Arizona budget crisis deepens
Gloria Rebecca Gomez
(Arizona Mirror) With a week left before an impending government shutdown, the spat between Republicans in the Arizona legislature shows no sign of ending, and a plan for the upcoming fiscal year remains uncertain.
The current year’s budget ends June 30, and lawmakers have until then to secure new funding to ensure state agencies can keep their doors open. But Republicans, who control both legislative chambers, have been unable to reach an agreement on how to allocate the money.
A $17.6 billion deal struck by the state Senate and Gov. Katie Hobbs was panned by Republicans in the lower chamber this month, who passed their own version loaded with conservative spending and policy priorities. When that proposal was swiftly denounced by Hobbs, House Republicans pivoted to backing a so-called “continuation budget” that would maintain current funding levels instead. That effort, too, has been dismissed as headed straight for Hobbs’ veto stamp.
On Monday, the rift between Republicans in the House and Senate grew, and a bid to initiate a dialogue between the lower chamber and the Governor’s Office crumbled before it could even start: House Republicans abruptly canceled a meeting scheduled for this morning between their staff and Hobbs’s staff, Christian Slater, a spokesperson for Hobbs, told the Arizona Mirror.
During a contentious floor session on Monday afternoon, top Democrats in the House lashed out at the Republican continuation budget, which is scheduled to be considered by the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, and will likely be quickly presented to the full chamber for debate. Rep. Oscar de Los Santos, R-Laveen, blasted the failure of GOP leadership to give lawmakers in the chamber an opportunity to consider the Senate-approved budget, and accused the House of attempting to pass a “chaos budget.”
“Our constituents expect us to be better than this,” he said.
But House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Livingston, who has been the architect of the chamber’s budget proposals, defended the continuation measure as a necessary stopgap.
“This budget is designed to prevent a government shutdown,” the Peoria Republican said.
Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, argued that the legislature should take a conservative approach to spending money, saying that the negotiated budget risks incurring a deficit in the future.
“We would be growing the size of government by more than double the rate of (population) growth,” he said. “It would be failing to learn the critical lessons of the past.”
According to the latest analysis of Arizona’s finances, the state’s general fund continues to outpace last year’s growth. The share of state sales tax collected in April reached $721 million, and state revenues so far in the fiscal year are $223 million more than what had been projected the last time lawmakers adopted a budget, in June 2024.
Pointing fingers: GOP chief of staff describes budget back-and-forth
The acrimony between House and Senate Republicans bled over onto social media. In a post on X, formerly called Twitter, Senate Republican Chief of Staff Josh Kredit accused House Republicans of being unreasonable and attempting to go behind the upper chamber’s back to secure their budget requests.
According to Kredit, talks between the House and Senate reached an impasse when the former pushed to use up all of the surplus dollars in the budget for their members — leaving no room for the Senate or Governor’s Office. Later, House leadership met privately with the Governor’s Office to discuss revenue.
The Senate responded by doing the same, and when negotiations with the governor’s team ramped up, reached back out to the House for their input, with no response. That, Kredit, said, left Senate leadership with no choice.
“What was the Senate supposed to do given it was late May with one month before the budget deadline? It did what it had to do and negotiated a budget, and at the same time fought for and secured Republican priorities,” he said.
But, according to Kredit, that wasn’t the end of the House’s recalcitrant approach to budgeting. Once a deal was finalized, the Senate advised the lower chamber that $90 million remained for its member’s requests. At one point, House leadership was offered the opportunity to “make its own impact” on the budget, but that was declined in favor of divvying up the $90 million.
After those requests were penciled in, Kredit wrote, it was understood that the Senate would transmit the final proposal to the House for consideration. But what was expected to be an uneventful process last week became fraught when the lower chamber refused to consider the budget and focused instead on introducing its own versions.
For now, the House remains committed to passing a doomed continuation budget, with the bills to do just that scheduled for debate on Tuesday.