By Alia Beard Rau, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Mary Jo Pitzl | The Republic
Gov. Doug Ducey is proposing a $9.5 billion 2017 budget that doesn’t make large cuts while also introducing relatively modest increases to key programs.
He is proposing new spending on universities, K-12 education, private prisons and a center that aims to reduce the prison population, child-welfare programs and a border task force to target drug and human smugglers.
The spending plan adds $105 million in new spending this fiscal year and $284 million in fiscal 2017, of which $168 million is for new programs. The remaining is baseline spending, said Lorenzo Romero, Ducey’s budget director.
