Gov. Katie Hobbs arriving at the 2025 State of the State Address on the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
By Reagan Priest & Jakob Thorington | Arizona Capitol Times
Key Points:
- House GOP pass $17.9B budget using agency cuts to fund tax conformity
- Governor supports some provisions, opposes Medicaid and SNAP eligibility changes
- Both sides say they’re ready to negotiate, but Hobbs hasn’t lifted bill-signing moratorium
Republican lawmakers are close to sending Gov. Katie Hobbs a budget, although several GOP members and the governor have signaled they’re already waiting for the next set of negotiations given the plan’s lack of Democratic support.
House Republicans passed a $17.9 billion budget package April 29 on a party-line vote. And while the Senate did not gavel in on April 29 to move that package, Senate Republicans did share their support for the GOP proposal in a Joint Appropriations Committee earlier in the week.
Senate Majority Director of Communications Kim Quintero told the Arizona Capitol Times that the Senate is planning on moving the budget Monday morning and voting on the package later in the day.
The budget is largely a continuation of last year with the inclusion of new broad cuts to state government designed to help the state pay for full federal tax conformity — which the governor has vetoed twice this session.
Still, Hobbs said there are parts of the GOP budget that she can support, like $66 million in funding for public schools, $23 million to backfill federal funding for the Victims of Crime Act and full funding for the state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities. However, she also criticized the plan for prioritizing “special interests and billionaires over everyday Arizonans.”
