With an approaching deadline to pay disability services providers, the House Appropriations Committee chairman said it’s a realistic goal for the Legislature to get a budget signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs by the end of April. 

Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria, said on March 12 that the House and Senate are aiming to get a budget deal done before May 1. 

“Our goal is to pass a budget and sine die before May 1 to fix last year’s budget, this year’s budget, the three-year rolling budget all at the same time,” Livingston said. “It’s realistic. All it takes is all the parties sitting at the table negotiating.”

The Division of Developmental Disabilities is facing a $122 million shortfall and will run out of cash to pay to service providers by May, creating urgency to get a budget deal done for Republican lawmakers who say they’re not willing to appropriate emergency funding outside of a budget deal. 

But both Livingston and Hobbs say budget negotiations haven’t started yet. 

Hobbs on Feb. 26 called on Republicans to stop using families with children with developmental disabilities as “pawns” and for them to send her their budget priorities. A week later on March 6, she said budget negotiations hadn’t moved forward from when she called on the legislature to act. 

“These are not Democratic or Republican kids,” Hobbs said. “These are kids with disabilities that need the services the state provides. Republicans don’t bat an eye on issuing supplemental funding for overspending on ESAs and these are critical services that families in Arizona need.”

Livingston said Wednesday that neither he nor Senate Appropriations Chairman Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, has met with the governor’s staff yet to discuss the budget. 

The first two budgets negotiated between Hobbs and the legislature in 2023 and 2024 both have resulted in Hobbs signing each budget package after May. 

Doug Cole, a political consultant and lobbyist with HighGround Public Affairs Consultants, said the funding for the Division of Developmental Disabilities is just one of many issues that is being “hyper-politicized” as both Republicans and Democrats are thinking about Hobbs’ re-election efforts in 2026. 

“[Republicans] are building that narrative about fiscal management,” Cole said. “Rightly or wrongly, that’s a narrative.”

House Republican leadership issued a joint statement on March 6 blaming Hobbs for the shortfall in the Developmental Disabilities program. They accused her administration of “reckless spending decisions” made without consulting the legislature. 

“Political games must end. Governor Hobbs must instruct her agency staff to work constructively with us. Reforms are necessary to prevent this disaster from repeating itself. Arizona taxpayers and families deserve better than empty rhetoric and mismanagement,” Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Goodyear; Majority Leader Michael Carbone, R-Buckeye; Speaker Pro Tempore Neal Carter, R-Queen Creek; and Majority Whip Julie Willoughby, R-Chandler, wrote in the joint statement. 

The Arizona Republic reported in February that DDD’s funding issue stems from cuts to the Parents as Paid Caregivers program, which started during the COVID pandemic with federal funds to help parents care for children with disabilities at home. 

Hobbs tried to use state funds to continue the program in 2024 but the legislature didn’t agree to her funding request in the budget, so she used pandemic recovery dollars to fund the program. Still, enrollment in the DDD program has only increased since that decision, leading to a budget shortfall. 

Republicans are seeking reform to the program and said they will not “rubber-stamp” a Democratic attempt to give emergency funding to the program. 

During a Feb. 19 House Appropriations hearing, Republicans rejected an offered amendment to HB2449 from Democrats that would have appropriated the $122 million that DDD needs. And Livingston said Republicans would only address the issue as part of the budget package.

GOP lawmakers have proposed cutting DDD’s budget by 25% to 50%, which Hobbs called “inhumane” and “fiscally irresponsible” after she released a budget update on March 5 that indicates the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program will need supplemental funding of $48.4 million.

“Republicans are weaponizing a routine part of the budgeting process to hold Arizonans with disabilities hostage,” Hobbs said in a news release. “In the FY24 budget, Republicans supported a $274.8 million ESA entitlement supplemental.”

Despite the rhetoric from both Hobbs and Republican lawmakers and the lack of budget discussions, Livingston said he believes a deal can be reached before May since he feels the House’s budget priorities are mostly aligned with Hobbs in transportation projects and funding for border law enforcement support to the Department of Public Safety. 

“We will have those meetings and, once those meetings start, if the House, Senate and Governor’s team want to get this done, we meet daily sometimes. And that can happen very fast,” Livingston said. “When she sees that formal list of House priorities, I think it’s all things she could easily agree to.” 

The Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council has called on the legislature to act fast and said the Republican proposal to cut DDD’s funding by a quarter to half of its current budget is unrealistic and would lead to dire consequences for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

“Any effort to further cut services will only deepen these issues, leaving individuals without the critical support they need to live independently, maintain employment and participate fully in their communities,” the council wrote. “Further cuts would drive even more frontline workers out of the field, worsening the crisis. These services are not luxuries; they are medically necessary and fundamental to the well-being and rights of Arizonans with disabilities.”