Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs is taking a swing at government inefficiency, unveiling a new statewide initiative she says will save taxpayers up to $100 million by overhauling how state agencies spend money, share services and adopt technology.
The program, formally called the Arizona Capacity and Efficiency Initiative — or ACE — will be helmed by Amy Edwards Holmes, a former U.S. Treasury Department official who previously directed federal financial operations and led rollout of the DATA Act, the country’s first open government data law. Holmes also ran the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University, bringing a mix of federal policy experience and academic reform credentials to the role.
The initiative rests on three primary pillars. First, the state would consolidate its purchasing power to negotiate bulk discounts across agencies — eliminating the redundancy of dozens of departments independently buying the same goods and services at higher prices. Second, administrative functions would be standardized statewide, cutting out costly operational overlap. Third, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies would be deployed to boost productivity across the state workforce.
Beyond those structural changes, ACE includes two notable components: an Arizona Efficiency Challenge that invites state employees to submit their own cost-saving ideas from the ground level, and a new Innovation Hub intended to hold technology investments accountable for delivering measurable results rather than simply absorbing budget dollars.
Hobbs framed the effort in deliberately populist terms, drawing a contrast between ACE and the federal Department of Government Efficiency — the controversial DOGE initiative that has resulted in significant federal job cuts in Arizona and elsewhere. She made clear that her version of efficiency reform would not involve indiscriminate cuts to programs that residents depend on.
The governor previewed the initiative during her State of the State address earlier this year, positioning it as part of a broader affordability agenda. Whether the $100 million target proves achievable will likely depend on how aggressively the consolidation and AI adoption strategies are implemented — and how much resistance they encounter from agencies accustomed to operating independently.
