Key Points: 

• House approved Senate’s bipartisan budget

• Two previous House budgets have failed

• Senate and the governor expected to approve the budget proposal

The Arizona House of Representatives has finally passed a bipartisan budget that Gov. Katie Hobbs can sign, possibly averting a government shutdown that would have occurred if no deal were struck by June 30.

It is the third spending package the chamber has passed and the first with Democratic support. Senate Bill 1735 passed with a supermajority of 40-16 despite significant efforts from some House Republicans to reject and replace the proposal with their own packages. 

“We have been hard at work for months. In fact, the House has led every step of the way,” said Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Goodyear. “We come together because we have a divided government and what we can do, as Republicans, we have done. We’re holding the line, and I’m proud of that. We’re holding the line on spending. We’re holding the line on school choice. We’re holding the line on the values that matter to us.”

The House-approved $17.6 billion bipartisan budget was passed by the Senate on June 20, with some minor amendments to bring House members into agreement. 

A Senate GOP news release confirmed the Senate is expected to approve the House’s amendments on June 27, and the governor is expected to sign the budget package once it clears the Senate. 

“We were able to reach a consensus to fund the core functions of government. I appreciate the collaboration with the House over the past few days to get this spending plan across the finish line,” Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said in the news release. “We have delivered a balanced budget with bipartisan priorities funded, like K-12 schools, transportation, public safety, and protecting our small businesses. We believe this is a bipartisan spending plan that will get signed.” 

Thursday’s vote comes after weeks of House Republicans attempting to get a lower spending bill signed by the governor. They first passed a $17.3 billion budget on June 13, which only Republicans voted for. That measure largely lacked support from the Senate. 

When it became clear Hobbs would never sign that budget, House Republicans passed a $17 billion continuation budget on June 24 as a last resort measure to maintain last year’s budget and prevent a government shutdown while buying more time for negotiations. Similar to the first attempt at a budget, only Republicans in the chamber supported it. 

The Senate passed both budgets in separate mass motions the following day, and Hobbs vetoed both proposals just a few hours later. Those vetoes left the Senate’s bipartisan budget as the only plan left on the table.

“This balanced, bipartisan budget is the result of intense, months-long negotiations and delivers important Democratic wins,” said House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos, D-Laveen. “The plan is not perfect and nobody gets everything they want, but this budget delivers for public school students, protects Medicaid, and expands health care for cancer patients and tribal members.”

Some big ticket items in the budget include $27 million for new vehicles, equipment and building repairs for the Department of Public Safety, a 5% pay raise for all state law enforcement officers, 15% raises for state firefighters and $119 million for transportation projects like widening Interstate-10 and other major projects for State Route 347.

The budget also includes $281 million in new funding for K-12 education. Most of that comes from a $183 million appropriation for school building renewal grants. 

The Arizona Promise Program, which helps low-income college students obtain scholarships, also received $16 million in the budget. 

“We in this Legislature right now have to be the big people in the room and pass this budget before Arizona closes,” said Rep. Lupe Contreras, D-Avondale. “(We have to) do what the federal government is not willing to do for this state and is cutting for this state.” 

The amendment that House members included on SB1735 contains many minor spending adjustments that were in the House’s first budget. It has a $3 million deposit to the Erroneous Convictions Fund, $3.2 million for a pilot program to assist law enforcement agencies with public records, $2.3 million for fire incident management grants, and a $500,000 appropriation to the Arizona Department of Education to seek automated external defibrillator grants, among other allocations.

Some House Republicans opposed the bipartisan deal and Freedom Caucus members offered several rejected amendments to the budget, including one which would prevent the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System from using public or private funds for the health care of people who are not lawfully present in the U.S. Several of these amendments also failed during the Senate’s vote on the budget. 

The House’s first budget included a 2.5% reduction in college tuition for in-state students and a three-year freeze on tuition increases, which is not in the bipartisan budget that House members passed.

“Good gosh, we’re trying to lower tuition rates in Arizona for our students. I don’t know how that’s partisan,” said Rep. Joe Chaplik, R-Scottsdale.

Another rejected amendment proposed by Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, would reduce the funding for AHCCCS by just under $40 million to freeze Medicaid enrollment for anyone who is eligible via Medicaid expansion. Olson urged the state to consider reducing its spending in anticipation of federal cuts from the Trump administration. 

“We’ve got to get conservative, fiscal responsibility on the Ninth Floor,” Olson said. 

A handful of House Democrats also voted against the budget, including Reps. Alma Hernandez, D-Tucson; Anna Abeytia, D-Phoenix; Consuelo Hernandez, D-Tucson; Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear; Lydia Hernandez, D-Phoenix; Myron Tsosie, D-Chinle; and Elda Luna-Najera, D-Tolleson. 

Sandoval said her vote against the budget was from the state appropriating nearly $1 billion for the universal expansion of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. 

Most of the other Democrats said they were concerned about a $24 million appropriation to the gang and immigration intelligence team enforcement mission fund, but De Los Santos and Hobbs’ spokesman Christian Slater have disputed that those dollars will be used for mass deportations. That language has also existed in the budget for years.

Alma Hernandez said that while she voted for previous budgets that included that language, she is now uncomfortable voting for it while President Donald Trump is in office. 

“My morals and my values cannot allow me to support the terrorizing of my community,” she said. 

The House also voted to waive the aggregate expenditure limit for public schools in the upcoming two fiscal years. 

House members expect to sine die with the Senate on Friday.