Arizona Lawmakers on Break Amid Budget Talks with Governor’s Office

Arizona’s legislative chambers are on a brief hiatus, providing lawmakers with a chance to zero in on budget discussions with the governor’s office. This recess, which spans two weeks for the House and three for the Senate, aims to facilitate a consensus before the fiscal deadline on June 30.

Capitol Media Services’ Howie Fischer shed light on these developments during a segment on The Show.

In-Depth Conversation

MARK BRODIE: Good morning, Howie.

HOWARD FISCHER: Good morning. Yes, I’m in Havasu City half a Sioux City with a bunch of drunken lawmakers. You know, we’ve all decided that, if in fact we’re not going to have daily meetings, why are we sitting in Phoenix at 101 degrees?

BRODIE: Absolutely. So, like, do we have a sense of if the parties are anywhere close to an agreement? Like the governor released her budget, as she is required to do in January. We’ve not really seen a plan from GOP legislators.

FISCHER: And that’s been really interesting because it used to be that once the governor released her budget, several days later, the Republicans, who have been in the majority in the Legislature would release their budget, and then you’d have a series of hearings. And that would allow people to kind of do fact finding and determine for example does the Department of Economic Security need this amount of money. You know, what are the plans for the expansion of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System? Do we need money for certain new roads?

All that has gone behind closed doors, which means that the leadership probably has an idea of what they’d like to spend it on, but they haven’t shared it with the public. They may have shared a few details with the rank and file, but part of the other problem is we’re not sure what the revenue numbers are going to be for next year, you know. We realize that the the tariffs, as was reported this morning, are kind of a changing scenario here in terms of is it 35% or 150% in terms of China, that clearly affects consumer spending and as you know, half the state budget is based on, on sales tax. So we’re kind of in a holding pattern here.

But more to the point is a lot of the Republican lawmakers don’t want to go to the budget until they resolve this question of Prop. 123. Now remember back 10 years ago voters said we want to take more money out of the state trust fund, about $350 million a year, and put it toward K-12 education. And that authorization expires later this year. Now, the money is going to keep coming out of the general fund, so there’s not going to be any loss if they don’t deal with it. But there are several plans out there to keep taking the money out.

Republicans want to put it all to teacher salaries, maybe $4,000 a year. The governor has a plan to go ahead and do some teacher salaries, some support staff, some bus drivers, some school security and other miscellaneous items. And then of course you’ve got the real complicating factor the Republicans want to tie that which has to go to the voters to putting a right to vouchers into the state constitution. So that needs to be the first thing resolved and then maybe we’ll get to the budget and hopefully, as you point out, by the end of the fiscal year.

BRODIE: Well, so Howie, this raises the question because the Legislature does not need the governor’s sign off to send a Prop. 123 renewal to the ballot. I mean, one can debate whether it would be helpful to have everybody on board since it barely passed 10 years ago.

So does that indicate that Republicans are still sort of negotiating amongst themselves to get a package of Prop. 123 renewal that they can all agree on before moving on to dealing with the Democratic governor?

FISCHER: Oh, I certainly think so, because as you point out, they can do it with 16 Republicans in the Senate and 31 Republicans in the House, and they’ve got a couple of extra members who, if they go south, don’t screw it up.

But I think there are also members who say, why would we put something on the ballot with a poison pill in it. And even if they agree with the idea of vouchers, why, you know, why poke the bear? Vouchers are happening. Any Arizona child is entitled to a voucher of state funds. It starts about $7,400 a year, it goes up from there depending on needs can get a voucher. The legality voucher has been upheld by not only the Arizona Supreme Court, but the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now the argument by lawmakers is, well, yes, but a future Legislature, future governor may be able to scale back vouchers, and the governor in her budget said that she wants to scale back so anybody earning over $200,000 a year doesn’t get a voucher for their child. Is it worth, you know, going ahead and screwing up pay raises for teachers and additional money for teachers? You know, to accomplish what, a, a document in the Constitution that may or may not be needed.

BRODIE: So, Howie, I guess this kind of goes back to where we started. We don’t, other than some of the things that the governor put in her budget proposal in January that the Republicans said they don’t like, we don’t really have a great sense of what the sticking points are or like what the points of agreement might be doing.

FISCHER: No, we know that the governor, again, as we mentioned, wants to scale back vouchers. That’s been pronounced a nonstarter. There are some things that I think everyone realizes needs to be funded. For example, prison health care. The state has been paying millions and millions of dollars after a federal court said you’re not taking care of inmates and it’s become grossly negligent.

You have the questions of the governor, for example, wanting $100 million for subsidized child care with businesses. Republicans may or may not support some of that because if it’s a partnership with businesses, but they’re, they’re interested in curbing other programs. I mean, by virtue of the fact that they’ve sent her bills to curb back on unemployment and food stamps and everything else. So a lot of it is going to become philosophical.

And then there’s always these tiny little things that come up. I need a traffic circle in my district, and I want $5 million for that, and I won’t get on the budget until you show that. And those are the tiny little things that everyone wants. The governor, I’m sure, wants more money into the housing trust fund. So this is going to be, let’s just say we’re not getting out of here, you know, by Memorial Day. I’m hoping we get out of here, you know, by the middle of June because there’s a lot to be decided.

BRODIE: Sure sounds that way.