Capitol Media Services Kris Mayes, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, speaks at a Nov. 2 campaign rally in Phoenix. || Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror (2022)
HOWARD FISCHER
Attorney General Kris Mayes is threatening to sue the governor and the Legislature if they follow through with what she said are plans to take funds her office got from opioid makers.
In a new letter to Katie Hobbs and state lawmakers, Mayes said she is alarmed that her office and most state agencies will not be getting additional funds in the new budget, a situation she blamed on “the catastrophic drain on state resources caused by universal Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.’’ Demand by parents to send their children to private and parochial schools at state expenses has exceeded earlier projections.
“Any budget that does not adjust the general fund during a time of inflation is a budget cut,’’ Mayes wrote in the three-page letter obtained by Capitol Media Services.
She listed a series of services her agency provides and how they would be impacted, like those for the Department of Child Safety. And it’s not just that there won’t be an inflation adjustment.
Mayes said she actually requested a 15% pay increase — nearly $3.9 million — to deal with the fact that as the caseload grows she is unable to fill positions.
She separately argued that the criminal division needs more tax dollars.
She said there are more than 18 positions that are paid for through the Consumer Protection Revolving Fund. And that is being fueled from Arizona’s share of a 2012 $50 billion nationwide settlement with lenders who cheated borrowers out of money.
Only thing is, Mayes said, those funds will most likely be depleted by the end of 2025.
On those issues, the attorney general may be at the mercy of the governor and lawmakers who have the constitutional authority to set spending and who are looking to put the finishing touches on a budget for the coming year as early at this week.
But Mayes may have a legal tool at her disposal over what she said has been discussion about having the Legislature decide how to use dollars Arizona got through consent judgments with several pharmaceutical companies for their roles in the opioid crisis.
The attorney general said the more than $1.1 billion the state will get over the next 18 years is designed to go for opioid treatment, prevention and education. Of that total, she said, the state gets about $502 million with the rest going directly to counties, cities and towns.
More to the point, Mayes said those dollars are off-limits to lawmakers.
