Walt Blackman was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in District 6 as a Republican in 2018 after a 21-year career in the U.S. Army. In the two years he has been in office, Blackman points to one bill he sought as a representative, which passed the House by a bipartisan 60-0 vote, as his greatest accomplishment.
HB 2808, which was stalled from passing the Senate and becoming law due to disruptions from the pandemic in the spring, would have allowed for inmates in state prisons to earn more release credits for earlier release and set up transition programs. Blackman sees this bill as a way for the state to not only help inmates get back on their feet after serving their time, but also save money which can be put back into drug rehab programs in the hopes of reducing crime.
“I’ve found that a lot of people say they’re for criminal justice reform but they won’t step out in front and do something,” Blackman said.
Blackman similarly sees a goal in trying to improve relationships between police and the people they serve, especially black communities, which he believes is necessary in order to stop violence occurring in the country. He sees it as the responsibility of police departments to improve through reform.
“The first encounter between a person and a police officer should not be a negative one,” Blackman said. “We have to teach our kids how to turn that around so it’s not a negative encounter. We also have to teach our police officers how they can respond to things. Defunding the police is not the way to go. We need to fund them, to empower with training and professional development.”
But Blackman’s goals of lowering sentencing have their limits as well. He expressed opposition for Proposition 207, which would legalize recreational marijuana and expunge records of those incarcerated due to it, arguing that with Northern Arizona continuing to fight the opioid epidemic and other drug problems, making drug use easier would be a mistake.
Blackman did, however, praise the referendum for being done by the voters, not relying on the legislature. He likewise opposes Proposition 208, which would raise taxes on personal income over $250,000 or $500,000 for joint filers to pay for an increase in education funding, arguing that taxes in Arizona are already too high.
“I don’t think taxes are the way to go because we have taxed Arizona so much to where folks will probably want to move,” Blackman said. “I think that we need to look at different ways to create revenue. We need to look at our projects and where we’re spending money and how we’re spending money, and improve areas that are bulky, that have a lot of bureaucracy. We need to look into our own systems to where we can save money and generate money.”
Blackman believes that the legislature has done enough to increase school funding, and that the onus is on school boards to allocate it better if they want to increase teacher pay. He likewise argued against the need to increase funding for community colleges. While he sees trade schools as an engine for potential growth for rural areas such as the Verde Valley, he believes that the legislature does not need to increase funding.
Blackman sees one of his goals as reducing government control over aspects of Arizona’s economy. He argues that so much of the state’s public land being owned by the federal government is an impediment to growth, though he clarifies that he wants to still keep conservation land protected.
Blackman believes that the legislature should have done more on the coronavirus — he says he is one of the representatives who fought against going on recess shortly after the pandemic hit — and argued for waivers on state property taxes for businesses.
But if it was up to him, those businesses would never have shut down in the first place. Blackman argues against the COVID-19 shutdowns overall and believes that businesses should have been allowed to stay open through the crisis.
