PHOENIX — Lawmakers won’t try to split Maricopa County into four parts after all.
On an 18-12 vote Tuesday, the Senate quashed a bid by Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, to create new Hohokam, Mogollon and O’odham counties while leaving a much smaller Maricopa County of about 1.7 million versus the current 4 million.
The vote is a setback for legislators like Hoffman who contend Maricopa County, which makes up 65% of the state’s population, is simply too large.
Most senators decided the last thing Arizona needs is three more governments, each complete with its own set of elected officials and employees.
“I will not vote for something that’s going to increase government fourfold,’’ said Sen. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix.
County government is controlled by five supervisors and one each of other elected officials including sheriff, assessor, treasurer, recorder and clerk of superior court.
“We are larger than 26 states presently,’’ Hoffman said of Maricopa County. “We must be able to have counties that accurately reflect the areas that they represent, that can advocate for solutions when it comes to water policy, that are closer and more representative of the people they represent, and can better represent the unique strategic needs, challenges and priorities of their regions,’’ he said.
Kaiser said breaking up the county into four separate parts isn’t the only way to do that.
One, he said, would be to add to the number of supervisors on the county board. By definition, Kaiser said, that would create smaller districts, both geographically and from a population perspective.
Smaller districts would decrease the number of signatures needed on petitions if residents want to recall a supervisor for not being responsive, he added.
“It doesn’t create any new government,’’ Kaiser said.
The other, he said, would be to have the surrounding counties — Pinal, Pima, Yuma, La Paz, Yavapai and Gila — “eat into Maricopa County to shrink it.’’
Kaiser said both ideas were proposed as amendments to Hoffman’s measure, SB1137. “And both of those ideas were rejected,’’ he said.
Hoffman, however, remained unconvinced either was a better alternative to a four-way split of Maricopa County. He told colleagues there’s a political reason that existing county officials contend there is no problem. He said they won’t admit the county is too large for them to effectively do their jobs in many cases.
“When you’ve got a couple of elected officials who are just looking to save their hide and save their little kingdom, they’ll never say that,’’ he said.
“But when they get put on the spot in a press conference, they say it repeatedly,’’ Hoffman said, though he offered no examples. “They laugh when they’re asked about their ability to contact all the people of Maricopa County in a quick and timely manner.’’
The idea of splitting counties is not new.
When Arizona was a territory, it formed its first counties in 1864 with four: Mohave, Pima, Yavapai and Yuma. That had increased to 14 when the state was created in 1912, and in 1983, La Paz became No. 15 after it split off from Yuma County.
There have been multiple efforts to split Maricopa, going back at least three decades, with a big push to create what would have been Red Mountain County out of Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek along with surrounding areas. None of those efforts took hold.
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