In the past few weeks, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and top Republican lawmakers have engaged in some public mudslinging.
By Nick Phillips || Arizona Capitol Times January 24, 2023
In the past few weeks, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and top Republican lawmakers have engaged in some public mudslinging.
“It’s unfortunate that the legislature has chosen, this early on, to be as, frankly, immature and unwilling to work with us as they have demonstrated,” Hobbs said at a news conference on Jan. 20.
That was in reference to the way GOP officials responded to Hobbs’ proposals for the state budget – which included the bold suggestion of axing the school voucher program, a major legislative win for Republicans last year.
Republicans called the ESA repeal a “non-starter” and said the Hobbs budget was dead on arrival. The governor’s staff, for their part, said a GOP proposal to pass a continuation budget showed they were “not working for the people of Arizona.”
Besides the budget proposals, Republican lawmakers have started the year by moving bills that are sure to get a swift veto if they reach the governor’s desk – a proposal that could block students from using their preferred pronouns in school and an effort to ban voting by mail.
