Key points:

• Republicans passed the $122 million funding bill on party lines

• Democrats oppose the funding as it pulls from other social programs

• The House Majority Whip seeks a bipartisan answer that Democrats support

House and Senate Republicans at the Arizona Legislature advanced a bill that would provide $122 million of emergency funding to the Division of Developmental Disabilities, but the proposal is unpopular with Gov. Katie Hobbs, legislative Democrats and members of the developmentally disabled community. 

There is little time for negotiations. DDD will run out of funds to pay caregivers by the end of April, which could leave tens of thousands of families who depend on services from the agency without state aid if a funding bill isn’t signed. 

“If we do not complete that task, around May, all the DDD programs in the state of Arizona will shut down,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria. “I find that unacceptable.”

The House and Senate Appropriations committees passed mirror bills intended to provide DDD with the funding it needs on April 14 in House Bill 2945 and Senate Bill 1734. Both measures passed on party line votes, and some House Republicans opposed the bill they heard. 

Hobbs and Democrats have called for a “clean” funding bill, but Republicans are moving legislation that would take tens of millions from the Housing Trust Fund and the Prescription Drug Rebate Fund to cover the $122 million. 

The bill would appropriate: 

• $38 million from the Housing Trust Fund. 
• $10 million from the Arizona Commerce Authority Competes Fund
• $74 million from the Prescription Drug Rebate Fund

Although Senate Republicans voted in support of the measure, they acknowledged the bill wasn’t a finished product and would need some amendments in order to keep their support once it reached the Committee of the Whole. 

“This is not a perfect bill, not even close,” said Sen. Carine Werner, R-Scottsdale. “But along with the money has to come guardrails to the policy.”

Democrats in both chambers attempted to move an amendment that simply funded DDD through general fund dollars, but Republicans voted down those proposals. 

“If we can get this supplemental clean bill done, then we can come to the table in the budget process and talk about reforms,” said House Assistant Minority Leader Nancy Gutierrez.

Sen. Lauren Kuby, D-Tempe, proposed an amendment in the Senate hearing that would’ve provided a clean continuation of funding, but Republicans rejected the measure. Kuby later called the bill without the proposed amendment “veto bait” since it currently lacks Hobbs’ support.

“I’ll say right now this bill amounts to legislative terrorism,” she said.

Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, called the funding proposal from Democrats and Hobbs “financially irresponsible,” but a bipartisan amendment could be introduced later as the House and Senate continue to negotiate. 

House Majority Whip Julie Willoughby, R-Chandler, offered an amendment to the House bill that had bipartisan support, but three late Republican additions prior to the start of the April 15 House Appropriations Committee hearing ensured the amendment wouldn’t be included on the bill as it heads to the House floor. It failed in the committee 10-11. 

“Today’s committee proceedings felt predetermined with the makeup of the committee tilted to ensure the outcome of what we see before us right now,” said Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear. “We had a real opportunity for bipartisan cooperation.”

House Majority Leader Michael Carbone, R-Buckeye; and Reps. Selina Bliss, R-Prescott, and John Gillette, R-Kingman, are not normal members of the House Appropriations Committee. They were added as members shortly before the start of the hearing. 

All three of them voted against Willoughby’s amendment, which would have provided emergency funding. 

The amendment would also remove required legislative approval of Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System waivers in favor of a review from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. It would also remove language from the bill that instructs AHCCCS to submit a waiver request that caps the number of hours paid to parents in the program to 20 while keeping the 40-hour cap that both Hobbs and Republicans have suggested for the immediate future. 

The GOP bill would require AHCCCS to request a waiver to reduce the number of hours parents can work as paid caregivers to a maximum of 20 hours per week. Willoughby’s amendment cuts that language for a 40-hour weekly cap that Republicans and the governor already plan to implement by July 1.

Republicans have accused Hobbs of “unilaterally” expanding DDD through the Parents as Paid Caregivers program without approval from the Legislature. The program was introduced during the Covid pandemic and the Legislature didn’t agree to using state dollars to fund it as federal funds have expired. 

Without Willoughby’s amendment, the bill also proposes to give the legislature oversight over Medicaid waiver requests from AHCCCS and the monthly payments for health care service providers.

Willoughby was in tears by the end of the Appropriations Committee hearing as she apologized to a packed committee room full of DDD families. She voted against the bill without her amendment. 

“I choose you as my hill to die on,” Willoughby said to the families. “I’m sorry this is happening to you.”

Her seatmate, Rep. Jeff Weninger, R-Chandler, also voted against the bill without Willoughby’s amendment. He accused both Republicans and Democrats of playing politics on the issue.

“This should be the last subject on everybody’s minds to do that,” Weninger said. “To our side and to the Governor’s Office: Get in a damn room already. We’ve had months, and I’m not blaming one side nor the other. I just know they haven’t met — either side.”

Several members of the audience agreed with Weninger. More than 500 people signed as opposed to the bill on the Legislature’s website compared to eight who signed to support it. 

“This community is not OK with how you are handling this,” said Michele Thorne, a parent and the executive director of the Care 4 the Caregivers organization that seeks to assist parents raising children with disabilities. “Lives are on the line here. This is not just ESA funding for schools. This is critical care for disabled children. Why are we doing this?”

Thorne and a number of other parents and caregivers held a press conference after the Senate Appropriations hearing to express disappointment over a number of provisions in the bills that they view as harmful to those with disabilities and their caregivers, including the proposal to reduce the Parents as Paid Caregivers Program from 40 hours to 20 hours per week.

“The passage of (SB1734) and (HB2945) from this committee moves us one step closer to policies threatening the most vulnerable Arizonans,” said Brandi Coon, co-founder of the Raising Voices Coalition. “Children and adults with complex medical and behavioral needs, their families and the direct care system that supports them is hanging by a thread.”

Coon and the rest of the group called on Republicans and Democrats to work with families and providers to amend the bills before the final legislation reaches Hobbs.

Livingston said he’s tried to meet with Hobbs’ staff, but has largely been ignored because the Governor’s Office didn’t believe the Senate Appropriations Committee would pass the DDD bill from himself and Sen12. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills. 

Hobbs’ Chief of Staff Chad Campbell wrote in a post on X during the House hearing that Livingston told Hobbs’ office through a third party that the bill would be “the best & only bill the Governor would get on DD funding.”

“That isn’t collaboration. That is a threat,” Campbell wrote. 

Livingston said he wanted to incorporate parts of Willoughby’s amendment in a future floor amendment, but said the process is tricky because the lack of time to modify the bill has created a scenario where the House and Senate bills have to be identical as they go through each chamber. 

“There isn’t another way. There really isn’t,” Livingston said. “But the work’s not done. The work is not close to being done.”