The Veto Queen is back: All 45 bills Gov. Hobbs has rejected in 2026

It’s an election year. Can Gov. Katie Hobbs make history again?

We’re not talking about the Democrat’s reelection chances, though those prospects will hang over her every action this legislative session. We’re talking about her vetoes.

Two years ago, Hobbs broke the all-time vetoes record by swatting down 216 bills in her first two years in office, topping the career mark previously held by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano. Last session, Hobbs ran up the score, vetoing a whopping 174 bills, which is a single-session record. That brings her three-year total to 390 rejected bills, a number that will only swell in 2026. This legislative session has seen more bills introduced by lawmakers than ever before, and that has already meant more vetoes for Hobbs. In mid-April, she also instituted a bill moratorium, promising to veto most bills that come her way until Republicans publicly release their state budget plan.

Phoenix New Times has tracked those vetoes for the past three years. This is the 2026 edition. If there’s to be a 2027 version, Hobbs will have to emerge triumphant in November.

January

Senate Bill 1106: Vetoed on Jan. 12. This was the first blow in an ongoing battle between Hobbs and Republican lawmakers. Arizona generally mirrors its state income tax code after its federal counterpart, but President Donald Trump’s beloved “One Big Beautiful Bill” significantly altered how federal taxes are to be paid. That will require a change to Arizona’s code, but Hobbs and Republicans have been unable to agree on what those changes should be. When the session started this year, Republicans jammed through a package that would hew closely to the federal changes, but Hobbs vetoed it because it copied many of the same tax breaks that Trump’s bill gives to high-income companies and individuals. “You have sent me partisan legislation that gives tax breaks to special interests while hiking taxes on working seniors struggling to get by,” Hobbs wrote in her veto letter. “I urge you to rethink your partisan political theater.”

February

House Bill 2785: Vetoed on Feb. 12. This was Round 2 of the big tax fight. Republicans passed another bill that again adjusted the state’s tax code to mirror changes in federal tax law. Hobbs, who has favored adopting only some of the federal changes and excluding breaks for high earners and businesses, vetoed it again. “Again, I urge you to stop the partisan political theater,” Hobbs wrote in her veto letter. Meanwhile, Arizonans are preparing their taxes, knowing that they’ll likely have to file adjustments whenever Hobbs and the GOP finally iron things out.

House Bill 2206: Vetoed on Feb. 20. This was one of several bills that aimed to crack down on the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” mandated that state SNAP programs cut their rate of administrative errors — that is, the times they over- or underpay SNAP benefits — to 6%, or else states would have to shoulder more of the program’s costs. Sponsored by GOP Rep. Nick Kupper, HB 2206 went even further: It required the Arizona Department of Economic Security to cut its error rate to 3% by 2030, or face budget cuts. In her veto letter, Hobbs blasted “out of touch politicians in Washington” who passed the federal SNAP cuts before touting the changes DES is already making to comply with the new requirements. She also criticized HB 2206 for creating more work for DES without any additional money behind it. “SNAP is the most robust and effective anti-hunger tool we have in Arizona — I know this firsthand,” Hobbs wrote. “It’s also the most secure, thanks to strong anti-fraud measures and oversight. Instead of creating more needless frustration for Arizona families, I invite you to join me in actually lowering costs for them.”

House Bill 2396: Vetoed on Feb. 20. This bill would have barred SNAP recipients from buying less-healthy items like soda and snack foods with their benefits. Hobbs has vetoed similar bills in past years, as she noted in her veto letter this time around. “I appreciate your intent to improve health outcomes of Arizonans,” she wrote. “Yet, instead of offering Arizonans more options to feed their families, this legislation would deprive them of the dignity and economic freedom enjoyed by other grocery shoppers.”

Senate Bills 1002, 1331 and 1334: Vetoed en masse on Feb. 20. These bills imposed more restrictions on the SNAP program:

• SB 1002 would have imposed additional requirements on DES for verifying SNAP recipients’ eligibility, but without additional funding to do so.
• SB 1331 would have required most SNAP recipients aged 60 or younger to work or participate in job training to receive benefits.
• SB 1334 would have prevented state agencies from issuing waivers for SNAP work requirements unless federal law required it or the Arizona Legislature signed off.

In her veto letter, Hobbs chastised Republicans for sending her “yet more unfunded mandates and not a dollar to help our state agencies implement these changes now, or to modernize our systems for the future.”

House Bill 2796: Vetoed on Feb. 20. This bill would have placed more requirements on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System — or AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid agency — when it comes to verifying participant eligibility. In her veto letter, Hobbs noted that AHCCCS already uses “a wide variety of effective and efficient member eligibility processes” and that the program was already working to adjust to new federal requirements that will go into effect in 2027. Thus, HB 2796 was “redundant,” she wrote.

Senate Bill 1036: Vetoed on Feb. 20. Like the SNAP and AHCCCS bills, this bill would have saddled DES with additional requirements when determining the eligibility of people receiving unemployment benefits, which would likely result in delays or denials for unemployed people. “This legislation creates unnecessary delays for workers, burdens for employers, and costs for the State,” Hobbs wrote in her veto letter.

Senate Bill 1051: Vetoed on Feb. 20. This bill would have required hospitals in Arizona to ask patients about their citizenship status. It would also have required hospitals to report every quarter to the Arizona Department of Health Services data about the number of undocumented patients seeking care, as well as the cost of uncompensated care for undocumented patients. Though the bill specified that hospital intake forms should state that care would not be affected by a patient’s answer to the citizenship question, Democrats said merely asking it would make sick or injured undocumented people less likely to seek necessary medical care. In her veto letter, Hobbs noted that undocumented immigrants aren’t eligible for Medicaid, which the bill ostensibly was created to police. “This legislature continues to show a troubling inability to grasp some of the most basic functions of Medicaid,” Hobbs wrote.

Senate Bill 1056: Vetoed on Feb. 20. This bill would have eliminated any full-time positions at state agencies that have been open and unfilled for at least 150 days. “This bill does not accurately reflect the state’s merit-based hiring processes,” Hobbs wrote in her veto letter, “and would deprive state agencies of their ability to best serve Arizonans.”

March

Senate Bill 1439: Vetoed on March 6. This bill would have resulted in the creation of a special license plate to honor slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Turning Point would have received $17 for every plate purchased through the Arizona Department of Transportation, and the bill was pushed by far-right state Sen. Jake Hoffman, whose consulting company does significant business with Turning Point. In her veto letter, Hobbs decried Kirk’s assassination as “a tragic and horrifying act of violence,” but she wrote that she vetoed the bill because it “insert(s) politics into a function of government that should remain nonpartisan.”

House Bill 2042: Vetoed on March 12. This bill would have prohibited the release of “any material within the borders of this state for solar radiation management,” which it defines as the “modification or attempted modification of atmospheric reflectivity that modifies the amount or intensity of sunlight that reaches the earth.” Basically, this is a chemtrails conspiracy theory bill, which Hobbs nodded at in her veto letter. She called the bill a “so-called solution to a nonexistent problem” that is “without science or data to back up its claims.” “I’m disappointed members of this legislature seem to be more focused on conspiracy theories than working with me to lower costs, secure the border, and grow Arizona’s economy.”

House Bill 2993: Vetoed on March 12. This bill is a nakedly political hit job on Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat. In January, right-wingers jumped on Mayes for saying (inelegantly) that the mix of masked, armed ICE agents and a state citizenry that is well armed and living in a Stand Your Ground state was a recipe for disaster. Some Republicans inaccurately characterized Mayes’ comments as endorsing violence against federal agents. HB 2993 is the Republicans’ strike back against Mayes — it would have stripped $6.4 million from the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection-Consumer Fraud Revolving Fund to give to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and would also have exempted DPS from having to use Mayes as its official attorney rather than seeking outside counsel. Even though Hobbs criticized Mayes for her remarks, she vetoed the bill as a “political stunt,” noting that she has suggested an alternate source to boost the DPS budget that doesn’t rob funds that would be used to educate Arizonans about scams and fraud.

House Bill 4115: Vetoed on March 12. This bill continues the long tradition of Republicans trying to make it harder for citizen-led initiatives to succeed. Among other things, it would have required that paid petition circulators — a common and uncontroversial feature of any initiative campaign — verbally identify the state they live in and that they are a paid circulator when approaching anyone with a petition, which critics noted would essentially take up all the brief time circulators have to capture a passerby’s attention. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bill “undermines” the initiative process “by imposing unrealistic requirements on participants and by opening the door for special interests to silence voters’ voices.”

Senate Bill 1010: Vetoed on March 27. This bill would have renamed Loop 202 as “Charlie Kirk Loop 202,” in honor of the slain right-wing activist and podcaster who called Arizona home. As she did in her veto letter for a bill that would have created a Charlie Kirk license plate, Hobbs called Kirk’s assassination “tragic” and “horrifying,” but said the bill falls short “by inserting politics into a function of government that should remain nonpartisan.” She also criticized the bill for bypassing the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names, which is tasked with making those kinds of decisions. Republicans, including gubernatorial hopeful Andy Biggs and Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, have blasted Hobbs’ veto, noting that the state has highways named after Democrats, particularly former Congressman Ed Pastor. However, unlike Kirk, Pastor served in elected office.

April

Senate Bill 1787: Vetoed on April 7. This bill would have made it easier for real estate developers to challenge exactions, which are something local zoning authorities require a property owner to give to the community in order to be able to develop the land in question. The bill passed with bipartisan support in the Senate but had more resistance in the House. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bill “fails to improve zoning processes or accelerate the development of new housing.”

House Bill 2008: Vetoed on April 7. This bill, dubbed the “Library Freedom Act,” would have prevented school libraries from using public money to pay a professional association “that promotes, supports and advocates for libraries, librarians and information services,” per a Senate fact sheet. The bill’s sponsor, GOP state Rep. Nick Kupper, told the Arizona Republic that the bill was needed because library associations have “relatively strong political leanings.” In her veto letter, Hobbs called the bill a “shameful and misguided attack on public school librarians.”

House Bill 2040: Vetoed on April 7. This bill would have required public school employees to provide information about adoption if they discussed or provided contraception or testing for sexually transmitted diseases. It would have also required public and charter schools to include information about adoption in their sex education curriculum. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that she “is supportive of efforts to bolster adoption rates,” but not “placing onerous burdens on public education institutions that require adoption information to be provided in inappropriate settings.”

House Bill 2075: Vetoed on April 7. This bill would have required school districts to report the details of administrator contracts to the Arizona Department of Education, and would have required the department to create a searchable online database of that information. Democrats attempted to amend the bill to also require the same information to be reported about charter and private schools that take public money, but Republicans rejected that change. In her veto letter, Hobbs pointed out the discrepancy in reporting requirements for public schools versus private institutions that accept public money in the form of vouchers. “Arizona has a robust school choice environment that requires comparable information between options for parents and families to make meaningful choices,” she wrote. “This bill fails to ensure that all options in the marketplace are held to the same level of transparency.”

House Bill 2289: Vetoed on April 7. This bill would have required information pamphlets for school district budget override and bond elections to include the tax rate and estimated cost for a single-family home valued at $300,000. Currently, those notices must include only that information for homes valued at $80,000 and $100,000, respectively. In her veto letter, Hobbs noted that she’d vetoed the same legislation in previous sessions, adding that “I continue to have confidence that Arizona voters understand what they are doing when they vote in a school district bond election.”

House Bill 2903: Vetoed on April 7. This bill would have prohibited financial institutions from using a person’s social credit score — that is, non-financial information about their trustworthiness — when evaluating them for loan approval. In a one-sentence veto letter, Hobbs wrote that “this bill is unnecessary and marks my third veto for this poorly constructed and unnecessary policy change.”

Senate Bill 1024: Vetoed on April 13. A pet project of GOP state Sen. David Farnsworth, this bill would have required the Arizona Department of Transportation to create a registry of “roadable aircraft,” a speculative technology that envisions a future of Jetsons-like flying cars. Despite some Democratic support, Hobbs wrote that the bill “is an unfunded mandate that lacks the appropriate regulatory framework.”

Senate Bill 1078: Vetoed on April 13. This bill related to challenges made in court when a public records request is denied. Run by state Sen. John Kavanagh, the bill purported to make it easier for people to challenge the denial of public records requests. In her veto letter, Hobbs called the bill “unnecessary” and said that “the courts are capable of addressing these issues.”

Senate Bill 1142: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have opted Arizona into a new federal program that provides individuals with federal income tax credits for donations to Scholarship Granting Organizations. The program, passed by Republicans in Washington, D.C., amounts to a federal school voucher program for private schools. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that it’s “irresponsible to sign this bill before the federal government has released any regulatory guidance,” and noted that “we have seen what happens when these types of programs lack accountability, transparency, and oversight.” If the oblique swipe against Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts wasn’t enough, Hobbs went on to mention them directly: “I hope the administration ensures any federal school choice program will have the much-needed guardrails that Arizona’s ESA program lacks.”

Senate Bill 1148: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have required the Arizona Supreme Court to license all attorneys in the state and barred it from delegating that task to the State Bar of Arizona, which currently licenses attorneys under the court’s authority. Many in the far-right fringe of the Arizona Republican Party distrust the state bar due to discipline handed down to attorneys involved in multiple spurious election challenges. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bill “erodes the Supreme Court’s authority to execute the functions of the Judicial Branch.”

Senate Bill 1293: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have barred government property lease excise tax abatements for school districts. Hobbs wrote that the bill “would potentially harm economic development in our state.”

Senate Bill 1586: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have required state agencies to post on their websites any federal guidance they receive. In her veto letter, Hobbs simply wrote, “This bill is overly broad.”

House Bill 2026: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have allowed the Arizona Department of Water Resources to consider only a proposed source of water when determining whether to award a certificate of assured water supply that is required for development in Active Management Areas, such as the Valley and the area around Tucson. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bill “would undermine Arizona’s 100-year Assured Water Supply Program, allowing for ‘creative’ accounting that could lead to more groundwater overpumping.”

House Bill 2031: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have extended the time people had to apply for grandfathered water rights in the Willcox Active Management Area, the original period for which was about to elapse. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bill “threatens to create additional confusion” and accused Republicans of attempting “to delay and obstruct real groundwater protections.”

House Bill 2055: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have established the Brackish Groundwater Recovery Program Fund under the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority, and would have allowed WIFA to use money from its Long-Term Water Augmentation Fund to fund efforts to turn brackish water into potable water. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bill would divert “important funding intended to develop new water sources for Arizona’s future.”

House Bills 2102 and 2103: Vetoed together on April 13. HB 2102 would have allowed a county improvement district in an Active Management Area formed in a subsequent active to exercise the power of eminent domain to acquire a site for the construction of a single well and standpipe to make water available for delivery through water hauling. HB 2103 would have allowed people to provide financial assistance to qualified owners of
residential property for water hauling, and would have allowed counties to use groundwater transportation fees only for property owners who live within the groundwater transportation basin. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bills “are nothing more than attempts to create political cover for the legislature’s inaction on rural groundwater protection,” calling them “an insult to rural communities.”

House Bill 2167: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have subjected the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to financial damages if it brought a public nuisance or consumer fraud action against a party that was dismissed in court, and the office should have known it lacked merit or publicized the filing. Broadly, the bill was part of an effort by Republicans to hamstring Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, with whom they’ve feuded over her comments about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that she “will not curtail a tool that is used to protect Arizonans from bad actors.”

House Bill 2261: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have reclassified some property as “agricultural real property” and altered the way those properties are valued. In her veto letter, Hobbs noted that the bill is currently the subject of a case before the Arizona Supreme Court and said signing it would be “premature.”

House Bill 2261: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have transferred the Resource Analysis Division of the Arizona State Land Department to the Arizona Geological Survey. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bill “risks unnecessary disruption” to statewide systems.

House Bill 2378: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have prevented engineers and architects who do business in school construction from serving on the School Facilities Oversight Board. In her veto letter, Hobbs pointed out that state conflict-of-interest laws already address the issue the bill purports to solve and said the bill would limit the number of qualified candidates able to serve on the board.

House Bill 2584: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have prevented public money from being spent on genetic sequencing procedures performed using devices from companies located or controlled by foreign adversaries.” In her veto letter, Hobbs noted that genetic sequencing is vital to diagnosing many diseases and conditions and wrote that providers that use them “invest millions in the devices.”

House Bill 2600: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have prevented middle schoolers from joining school clubs without parental consent. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that “we should be finding ways to encourage schools to provide more enriching opportunities for students rather than creating barriers to participation.”

House Bill 2787: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have barred the state and its employees from supporting or cooperating with the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program under the Endangered Species Act. Some Republicans have advocated for allowing ranchers to kill the endangered wolves. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program is “an important wildlife management effort.”

House Bill 2811: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have expanded the definition of “obstructing governmental operations” to include “knowingly obstructing, impairing or hindering the making of a lawful arrest by using or threatening to use violence or physical force.” Hobbs noted there are already state laws governing the issue and wrote that the bill was “an attempt to intimidate and instill fear in those exercising their first amendment rights.”

House Bill 2985: Vetoed on April 13. This bill would have required the Arizona State Land Department to initiate a public stakeholder process to adopt a procedure for allocating Central Arizona Project water currently allocated to the ASLD to parcels of state trust land that may be sold or leased. In her veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the state land department already has a process for that.

House Bill 2033: Vetoed on April 14. This bill would have allowed school district governing boards to approve the administering of statewide assessment tests in written form. Hobbs’ veto letter didn’t address the bill but said she rejected it as part of a bill moratorium she’d implemented because legislative Republicans haven’t publicly released their state budget proposal.

House Bill 2093: Vetoed on April 14. This bill would have removed the requirement that mental health instruction include the multiple dimensions of health. Hobbs vetoed it as part of her bill moratorium.

House Bill 4033: Vetoed on April 14. This bill would have expanded the amount of information required to be included in pamphlets for school district bond elections. It also fell victim to Hobbs’ bill moratorium.