Actions bring her veto tally so far this year to 18

voters if they want to expand the board of supervisors from three to five.

Current law requires that question to go to the ballot once a county hits 150,000. HB 2031 would have made that optional at 125,000 – just a hair less than the current Cochise population.

Griffin told lawmakers that a three-member board creates problems, what with open meeting laws that prevent two of them – a majority – from talking to each other.

Hobbs provided a fourword response.

“The legislation is unnecessary,’’ she wrote.

The governor also rebuffed a bid by House Speaker Ben Toma to require require that any American government course required for high school graduation include at least 45 minutes of instruction about the history of communist regimes around the world. And his HB 2629 included a suggested list ranging from Joseph Stalin and the Soviet system and Mao Zedong and the cultural revolution in China to Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution right up to Nicholas Maduro, the current president of Venezuela and the Chavismo moment named after former president Hugo Chavez.

Hobbs said she appreciates the efforts to ensure students understand the negative impact of communist and authoritarian regimes have had, “especially at a time when we see many politicians in our own country warming up to dangerous leaders such as Vladimir Putin.’’

That is a reference to comments that former President Trump has made over the years seeming to praise the Russian president and even the fact that Trump, unhappy with NATO, publicly said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want’’ to any member that doesn’t meet spending guidelines.

But the governor said what was in Toma’s bill was “too prescriptive’’ in dictating educational requirements. What would be more appropriate, she said, is something like a 2022 measure by Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-prescott Valley, which requires the state Bard of Education to include a comprehensive discussion of political ideologies, like communism and totalitarianism, that conflict with principles of freedom and democracy.

Hobbs did agree to act on her own to advance one provision of the vetoed bill: She will proclaim this Nov. 7 as Victims of Communism Day.

Other measures rejected by Hobbs include:

• Allowing the public to inspect and comment on the modeling used by the Department of Water Resources to determine if there is sufficient groundwater to allow development;

• Barring the state or local governments from requiring a water measuring devices for a well located in certain specified areas;

• Creating a new special license plate, this one that would help benefit Brigham Young University.