Photo by Gage Skidmore
By Reagan Priest | State Affairs
If you ask Gov. Katie Hobbs, the ongoing budget battle between her and the Republican majority is business as usual.
“I don’t think we’re in a different place than we’ve been before,” Hobbs told the Yellow Sheet Report.
In some ways, she’s right. Proposition 123 hangs over budget conversations the same way it has since 2024, when lawmakers proclaimed an extension of the proposition needed to be sent to the ballot to avoid future threats to education funding.
This is also the second consecutive year Hobbs has imposed a bill moratorium — a tactic she used last session to procure supplemental funding for the Division of Developmental Disabilities.
Now, with negotiations largely playing out over press releases, news articles and the occasional media spat, Capitol regulars are hedging their bets on whether the Legislature adjourns with a budget before June.
“We’ve done it three years in a row. The politics are still the same. I think we can do it again,” Hobbs said.
But Proposition 123 isn’t the only problem on the governor’s hands. There’s also an election in November, one which Hobbs is hoping to sweep to grant her a second term on the Ninth Floor. Then there’s the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with stipulated federal funding and tax cuts threatening to blow a hole through the state’s budget.
