(upbeat music) - [Lorraine] Governor Ducey on his response to the pandemic and views on bridging political divides.

- And I think we should focus on a peaceful transition of power on January 20th.

- [Lorraine] Plus state lawmakers on their priorities for this legislative session.

- A lot of these issues should not be partisan, so we have made the commitment to work together.

- [Lorraine] And looking at the impacts of major infrastructure projects in Tucson.

- Our daytime business is pretty much evaporated.

- Hello and welcome to Arizona 360, I'm Lorraine Rivera.

Thanks so much for joining us.

State lawmakers returned to the Capitol this week with a pandemic and political turmoil weighing on the new legislative session.

Both issues featured prominently in Governor Ducey's State of the State address.

Speaking for just over 20 minutes from his office, rather than the Arizona House floor.

- We would have preferred, our usual State of the State proceedings but like so many other recent plans, it wasn't in the cards.

- [Lorraine] Governor Ducey's State of the State address began with an acknowledgement of the deadly riot at the U.S Capitol.

- It was a sickening day in Washington DC that no American will ever forget.

And Arizona will do its part to bind up the nation's wounds.

- [Lorraine] From there, he pivoted to the pandemic calling it the most significant threat, a statement underscored by the fact that the day of his address hospitals reported treating more than 5,000 COVID patients, a record amount.

Arizona's infection rate remains one of the nation's highest.

In his speech, Ducey focused on expanding vaccinations to curb the spread and defended his decision to not issue new restrictions in response to the surge.

- There are lots of men and women who don't have the option of remote work.

- [Lorraine] Other priorities outlined in his address included reopening schools.

- We will not be funding empty seats or allowing schools to remain in a perpetual state of closure.

- [Lorraine] Ducey ended his annual address with a message of support for frontline workers and a call for Arizonans to do their part.

- Following public health, wearing a mask and practicing personal responsibility - Days following the governor's speech, I sat down with him to discuss his approach to the challenges ahead.

A lot of people think you haven't done enough and I know this week in your State of the State, you defended that.

So you can give us some idea of how you've made these difficult decisions you've had to face here.

- Well, every decision I've made has been in consultation with public health experts, both at the state level and at the federal level.

I think sometimes there's some misinformation out there.

You hear people saying that we've done too much, you hear people saying that we haven't done enough.

I mean, having our restaurants at 50% capacity, our gyms at 25% capacity, our bars are closed unless they've converted into restaurants, nearly every part of the state is wearing a mask.

- Do you share some of that responsibility with some of the decisions you've made here over the last 11 months or so?

- Well, these have been my decisions and I take responsibility for all of the decisions that we've made.

We're doing our best through an incredibly challenging time that all 50 States and nearly every country around the world is in right now.

- Depending on the report or the day Arizona does not farewell in the country.

In one case, there was a report that Arizona didn't look well in the worldwide picture.

What have you been able to learn about why it's so bad here?

- Well, I would really push back on that depending on the day.

Depending on the day, this week it may be because we're at the height of our surge.

When the pandemic was beginning, February, March, April and May we weren't on anybody's list in terms of having issues.

We hit triple digits in late June, people came inside and there was widespread spread of the virus.

And we've taken actions to break up every large public event from spring training to Major League Baseball to National League Football.

All of those things, the gatherings that we've had in mass settings are where the biggest problems can happen.

Then from June all the way until the last several weeks we've been very slow or low in terms of transmission.

And yes, we did say there'd be a second surge in the fall, that's why we asked people to get flu shots.

We were talking about flu shots in August in anticipation of this and right now we're at the maximum challenge.

- This week, Arizona's first 24/7 vaccination site opened at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.

The governor says it will soon have the ability to distribute 12,000 doses a day.

Statewide more than 170,000 Arizonans have received the vaccine, with adults 65 and up expected to become eligible next week.

In addition to healthcare workers, many counties have already started vaccinating law enforcement and teachers.

Let's say a teacher, philosophically disagrees with a vaccine, it could be left up up to districts.

Will you have any say in that conversation?

- I'll leave it to the leaders at the local level on how they're gonna work with teachers that refuse to do things as we have solutions.

But what's most important to me are our kids and our children and that they're back in a classroom learning and getting caught up.

They've fallen behind.

- One of the criticisms you face in your State of the State was not offering enough details and more money for education.

You're hard pressed find someone who would disagree with that.

Will there be dollars in the budget this year that make up for...

I mean, 20 by 2020 is over now.

- 20 by 2020 isn't over, 20 by 2020 has been completed.

And yes, we've put more money into education every year I've been governor because we have a growing state.

We've put more money into education during the pandemic but we are not gonna be funding empty seats where parents do not wanna send their children to school because they've remained in a perpetual state of closure.

- And you raised a lot of eyebrows when you said that.

So can you clarify, you're saying those tax dollars will follow the child wherever they go, if it's a online school or a parochial school or charter?

- No, they're going to follow the child in a public institution.

So public charter schools would be an example.

There have been other opportunities that have been unique and innovative things that parents have been able to take advantage of, I wanna see the dollars follow there.

When schools are open and children are sitting in the seats those children are gonna be funded.

- Are there plans in place if there aren't qualified teachers to be in front of those students?

I mean, one survey shows that more than 700 teachers have left their district this year.

- Well, we have the Arizona Teachers Academy of course, we've also cleared the obstacles for people of accreditation and experience to go inside classrooms so that they can be hired.

And we're gonna continue to do that that you could be interviewing 48 other governors around the country that are suffering a teacher shortage.

We've done as much or more than any other state to help close that gap and we need to do even more.

- I've talked to a handful of lawmakers and they're hopeful that this is gonna be the year the state dips into the budget surplus.

Some reports that it's more than billion dollars.

Do you see the need for that this year given the public health emergency we're in?

- Well first I'd have to ask any lawmaker that wants to dip into a surplus what that even means, I mean, we're here to do the people's work.

And top of the list is of course always public education but we have public safety, we have child safety, we have Child Protective Services.

We have all kinds of issues and things that are happening in our state.

So I'd like to look at those as the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars that have been brought into the state through proper tax collection and we're gonna apply them where the needs are highest.

- I wanna talk about unity.

You brought it up at the very top of your State of the State, it's important to you.

There are state legislators who are not wearing a mask, they're deciding whether or not they should vote in-person.

How do you bring them together during these times?

- Well first, I always start with the leadership of the caucuses.

I sat down with Speaker Rusty Bowers and President Karen Fann, leaders Rebecca Rios and Reginald Bolding, Democrats and Republicans.

We all had a mask on, I'm encouraging people to wear a mask, I think they should wear a mask I think it's the best way to protect your family.

And if someone insists or desires that you have a mask on in their presence and you can't socially distance I think it's the only responsible and polite thing to do.

- What if those lawmakers come to you and say let's have a mask mandate or a curfew or a lockdown.

Would you sign it?

- Well, first I wanna say I'm gonna do whatever I think is in the best interest of the people of Arizona.

Our citizens have been terrific in terms of wearing a mask.

Not only does 90% plus of our state have those mask protocols in place but independent websites say that we're much above that in terms of mass participation.

So to me, this isn't about mandates, it's about personal responsibility and part of that's that public service education.

In terms of lockdowns, lockdowns don't work they're not working anywhere they're being conducted.

- We then turned to the violent incursion on Capitol Hill.

Our conversation took place moments before the U.S house impeached President Trump a second time for his role in the events.

There are Arizonans who support him and are questioning the integrity of the election.

What do you tell them about moving forward?

- Well, I supported President Trump as well.

The people have spoken, the votes have been counted.

They've been tabulated, they've been certified, not only at the County level but also at the State level and now at the congressional level.

So elections have consequences, President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in next week I intend to be there, in attendance at inauguration.

Of course there's always circumstances on the ground here that could keep me here.

But many of the things that we as Republicans or conservatives are things that I'll continue to advocate for.

Of course I wanna find everything that's possible under the sun, this will be my third president as governor and I wanna find the things that we can work on together.

That will be the spirit that I'll bring going forward.

We have to accept the results of the election and then move forward.

- As we know what's happening in Washington, there's an attempt to impeach the president.

Are you disappointed with the way things occurred in these last few weeks?

- Terribly disappointed.

- With the president?

- I said that it was a sickening day in Washington DC.

- What about your relationship with the president?

I mean, are you disappointed with how things unraveled last week?

Do you blame him?

- I think what happened before November 3rd and what happened after November 3rd is a different story.

I think he bears responsibility in what has happened at our nation's capitol.

And I think we should focus on a peaceful transition of power on January 20th when President-elect Biden is gonna be sworn in as the country's 46th president.

- Republicans maintain their majorities in the state legislature after the 2020 election but Democrats managed to flip a seat in the Senate.

We checked in with Senate minority leader Rebecca Rios about the party's focus this session which primarily concerns helping those hit hardest by the pandemic.

- There are literally tens of thousands of Arizonans who have either lost their jobs, lost their homes.

And they're trying with little luck, many of them to get through our complicated unemployment insurance programs.

So we would like to see that streamlined so that folks that have had difficulty getting their money don't.

We'd like to see additional money put in the eviction housing fund.

Again, we had the eviction moratorium expire December 31st.

We have asked that that be extended, the governor has not done that.

So in lieu of that we need to ensure that there are resources so that we don't add to an already large homeless population.

- Senator, if you would give us a sense of what things are like at the Capitol.

You have lawmakers who are not necessarily wearing masks when they should be talking about when and how to vote as far as casting their votes.

But you also have, there are members of the public who are demonstrating.

So give us a sense of what it's like their day-to-day.

- Unfortunately, we have a number of colleagues across the aisle that continue to refuse to wear masks, because they view it as some sort of a political statement.

And at the end of the day, this is a health problem, this is a health pandemic.

So the Senate president and I commend her for this, has implemented mandatory mask rules.

So it's a matter of enforcing it, but we are day-by-day getting through this process trying to make sure that staff and members and the public are safe.

With regard to the fencing around the Capitol, the reality is that we are looking at a potentially dangerous situation.

And in many times past we would just say, well, these are protesters they should have access to the Capitol.

But at the end of the day, the level of threats, the level of concern has risen to a point where we do have to take the threat of violence seriously.

And I do commend the governor and whoever else made the decision looking beyond the partisan nature of this, because the fact of the matter is these are Trump supporters.

Looking beyond that and recognizing that safety comes first and being willing to ensure that we are safe and a fence does go up.

- The governor said that you, along with the other members had a serious and a cordial exchange last week was there any common ground you were able to reach?

- It was very cordial in that before leaders and the governor made a commitment to try and work together on a bipartisan basis to recognize that a lot of these issues should not be partisan.

So we have made the commitment to work together but like with any legislative session the proof is in the pudding and the details matter.

And so it truly has to be a joint piece of work, right?

And at the end of the day Democrats and Republicans are very close in number here at the legislature.

There are only three more Republicans than Democrats.

So this should absolutely be a session in which the middle Republicans and Democrats work with the governor to get what benefits Arizonans most across the finish line.

- Alright, it sounds like it's going to be a long spring ahead for all of us.

- Yes.

- Alright, Senator Rios, thank you for your time.

- Thank you.

- Like the Senate, the state house Republicans hold a narrow majority over Democrats.

We post similar questions to Republican speaker pro tempore Travis Grantham about how his party can work across the aisle and what it's focused on accomplishing in the coming months.

- I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up COVID, obviously we're in the midst of a pandemic, there's still an emergency order.

And there's a lot of things that have been affected because of that.

Over the past several months the speaker has taken a lot of action here at the house to not only make sure we can do our job safely but that the public can participate to a certain level.

And of course our main concern here is what it's done to the economy and what it's done to our school children, who have not been in school now for going on almost a year.

And I'm sure we will get to that one-year mark before this is over.

So the house is focusing on things like tax reform, making sure our economy stays strong.

Luckily, Arizona wasn't hit horribly hard but we were impacted.

We have a nice surplus to work with.

So we're gonna make sure that our jobs market is good and we're gonna make sure that our schools are open and that there's a lot of options out there for parents.

- What will you say is the commitment of both parties to cross the aisle, to work to accomplish those items?

- So what I'm seeing so far is that everybody wants to work together on these things.

It's kind of refreshing quite honestly I've been down here three terms, obviously seen some moments where there's a huge partisan divide.

I feel like there's quite a bit of unity on these two items right now.

One thing Republicans and Democrats can always agree on is that the economy matters, jobs matter and education matters.

- Let's talk about the pandemic.

You mentioned it, and it's changing the course of business, how lawmakers like yourself will conduct their work here over the next few months.

Of course, there's also increased security.

How confident are you that the tone is different this year, security is different and it will be a safe and a secure session ahead.

- It will be a safe and secure session I'm confident in that.

What's a little bit disappointing I think is that it's going to be more difficult for the public to participate in-person as they have historically.

But going back to what we talked about in the beginning, the speaker took extraordinary steps before we went into session to ensure that we could come down here as the elected members and interact with staff safely and efficiently.

And you'll notice things like glass partitions on the house floor, there's a pretty strict mask policy throughout the building with few exceptions.

Those steps have been taken and again, both sides worked together on those things.

We have doctors here in both caucuses, Dr. Cobb and Dr. Shaw were part of an initial panel that set up these protocols.

So I feel good about it.

- I was at the Capitol just this week and I saw a fair share of demonstrators.

Are they at all challenging your work?

- No, not at this point and you know that's nothing new.

Every year there's a demonstration down here for something and sometimes every day.

Quite honestly, I feel like that's welcome that's everyone's right to come down and let their voice be heard.

We just hope it remains peaceful, so far it has.

- Okay, Representative Travis Grantham thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Finally, for analysis on the hurdles facing lawmakers at the state Capitol we turn to Jeremy Duda, Associate Editor of the Arizona Mirror in Phoenix.

- Well, obviously the COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things.

What else is different is we have the narrowest Republican majority's we've ever seen in the legislature.

At least since the Republicans took over the legislature in the mid 60s.

It's 1614 in the Senate, 3129 in the house.

That means the Republicans can't afford to lose a single person on a party line vote, which might make it very difficult.

Plus you have, I think certainly some animosity towards Governor Ducey, among some Republican lawmakers, the COVID-19 restrictions, the emergency declaration he's enacted that as..

I mean it did not exactly rub everyone the right way when it first happened last year, and after nearly a year of that, you've got some Republican lawmakers who were really itching to overturn that or modify it.

So that's going to be interesting conflict to see how that plays out.

You saw the Governor kind of try to preempt that a little in his State of the State kind of warn people off for why he's seeing they shouldn't try to do that.

- The governor's State of the State was also among the shortest though the state has seen in some time, it didn't offer a lot of details.

So how easy will it be to pass whatever he hopes to accomplish this year?

- For the more more concrete things he mentioned that's still vague was tax cuts.

This has been a big issue again, since he took office when he first ran for governor in 2014 he promised a tax cut every year and he has done that but they're usually very small, very minor (indistinct) 10 million, 15 million, 20 million here, and there usually.

This year, it sounds like he's looking to do a bit more.

He said let's go big, if that's what the governor is looking to do is make some or substantive tax cuts.

He'll certainly find a lot of support among a legislative Republicans but again, the devil will be in the details.

So I can see exactly what he's going to cut, how much money that's going to cost on an ongoing basis.

And we'll find out how strong the support really is over there.

- You mentioned the numbers of Republicans in the house and the Senate and the bodies are closer than they've ever been.

What is your take on how closely the Republicans are united this year and the Democrats?

Because there's probably a national shadow that is casting some interests this year that's different than what we've seen in the past.

The Democrats, I feel like we'll probably be pretty unified unless there's any kind of particular issue that I'm not seeing that's really going to split them apart.

The Republicans will depend on the issue.

I mentioned before the state of emergency, the attempt to overturn the governor's divergency declaration and a lot of the things that have come with that that could be pretty divisive.

Other things related to the ongoing pandemic could be pretty divisive.

I would imagine on most things you're going to see a fairly unified Republican caucus.

At least if it's something that's in line with where they are ideologically you've got a couple of senators who have kind of perpetually for the past few years been the defectors on the Republican side.

Kate Brophy Mcgee and Heather Carter both lost their reelection bids.

So even though the numbers are smaller in the Senate that might actually help the Republicans kind of keep people aligned and everyone will be more of kind of united among ideological lines.

But again, it'll be on a case by case and on the issue.

- Jeremy Duda from the Arizona Mirror, thank you for your insight.

- Thanks for having me.

(soft music) (car honking) - Tucson streets are busy with a bustle of construction crews.

Nearly a dozen transportation projects are underway totaling, hundreds of millions of dollars.

Some of the most visible examples are in or near downtown.

The detours and delays are an added drag for businesses already hurting because of the pandemic.

Tony Paniagua has more.

- [Tony] Driving on some Tucson roads may feel like taking a ride on an obstacle course.

Workers and equipment are spread out along parts of Broadway Boulevard.

They're also staying busy in downtown, two areas that are used by thousands of vehicles each day.

Broadway is where you'll find Rocco's Little Chicago just pay close attention to where you turn.

Due to the barriers, many customers have stopped bothering.

- Our daytime business has pretty much evaporated.

The weekends are okay but we used to have a really strong lunch crowd and stuff but that's pretty nonexistent at this time.

- [Tony] Rocco Digrazia opened his restaurant here in 1998.

Back then he was already alerted about the pending changes to this busy section East of Downtown.

- When I first moved in they told me they were gonna knock the building in five years or less.

'Cause it was from the 1987 project that was going to happen where they were gonna take every building on the North side and widen it to eight lanes and stuff.

And then the project we're working on now is this a successor to that.

- [Tony] In 2015, the city approved the present day version of the Euclid to Country Club project after public meetings and discussions.

It calls for six travel lanes, bus pull-outs, bicycle areas, and other features.

The projected cost is 26 and a half million dollars with funding from the city, Pima County and the Regional Transportation Authority which voters approved in 2006.

It's estimated completion date is this fall.

- Well the sidewalk for Broadway is gonna be right where we have our parking pylons right there.

And it'd be a little bit of landscaping and where we're standing is gonna be westbound traffic lane.

- [Tony] On Broadway and elsewhere much of the work takes place underground.

- Not only in making the improvements for a stormwater capacity but also there's new sewer lines going in, new water lines.

We get that question quite a bit is why do these projects take that long?

Well, if we're just gonna put new asphalt on top of a roadway, we can get these projects done fairly quickly.

- [Tony] Close to this project, Downtown Links will connect Aviation Highway on the East to Interstate 10 on the West, roughly following the railroad tracks along the way.

One of the highlights is that drivers will be able to go under the railroad crossing at 7th Street and Seventh Avenue, so they won't have to stop for trains.

The city says the total estimated cost of Downtown Links is $53.5 million.

It's expected to wrap up in the spring of 2023.

Miller's Surplus has been at its current location North of Downtown since 1966.

Owner Don Sloane says the business was thriving, until last year when the pandemic forced some changes.

- We were closed as of March, the end of March and we didn't get open until may the third, so in between all that was a tight squeeze.

- [Tony] To be safe from the virus he tried staying home, but relented in November.

- I gave him I said, I gotta come to work, so here I am.

- [Tony] Back in time for the holiday spike in customers, he says he's grateful to the city for holding off for nearby construction until this month and removing the parking meters in front of his store.

- As long as they didn't start before Christmas 'cause Christmas would have knocked me out for sure.

- [Tony] Don Sloane and Rocco DiGrazia say the convergence between construction and the pandemic put added pressure on their bottom lines.

But they know the projects have been in the works for years, there's no turning back they say, so they are focused on moving forward while avoiding as many roadblocks as possible.

It's not gonna be to everybody's liking and the whole project is a compromise, which I mean maybe they did something right, if everybody didn't get what they want.

The sooner this is knocked out of the way the better.

- Whatever it takes to get it going, I wanna get this thing back to normal so we can be comfortable and let the customers come and go as they need.

- [Tony] Meanwhile, the city says the community can help by using these cut-up roads making the trip to local businesses instead of avoiding them.

- We don't want people finding alternate routes.

We want people to give themselves some extra time to get through these construction zones and through these improvement projects, because we want people to support the local businesses in the area.

That's very important to us.

- That's all for now, thanks for joining us.

To get in touch visit us on social media or send an email to arizona360@azpm.org and let us know what you think.

We'll see you next week.

(soft upbeat music)