Let it be known that Sen. Jake Hoffman doesn’t like riding trains.
So much does he despise them that he’s willing to do away with the state agency that builds roads and maintains bridges and patrols highways.
Hoffman is attempting to hold the Arizona Department of Transportation hostage, vowing to kill off the entire agency unless Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs agrees to strike dead, now and forevermore, any thought of establishing a high-speed commuter rail line between Phoenix and Tucson.
“This is something out there that the people do not want,” Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, declared this week.
Hoffman is a foe of public transit
I don’t know who designated Jake Hoffman as the arbiter of what the people of Arizona do or do not want. There’s been no polling that I know of to back up his claim. Republicans control the Legislature by a skimpy one-vote margin in each chamber, so there’s no real legislative mandate.
Surely, the Legislature will roll over him, just as it did last year when he and his fellow hard-right pals tried to block Maricopa County voters from deciding whether to continue taxing themselves to fund the Valley’s regional transportation plan for the next 20 years.