How will Arizona's first-ever lieutenant governor utilize their agricultural background to tackle the state's pressing water security challenges?

Question

Accepted Answer

Arizona’s first lieutenant governor is most likely to use an agricultural background as a practical guide for water policy: focusing on how to keep farms viable while cutting water use, expanding supply options and pushing state-federal coordination on the Colorado River. If Sine Kerr is elected, her experience as a Buckeye dairy farmer, former state senator and former USDA Farm Service Agency director gives her credibility with irrigation districts, ranchers and rural communities that are directly exposed to shortages. That matters in Arizona, where agriculture uses a large share of available water and where Colorado River cuts have already hit farm deliveries hard. Her record suggests several likely tools. Biggs has highlighted Kerr’s role in advancing a 2022 water-protection measure and supporting major funding for the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority, including efforts to develop new supplies. In practice, that points to backing conservation technology on farms, more efficient irrigation, infrastructure upgrades, groundwater and surface-water management, and possible supply augmentation projects. Her USDA background could also help connect Arizona producers to federal conservation and drought programs, giving farmers incentives to fallow land, modernize equipment or shift crops where needed. Researchers and water groups in Arizona have argued that farm-level adaptation alone will not be enough, so an effective lieutenant governor would also need to help broker broa…

Andy Biggs Picks Sine Kerr for Arizona No. 2 Slot as Hobbs Faces Sept. 4 Deadline

Sources

Sources

Andy Biggs Picks Sine Kerr for Arizona No. 2 Slot as Hobbs Faces Sept. 4 Deadline

Summary

Sources

Insights

Related Stories

Sources

Related Stories