Arizona Gov. Ducey appoints tax analyst to replace utility regulator Doug Little

Dive Brief:

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey this week appointed former Arizona state legislator Justin Olson to fill a vacant seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, the Arizona Republic reports.
Olson served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2011 to 2016, and now works as a senior tax analyst for the Apollo Education Group in Phoenix.
Olson will fill a seat left vacant by Commissioner Doug Little, who left last month to accept a position at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Dive Insight:

A statement regarding Olson's appointment largely reads as one would expect — he believes in transparent government and will work for his constituents — but it ends with an interesting fact: Olson and his wife just had their ninth child.

Gov. Ducey said Olson has built a reputation "as a strong proponent for taxpayers and an incredibly hard worker."

"He is someone with a proven record of service whose detailed understanding of regulatory and policy issues prepares him to hit the ground running from day one," Ducey said.

During his time in the House, Olson served as Chair of the Appropriations Committee. Before his work at the Apollo Education Group, he worked as senior research analyst at the Arizona Tax Research Association, a self-described government watchdog group, and as an aide for conservative U.S. Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ).

In a statement, Olson described his approach to governing and legislating as "keep an open mind, study the issues careful and thoroughly, be transparent, look out for the hard-working taxpayer, and put my constituents first." The Arizona Republic describes him as a "staunch fiscal conservative."

Olson replaces Doug Little, who was elected in 2014 to the ACC and served as chair in 2016. He led the agency as it took on the value-of-solar proceeding that ended retail net metering in exchange for a rate closer to the utility's avoided cost.

At DOE, Little serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental and External Affairs. Last month, he told Arizona Capitol Media Service he was joining the Trump administration to maintain "fossil baseload generation."