Arizona’s 1st-year governor vetoes GOP-backed state budget

PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a Republican-backed budget Thursday, calling it “one-sided” and “an insult to Arizonans.”

Hobbs’ budget plan announced in January proposed $17.1 billion in spending for the 2024 fiscal year, which starts on July 1 of this year.

The GOP-led House and Senate had voted along party lines Monday in favor of a $15.8 billion package that would extend current-year spending for another 12 months.

“This do-nothing budget kicks the can down the road and it’s an insult to Arizonans who need their leaders to address affordable housing, invest in public education and put money back into their pockets,” Hobbs said in a statement. “Rather than tackling difficult choices, this budget presents Arizonans with false choices. The purely-partisan budget says that we can’t invest in our state now and invest in our future.”

The Arizona Republic reports that Hobbs’ budget shifts money to her preferred projects, like a $150 million deposit into a state fund that helps to make housing available and $50 million to create a state child tax credit.

Hobbs, in her first year in office, said she is “asking the Legislature to genuinely and seriously work with me on a budget that puts people, not politics first.”