The Sedona City Council unanimously approved to continue with Kathy Senseman as the city and council’s lobbyist, at the cost of $100,000, to the Arizona State Legislature for the 2026 legislative session. Council also discussed its 2026 legislative priorities during its Oct. 29 meeting.
Short-Term Rentals
“I can just tell you how that went in previous sessions, we never even got our short-term rental bills to be assigned to committees,” City Attorney Kurt Christianson said. “We made a little bit of progress,” adding that President of the Arizona State Senate Warren Petersen, [R-District 14] “at least assigned it to committees, but it never got hearings. So it wasn’t a lot of progress, but it was a little bit more. We’re hoping for a better showing this time.”
Among the bills for 2026, Senseman said that Christianson has been talking with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns “in drafting of legislation that would allow local municipalities to have some control over zoning, or a cap number,” with regards to STRs.
Additionally, Mohave County Assessor Jeanne Kentch [R] “is going to push legislation that would increase the property tax of STRs to be equivalent to what hotels pay in the community,” Senseman said.
“I do think we have created momentum and it may be that this is our best shot this year, you know, to get this done,” Interim Mayor Holli Ploog said.
For 2026 the state budget is “mostly bad news,” Senseman said, noting that the state’s discretionary funding “for this coming legislative session, is only $67 million in a $17 billion budget.”
Senseman said estimates for economic growth in Arizona are slow showing a “2% growth right now, and by FY29 growing to about 4% growth. They’re not predicting recession, but they’re also not predicting meteoric growth in our state revenue.”
“Three years ago, I ran a handful of bills along with a couple other legislators,” Bliss said in September. “[Petersen] and House leadership, I think, are getting a lot of influence [from] the Real Estate Association [and] that’s what’s stopping us. … [But] we’re becoming more vocal. When I talk to the realtors, I said, ‘we need to talk, your state association is stifling us from having these bills heard in committee.’ ‘We need to bring back some of that [local] control.’ [So] what we’re doing now is we’re taking Senators and House members, it’s bipartisan, and we’re forming a more organized coalition. … Now we’ve got a coalition and Kathy Senseman is helping coordinate us.”
Last session, Bliss sponsored HB 2308, which would have authorized cities to impose overall caps on STRS, set limits within designated areas and established minimum distance requirements between individual rental properties.
Education
Councilman Brian Fultz asked about Empowerment Scholarship Accounts “that’s crushed the state budget by and large.… Do you think there’s any political will to ratchet back ESA?”
“On the ESA, I’ll share with you that [State] Superintendent Tom Horne [R] attempted to put some guardrails on the program, and that was very upsetting to the pro-ESA folks and … in my opinion, probably brought his primary challenger, State Treasurer Kimberly Yee [R],” Senseman said.
Seven people have filed to challenge Horne, five Democrats: Michael Butts, Ph.D., Sam Huang, Joshua Levinski, Brett Newby and Teresa Ruiz; and two Republicans: Yee and Jennie Paperman.
Dodge the Veto
Senseman said it’s likely the Republicans will also be sending several legislatively referred measures as they did in 2024 in an attempt to bypass Gov. Katie Hobbs’ [D] veto.
“As a policy nerd, it always worries me when we start referring to a lot of things, because then they become voter-protected, and then you can’t touch them,” Senseman said. “I really haven’t seen any legislation that doesn’t have some unintended consequence … and so it really becomes much more difficult to make any changes to what’s been passed by the voters at the ballot.”
Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella asked about House Bill 2447, which Hobbs signed on March 31 and which will take effect on Wednesday, Dec. 31. The measure requires applicants with a record of adhering to building codes to be eligible for permit review, and it mandates that city employees review and approve site plans, development plans, plats, lot line revisions and land divisions without holding a public hearing.
Senseman said she anticipates fewer bills related to housing this upcoming session: “[it] seems like there’s issue fatigue,” she said.
PR Firm for Lobbying
City Manager Anette Spickard later confirmed to the NEWS that she will use her procurement authority to spend $50,000 with Gordon C. James Public Relations “for strategic communications services in support of the city’s legislative priorities,” she said.
“We’ve been talking with Gordon James PR to potentially engage them. They are not a traditional PR firm … what they’re really good at is creating a narrative within the media of getting people that we would want to be delivering the message, getting them on the air, getting op-eds placed,” Senseman said. “What we need to do is go into some of these communities and engage the folks that we’ve been talking to. Help them write op-eds. Help them be in the media. Help them be on social media, [and] elevating the issue, and they do a very good job of creating that content.”
The nation’s largest STR company Airbnb has announced promotions with a range of celebrities and started its own political action committee in Arizona this fall.
“A pro-short-term-rental political action committee is now squared away to support elected officials who advance policy favorable to vacation rental property operators on sites like Airbnb across the state,” State Affairs reported. The Responsible Tourism Coalition plans to start a mid-six figure campaign.
Deputy City Manager Lauren Browne has been tasked with coordinating Sedona’s legislative strategy.
Voters in 2026 will also decide on Sedona’s next mayor and three council seats.
