As Arizona faces new challenges of a divided government, Republicans and Democrats are sparring over the placeholder budget plan.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Republican-backed budget legislation on Tuesday, and the House Appropriations Committee approved it on Wednesday.
“Governor [Katie] Hobbs began her term by issuing an irresponsible budget plan that would fund a wish list of left-wing programs and partisan priorities that is completely out-of-step with Arizona families. In this time of political division and economic uncertainty, that won’t work for Arizona, and it won’t pass at the Legislature,” Republican House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Livingston said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This is a budget that recognizes the political and economic realities in our state right now. It’s a responsible plan based on the budget funding approved last session with bipartisan support. It fully funds our state’s obligations and ensures that essential functions of state government will continue without interruption,” he added.
Hobbs’s budget included numerous proposed cuts that led Republicans to declare her plan very unlikely to succeed. Some of the proposals included cutting the Empowering Scholarship Account program, which is a universal school choice policy, and cuts to the Border Strike Force, for example, as The Center Square previously reported.
However, Democratic state legislators are accusing Republican lawmakers of creating an extremely similar budget to the one signed by former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey last year, according to a news release.
“This is not the time for trivial games. Republicans have decided to neglect the needs of our state and focus on pushing a radically partisan agenda. We cannot afford to undercut our constituents by tying our budget to the past,” Senate Democratic Leader Raquel Terán said in a statement on Tuesday.
“It’s time for Republicans to act their age and engage in good faith negotiations. Democrats are ready to step up and deliver policy and a budget that makes reality better for every Arizonan,” she continued.
Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope recognized that the budget is similar to the 2022 one but said that the Democrats are now taking advantage of having control of the governor’s office.
“Unfortunately, our colleagues across the aisle are criticizing our budget, which has the same framework as last year’s budget,” Shope said in a Wednesday news release. “Not only did Senate Democrats call last year’s budget ‘historic’ and ‘bipartisan,’ but then Secretary of State Hobbs also publicly praised the budget as being ‘bipartisan.’ To change their tune now just proves the political games being played by Democrats who are only interested in creating division.”
The budget is a typical point of contention for the Legislature, as it only has a slight Republican majority. This is the first time in years that the governor’s office is fully at odds with the legislative majority since the last Democrat prior to Gov. Katie Hobbs to hold the office was former Gov. Janet Napolitano, who left office in 2009. Hobbs does have the power to line-item veto if she chooses to do so when a budget presumably hits her desk in the summer.
Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
