Although the legislature convened on January 8, this is the first week of substantial legislative activity.
The most newsworthy event of the week was the presentation of the governor’s budget to the Joint Appropriations Committee. For the first time, the presentation and subsequent discussions were not carried out by the budget director, but by someone else in Hobbs’ staff. Apparently last year’s presentation by her budget director was so embarrassing that the governor chose to send someone else, even though it was against protocol.
It has become obvious that we are facing a shortfall this fiscal year, and Republicans are correctly pointing out that if the budget they initially proposed for FY24 had been adopted, we would not have this shortfall. Unfortunately, what was adopted was a compromise that included a lot more spending than the Republican legislative majority wanted.
Hobbs’ proposed budget contains three elements that are totally false, unreasonable and/or unacceptable.
· Unsustainable and unrealistic rosy economic outlook
· Killing the ESA school choice program that accounts for an infinitesimal portion of the budget.
· One billion dollars in new spending
Clearly, the governor must have a plan B, because there is no way this irresponsible budget will pass.
View the presentation:
Among the bills we are tracking, 11 saw action this week, with these results:
Next week, there will be a lot more action regarding consideration of bills. Among those that we are tracking, 24 are scheduled for action, as follows:
To watch lively discussions of important and controversial bills that are coming up for legislative action, go to our Arizona Bill Watch YouTube channel, at