The City of Phoenix sued the state today, arguing the Arizona Legislature illegally stuffed dozens of non-appropriation policies into a budget bill.

The lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, targets HB2893, the criminal justice budget reconciliation bill, which is among several measures that outlined state spending in Fiscal Year 2022. The city is asking the court to stop the law from going into effect pending litigation and to ultimately find it unconstitutional.

The city argued that the bill violates the Arizona Constitution’s single-subject rule, as well as its requirement that the title of a bill discloses its contents.

“This year’s budget illegally limits cities’ abilities to serve our communities and undermines the legislative process,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a news release.

Education groups last week filed a lawsuit targeting several budget reconciliation bills, also arguing they violated the single-subject rule and the title requirement.

The city argues that the criminal justice budget reconciliation bill is far cry from focusing on a single subject – it contains language affecting 10 different agencies and amending or repealing at least 24 sections of the Arizona Revised Statutes.

In particular, the city argues that one provision effectively nullifies its Office of Accountability and Transparency, which the city created this year to provide independent review of Phoenix Police Department.

The city’s rules prohibit those in law enforcement from working in the office, as well as their immediate family members. However, HB2893 will limit participation on civilian review boards to only those who have received law enforcement training, such as in a police academy, or been certified by Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training.

The U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating the city and the police department over claims of excessive force, discriminatory policing, retaliation against protestors and its response to people who are homeless or have disabilities.

The suit also takes issue with the bill’s expansion of what a legislator can target in an SB1487 complaint. Currently, a single legislator can ask the Attorney General’s Office to investigate the actions of a local governing board that he or she thinks violate state law or the Arizona Constitution.

HB2898 expands the scope to also include “any written policy, written rule or written regulation adopted by any agency, department or other entity of the county, city or town.”

“Regardless of one’s position on police oversight and SB1487, those amendments deserved our Legislature’s proper (and constitutional) consideration,” the lawsuit says. “But by burying the amendments within the 8-subject, 28-section Act that legislates on everything from water rights to military buildings – beneath a title promising provisions on criminal-justice budget reconciliation – the Legislature has “‘[stifled] valuable debate within government’s most important forum of persuasion and policymaking, the Legislature.’”