The Arizona Legislature just passed a budget that ensures that Medicaid enrollees actually qualify for Medicaid. It requires food stamp recipients to meet program rules. It cuts taxes for working Arizonans — no tax on tips, no tax on overtime — by bringing the state in line with federal law. It funds schools, public safety and child welfare.

Right now, 78% of Arizona voters support these reforms — but Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed it. The governor should come to the negotiating table and sign these popular reforms into law.

This is the fourth time Hobbs has vetoed the budget since taking office in 2023. The Legislature is now adjourned until June 1. The new fiscal year begins June 30. Arizona has no budget and no scheduled negotiations.

This is a surprisingly radical move by a governor running for re-election with a 42% job approval rating. Welfare fraud and tax cuts are critical issues facing Arizona, and budgets are the easiest way to make program reforms. This is an opportunity that Arizona should not let go to waste.

Arizona’s Medicaid program — called AHCCCS — covers nearly one in three Arizonans. That is an enormous program, and its integrity — and solvency — depends on knowing who is actually in it. The Legislature’s newly passed budget would require quarterly eligibility checks and cross-referencing enrollment data to remove people who no longer qualify. When Arizona began running those same checks on food stamps last summer, enrollment dropped 47%. It wouldn’t be shocking if a similar result happened in Medicaid, saving taxpayers money and ensuring that Medicaid is available for those who need it.

Arizona’s food stamp error rate sits at 8.8%, with nearly one in 11 benefit dollars going to someone ineligible or in the wrong amount. New federal standards require every state to get below 6%. Arizona fails to meet that standard, and is potentially facing a $300 million annual penalty as a result if the state fails to fix it. Republicans passed a standalone fix to reduce erroneous payments in February. But Governor Hobbs vetoed that, too. The budget is another opportunity to stop the waste and save the state hundreds of millions of dollars that could be spent on priorities like education or roads or bridges.

The newly vetoed budget also conforms Arizona’s tax code to the federal changes Congress passed last year — eliminating taxes on tips, eliminating taxes on overtime, expanding deductions for families with children and for seniors. This is a pro-family, pro-worker way to encourage hard work and make life more affordable for working Arizonans.

Republicans also included a budget provision opting Arizona into the new federal tax credit scholarship program, which would allow Arizona students to access scholarships from Scholarship Granting Organizations. Congress authorized this benefit. But Hobbs vetoed it as a standalone bill. The vetoed budget would have brought millions of dollars into the state to meet students’ education needs. There is no cost or downside to opting into the program. Refusing to opt in doesn’t block Arizonans from receiving the tax credit, but it does mean that money will flow to students in other states while Arizona students watch from the sidelines.

The budget spends $800 million less than Hobbs proposed and delivers $1.45 billion in tax relief. Hobbs calls this “reckless and unbalanced.” Sadly, this is part of a pattern of behavior by Governor Hobbs, who has vetoed more bills than any governor in Arizona history — 143 in 2023, a record she broke again in 2025. Welfare reform bills have been arriving on her desk regularly only to be vetoed, while the state’s welfare programs continue to bleed taxpayer dollars to waste, fraud and abuse.

Arizona voters are losing their patience. Hobbs’s disapproval has climbed steadily, reaching 43% by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, some of the reforms in this budget poll at 73% to 78% popularity. It doesn’t take a political genius to know that a governor heading into a re-election year with a 42% job approval rating and a pattern of vetoing popular policy cannot afford to keep saying no. The governor’s veto might even strengthen Republicans’ hand in negotiations.

Contrary to Governor Hobbs’s extreme statements, the Legislature passed a serious, substantive budget that includes responsible reforms to protect taxpayers and ensure government services get to those who need them. It is time for Governor Hobbs to come to the negotiating table and show that, facing re-election, she can finally say ‘yes’ for working families.

MiMi Greene is a state government affairs director at the Foundation for Government Accountability.