback and alternatives in order to pursue a predetermined outcome.”
Kerr claims the Governor’s goal is to “advance legislation proposed by a radical out-of-state environmental group seeking to upend Arizona’s agricultural sector, devastate small rural communities, and risk our state’s food security.”
“The Governor’s Water Policy Council is nothing more than a forum to rubberstamp the progressive environmental goals of special interest groups,” said Kerr. “Its ultimate objective has nothing to do with serving the best interests of our Arizona citizens and stakeholders who will be greatly impacted by any newly adopted groundwater management policy. The radical agenda being pushed has the potential to damage our economy and kill the livelihoods of our farmers and ranchers. Sadly, this community is not being provided with fair representation at the table. I’m incredibly disappointed in the Governor’s approach that seeks to alienate the voices of Arizona’s multi-generational land and water stewards. This extreme departure from Arizona’s historical, collaborative approach to water management favors her own political gains over sound policymaking. Had her approach been taken over the last forty years, we would not have the tools we have today under the Groundwater Management Act, or the major victories for water augmentation, conservation, reuse, recharge, and irrigation efficiency we have adopted at the Legislature in recent years. I plan to continue my work at the Legislature, in collaboration with the agriculture community, to adopt solutions on basin management issues that will benefit all Arizonans and help with continued efforts in securing our water future.”