Vaccine Mandate For Tucson City Employees Violates State Law: AG

TUCSON, AZ — Tucson's vaccine mandate for city employees violates state law and Gov. Doug Ducey's executive order, the office of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Tuesday morning.

“Tucson’s vaccine mandate is illegal and the city could be held liable for attempting to force government employees to take it against their beliefs,” Brnovich said in a news release. “COVID-19 vaccinations should be a choice, not a government mandate.”

The Attorney General's office notified the city Tuesday that if it did not rescind or amend its COVID-19 vaccination policy within 30 days, the state treasurer will withhold the city’s portion of state shared revenue until it does amend or rescind the law.

On Aug. 13, the Tucson City Council voted to enact a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all of its employees. At that time around 1,000 city employees had not received their first vaccination and Tucson ordered that at least 750 of those people would have to provide proof of receiving their first shot by Aug. 24 or receive a 5-day unpaid suspension.

City employees have the option to receive a religious or medical exemption from getting the vaccine.

While officials with the Attorney General's office said that Tucson's vaccine mandate violates a budget reconciliation bill passed by the legislature earlier this year that says government entities cannot mandate COVID vaccinations, that bill does not go into effect until Sept. 29.

"To stop the city’s manipulative move, Governor Ducey issued an Executive Order 2021-18 to stop cities from implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates until the law went into effect," Brnovich's office said in a press release.

Last month a Pima County judge denied the Tucson police union’s challenge to the city's vaccine requirements.

Tucson officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.