Arizona AG says Tucson employee vaccine mandate is illegal

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PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Tuesday that Tucson’s vaccination mandate is illegal for city workers, giving the city 30 days to overturn it or risking losing millions of dollars in government funding.

Democratic-run Tucson has repeatedly clashed with the Republican leadership of the state in Phoenix over the city’s aggressive efforts to control the spread of COVID-19. The city administration did not immediately respond to Brnovich’s decision.

Brnovich, who is running for the U.S. Senate in a crowded Republican primary, cited a state law passed this summer banning local governments from mandating vaccines for their employees, which won’t go into effect until later this month. He also cited an August executive order signed by Republican Governor Doug Ducey.

Tucson’s policy requires that all city employees be vaccinated or suspended from work for five days without pay.

A Pima County judge last month denied a motion from the Tucson Police Union to end its vaccine mandate. A spokeswoman for Tucson Mayor Regina Romero did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

State law preventing cities from enacting vaccination mandates for employees was added to the state budget in late June.

The Tucson city attorney previously said that Ducey’s executive order does not block the city’s vaccine mandate.

Brnovich acted under a 2016 law that allows any legislature to request the Attorney General to investigate whether a local ordinance or policy violates state law.

It was passed amid the GOP’s frustration with the Democratic-run cities’ guidelines. If the attorney general decides that the local policy conflicts with state law, a city or county has 30 days to revoke the policy or lose its share of the state’s tax revenue, which is a significant portion of the local government budget turn off.

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