Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoes string of GOP bills, calling one ‘shameful and misguided’

PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have barred Arizona public school libraries from spending public money on professional association memberships, calling the measure “a shameful and misguided attack on public school librarians.”

It was one of six bills she vetoed this week.

House Bill 2008 would have barred public school libraries from paying for certain professional associations.

The bill, dubbed the “Library Freedom Act,” passed the Arizona Senate along party lines on April 1.

“Knowledge is power, not a weapon, and at a time when literacy rates are on the decline nationwide, I will not support legislation that deprives our children of the resources they need to reach their full potential,” Hobbs wrote in her veto letter.

Hobbs vetoed five other bills, including a social credit score ban

Hobbs vetoed, for a third time, a bill that would have banned Arizona banks from using “social credit scores” in lending decisions.

“This bill is unnecessary and marks my third veto for this poorly constructed and unnecessary policy change,” she wrote in her veto letter.

Introduced by Rep. Steve Montenegro, House Bill 2903 would have barred the state from requiring a bank to use a social credit score when evaluating whether to lend money to a customer.

The one-sentence bill, which would have added a new section to Arizona banking statutes, passed the Republican-led Legislature despite no existing state mandate that lenders use such a scoring system.

Social credit score bans have gained traction in Republican-led state legislatures in recent years amid fears that environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics could be used to deny financial services based on political views, religious beliefs or gun ownership.

States like Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming all passed similar legislation, according to a research firm which tracks ESG.

The other bills Hobbs vetoed

Hobbs also vetoed four other bills.

HB 2040 would have required public educational institutions to provide adoption information, and HB 2075 would have required school districts to publish employment contracts. HB 2289 would have changed notice requirements for school district bond elections, and SB 1787 addressed zoning appeals.

Correction: A previous version of this article erroneously stated that the text of HB 2008 referred to the American Library Association. That connection was made by a third party.

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