By Hank Stephenson | Arizona Capitol Times
Reaction was quick and decisive when House Republicans learned of Speaker David Gowan’s plans for a second large-scale renovation of the chamber in the past six months.
The caucus that elected him to lead the chamber barely six months earlier publicly expressed it didn’t have confidence in his fiscal management.
In a scathing letter signed by half of the majority, the lawmakers voiced their opposition to the plan and declared that Gowan’s spending thus far on renovations and staff pay has been “excessive… at a time when the state is facing a well-known fiscal crisis.” While some of the projects he has completed since becoming speaker may have been necessary, “some were merely cosmetic in nature.”
