Arizona legislators are fuming and accusing Governor Katie Hobbs of abruptly walking away from budget negotiations on Friday. The lawmakers claim that the governor is “distorting the facts while advancing a budget plan that would put Arizona taxpayers and students in jeopardy.”
On Friday, the Arizona Governor’s Office announced it was ending budget negotiations because Republicans were allegedly refusing to participate in “good-faith.”
“Governor Hobbs chose to walk away from budget negotiations despite a path forward being within reach,” said Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Steve Montenegro in a joint statement. “At the center of this dispute is her proposal to dramatically increase withdrawals from Arizona’s Public Land Trust, a voter-protected fund designed to support K-12 education for generations. This is not a solution. It is a long-term raid on a critical resource. According to legislative budget analysts, the Governor’s proposal would cut the trust nearly in half over the next 20 years, dropping it from roughly $9.7 billion to $4.7 billion. Her latest plan calls for a 10.9 percent distribution for the next 20 years, far above the previous 6.9 percent over ten years. That approach would bankrupt the trust and rob future education funding from our children just to please unions today.”
Petersen and Montenegro claimed Hobbs’ “proposal also relies on unrealistic assumptions, including sustained high investment returns with no economic downturn for two decades, while dramatically increasing withdrawals beyond historical levels. The broader budget follows the same pattern, layering in $1.5 billion in new debt, higher taxes and fees, and questionable revenue projections to cover increased spending. That is not a balanced budget.”
The lawmakers accused the governor of wanting “to drain a voter-protected education fund, pile on $1.5 billion in new debt, and rely on numbers that simply don’t add up.”
We have shown the Governor’s Office a balanced budget with tax conformity. We’ve put forward a responsible plan that cuts taxes for working families and funds schools without gimmicks. She walked away from the table because her math doesn’t work. Arizonans deserve better than headlines and blame-shifting.”
Gov. Katie Hobbs’ communications director, Christian Slater, accused Republicans “holding teachers, students, and parents hostage to their partisan agenda by refusing to discuss Prop 123 proposals in budget negotiations. Public education funding should be a bipartisan issue.”
Public education should be bipartisan, but @AZSenateGOP and @AZHouseGOP are putting their partisan political agenda ahead of Prop 123 in budget negotiations. Budget negotiations are off until they show the people of Arizona their budget.
Full statement from me below 👇 pic.twitter.com/dwmueAbN0E
— Christian Slater (@slaterchrisj) March 20, 2026
Despot!