Budget blunders and political pawns

Everyone is always to blame … Especially Wendy and Mark … And former journos are the worst journos.

Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs spent the week locked into a game of chicken over funding for some of Arizona’s most vulnerable people.

Both sides have pledged to solve the problems, which amount to a drop in the ocean of the state budget.

But first, they’re pointing fingers at each other and scoring political points.

The fight is about whether to appropriate another $112 million to keep the Department of Economic Security’s Division of Developmental Disabilities from going dry, and whether to transfer a few million within the Department of Child Safety to continue congregate care programs.

Without legislative intervention, funding for both will run out in the next few weeks.

Nobody wants that to happen.

Republicans have used the potential funding shortfalls as a cudgel to repeatedly bash the governor’s budget management skills. Nearly two dozen Republican lawmakers turned out for a press conference this week to essentially mock her for bad budgeting, announcing that they would launch an Ad Hoc Committee on “Executive Budget Mismanagement,” and blaming the Hobbs administration for either missing or hiding the fact that the funds were running dry.

Hobbs says lawmakers are “lying to their constituents and weaponizing routine budget processes” as they refuse to protect Arizona’s most vulnerable citizens. She accused Republicans of using disabled people and foster children as political pawns in their attempts to make her look bad.

Yesterday, there was a breakthrough: Lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Budget Committee unanimously approved a plan to let DCS transfer roughly $6 million to solve the congregate care funding shortfall.

The $112 million in disability funding is still in the air.

But that compromise didn’t appear to calm the waters. Immediately after the hearing, both sides shot off press releases accusing the other of acting recklessly.

“Her administration’s approach is to overspend, ignore reality, and then demand a last-minute bailout,” Republican Rep. David Livingston, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement yesterday. “That’s not leadership—that’s recklessness.”

“Sadly, this reckless majority continues to use people with autism, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy as their political pawns,” Hobbs said in her own statement. “They have called for ‘reforms’ but have suggested none, they want to ‘negotiate’ solutions in a budget, but refuse to show Arizonans their plan.”

So who’s really acting recklessly?

As usual, there’s some truth to each side’s claims and plenty of blame to go around.

It takes both the governor and the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve a budget, and last year’s budget was no different. Both sides agree that both programs should be fully funded. So the fact that they’re not funded falls on everyone involved in crafting the budget.

But, really, Hobbs bears more of the blame.

That’s because these are her executive agencies that are running out of money, and at the end of the day, she should have ensured that any budget she signed fully funded the programs. And without getting into the weeds of who notified who about the problem and when, it does seem that Hobbs failed to warn lawmakers in a timely manner.

That said, these are very common budget issues with a very simple solution: Lawmakers can vote to fund the programs.

And Republicans have refused to act.

When Republican Gov. Doug Ducey sought line-item transfers within DCS or supplemental mid-year appropriations to cover funding gaps in other executive agencies — which he did frequently — nobody batted an eye, let alone accused him of incompetence.

Republicans are now turning routine funding shortfalls into a political scandal, sparking fears among the disabled community and foster kids that the funding would be shut off without notice.

In the end, we have no doubt that the two sides will find a compromise before the funding runs dry.

Unfortunately, that won’t happen until the politicians are finished scoring their political points.

Meanwhile, the elephant remains in the room: Despite all the bickering, negotiating and compromise on DES and DCS funding this week, true negotiations over the entire state budget have yet to begin.

The acrimony that both sides have built up in these battles could chill their ability to negotiate over the much bigger question — Arizona’s roughly $17 billion budget, which must be approved before July 1.

Or these pre-budget fights could be the catalyst that both sides need to actually get moving on the budget process.

Republicans have shot down multiple attempts from legislative Democrats to solve the $112 million developmentally disabled funding hole in the past few weeks, saying they want to solve the shortfall as part of a larger budget agreement and only with other concessions from the governor.

The disability funding will run out in about five weeks.

Either we’ll have a full budget agreement by then, or one side is going to have to swerve in this game of chicken and solve the immediate $112 million shortfall for the developmentally disabled population.

Anything less would be reckless.

Stolen bills: Republican Rep. Walt Blackman is blaming two Republican senators for stalling his bill to penalize people who lie about military service, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports. Blackman’s primary opponent Steve Slaton was hit with stolen valor accusations during the campaign, and while the bill passed the House unanimously, the lawmaker says Sens. Wendy Rogers and Mark Finchem are keeping it from being heard in the Senate. Both of the Republicans endorsed Slaton in the primary.

When in doubt, attack the press: The CEO of online charter school Primavera and the school’s attorney, who previously represented President Donald Trump, held a press conference at the Capitol Wednesday playing defense for the school and attacking the reporter who uncovered its financial mismanagement, per that reporter, 12News’ Craig Harris. The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools began the process of shutting down Primavera after Harris reported the school showed alarmingly low performance while CEO Damian Creamer received $24 million. Attorney Jesse Binnall told Harris, “we all know you are not a reporter — you are an activist," when he asked why the school hasn’t taken steps to address the problem.

Subverting voters: Legislative Republicans are advancing a bill to pull funding from any healthcare provider that “promotes” abortions, including the Medicaid funding nearly every medical provider in the state receives, the Arizona Mirror’s Gloria Rebecca Gomez reports. Even talking to a patient about abortions would be prohibited under the proposal, which opponents are calling a “backdoor abortion ban” even though voters solidified abortion rights in the state Constitution last year.

Greenbacks for the Dbacks: Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said the cost of renovating Chase Field is a lot higher than the legislative estimates tied to a bill to upgrade the sports arena, the Republic’s Taylor Seely reports. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee’s most recent estimated cost to taxpayers was $450 million, but Gallego said the city projects a $1 billion price tag.

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Politics in the VA: The Department of Veterans Affairs is getting rid of the gender-affirming services it provides in Phoenix, Tucson and Prescott, per the Republic’s Stephanie Innes. Patients already receiving the services will be able to continue, but no new patients will be offered care like hormone blockers and psychosocial assessments due to Trump’s executive order to restore “biological truth to the federal government.”

Trumpizona: Republican U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh sent the FBI a letter asking it to rescind the Department of Justice report that found the Phoenix Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against homeless people and minorities, per KTAR’s Kevin Stone. Meanwhile, Senate President Warren Petersen is taking advantage of the new administration by asking federal officials to lift environmental regulations and undo the federal monument designation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports.

Getting low: Dueling legislative proclamations to celebrate lowrider cars in Arizona evolved into a messy feud between Democratic Rep. Cesar Aguilar and a local influencer, the Republic’s Ray Stern reports. Aguilar wanted to make March 26 Arizona's "lowrider day,” while influencer Jocilia Moreno wanted all of March to be "Arizona National Lowrider Month." The two lowrider enthusiasts began feuding after Moreno started working with Republicans for her proclamation, and the whole thing boiled over at a lowrider car show when Moreno accused Aguilar’s assistant of "aggressively” approaching her, causing Moreno to file for an order of protection.

Fun fact: Working journalists can’t stand politicians who refer to themselves as former journalists.

But if there’s anything that annoys actual reporters more than a politician harping on the fact that they were once a journalist, it’s a politician harping on the fact that they were once a journalist WHILE TAKING NINE MONTHS TO FULFILL A SIMPLE RECORDS REQUEST.

Anyway, thanks, fellow journalist, for the obviously painstaking labor that went into compiling this list of ongoing campaign finance investigations for a request that we filed in June 2024!

That’s super useful information nine months and an election later.