A special fund set up by the Arizona Legislature and former Gov. Doug Ducey in 2022 to provide $1 billion to secure new water supplies in the desert state is once again being raided to help balance the state budget. The move to use more than $70 million in the Long Term Water Augmentation Fund was called shortsighted by a representative of the state agency charged with using the cash to bring new water to the state. … All that started with 2022 legislation championed by former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey to set aside $333 million a year in three successive years so the authority would have $1 billion dedicated to finding and developing new water sources — mainly from outside of the state. Ducey was intent on having the state develop a water desalination plant on the Gulf of Cortez in Mexico and piping the water to Arizona. That plan fell apart, at least in part because of the secrecy surrounding it and in part because the Mexican government said it never was consulted. That has left the WIFA fund with money that lawmakers decided could be used for something else. 

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