House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding
By Nick Phillips | Arizona Capitol Times
You’ve been Minority Leader in the House for two years now. What do you see as your biggest accomplishments?
During our first year, we passed more Democratic bills out of the state Legislature than, I believe, the last 10 years combined, and I don’t think that happens without a strong leadership team. This year, we got the first true bipartisan budget since Governor Napolitano. We passed a historic water deal, tribal gaming was something that also happened during this time … there was a special session on wildfires, and we were able to negotiate $90 million in ARPA funding to provide direct assistance to Arizona nonprofit organizations to support the community.
What are some of the things that you’ve left undone?
When it comes to our water sustainability, there’s still gaps that we need to fill… We still need to adequately make sure that our schools are prepared with resources, especially with universal vouchers on the (horizon). And I also think that when it comes to criminal justice reform, every single session there’s a conversation about bipartisanship and how we can get something done on criminal justice, but it never happened.
