Hobbs Revokes $210 Million in COVID-19 Relief Grants Awarded by Ducey

Since becoming the governor of Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbs has started undoing some of the work done by her predecessor Doug Ducey. This past week, Hobbs blocked $210 million in COVID-19 relief grants Ducey awarded to organizations.

“Horse Pucky!” said Bob Brickman, a Phoenix-based regulatory attorney. He told The Arizona Sun Times, “Just another glaring example of an idealogue politician savoring higher office, BUT unable to transition into becoming an actual Leader and Statesman. So, instead of acting as the ‘unifier’ she campaigned on, she’s looking more like a Joe Biden clone and a Cruella de Vil, by reversing everything her predecessor did regardless of who gets hurt.”

Brickman added, “As Hobbs is well aware of technical mistakes government agencies can make (e.g., see her record as Secretary of State on timely producing election manuals), especially during transition periods, she should direct her staff to work with the affected grant recipients to remedy purely technical glitches; otherwise, adding this to the Legislature’s Oversight Committees and a full-court PR campaign only hurts the ultimate consumer recipients of these funds — many of whom are Democratic voters.”

Hobbs’ administration said Ducey gave 19 grants to 16 organizations during his last three days in office. Ducey’s last three days in office were from December 30, 2022, to January 1, 2023. Her aides claim he violated state procurement law, which requires competitive bids in order to award money. Those requirements were waived during COVID-19 through December 29, 2022, by the Arizona Department of Administration. After Ducey’s emergency declaration ended in March 2022, the waiver was extended twice.

Daniel Scarpinato, who previously served as an aide to Ducey and now speaks on behalf of the previous administration, said if there was an error regarding the extension not covering the last three days, Hobbs should work with the grant recipients to rectify the problem, not cut them off.

“This is political,” Scarpinato told KJZZ. “The fact is that the former Gov. Ducey and our team played it by the book with these dollars. It’s disappointing the new governor has decided to use a number of good organizations and good causes … as a political football. They seem to have an agenda of wanting to end the contracts.”

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant recipients included the TODAY Foundation, based in Texas, which was granted $7 million for an Arizona history-based education curriculum. Its activities include creating the Texas Leadership Forum with State Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX-17) to provide leadership and character training to select Dallas-area high school seniors and launching an ongoing capital campaign for the Union Baptist Church in Jefferson, Texas to restore one of Texas’ oldest churches. The organization also awarded the Children’s Education Fund over $8 million in tuition assistance to low-income families “to support opportunities for 7,000 children to receive a quality education.”

Another recipient was AZ OnTrack Summer Camp, an in-person learning program Ducey started during COVID-19 to help students catch up academically after suffering during remote learning. Ducey said the education focused on “catching kids up in key areas: Math, Reading and American civics.”

A third recipient was A for Arizona, an education organization founded by Republican former State Superintendent of Schools Lisa Graham Keegan. A for Arizona’s director of Strategy Initiatives, Tuesday Elias, managed and led Ducey’s summer camp, which was chaired by Keegan. Before that, Elias worked for Ducey on his legislative, policy, and operations teams.

Other last-minute grants from Ducey went to TGen for monitoring COVID-19 outbreaks and predicting future pandemics, Valleywise Health Center for filling 440 vacant nursing positions, an emergency shelter, the Arizona Chamber Foundation, and the Arizona Science Center.

There were also government entities that received the grants. Since they are statutorily exempt from the bidding process, the $220 million Ducey’s administration awarded to them in the last three days was not challenged by Hobbs. Ducey awarded all of the state’s American Rescue Plan Act funds before leaving office.

The Hobbs administration said it sent letters to all 16 grant recipients telling them the funds were rescinded, and the recipients would be reimbursed for any costs they had already incurred. The administration intends to begin a competitive bidding process for the grants.

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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Katie Hobbs” by Katie Hobbs. Photo “Doug Ducey” by Governor Doug Ducey. Background Photo “Arizona Capitol” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.