Arizona Gov. Hobbs says she won’t sign Republicans’ ‘skinny budget’

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs appears to be prepping her veto stamp for the “skinny budget” plan that Republican lawmakers passed on Monday.

Ramping up a showdown over priorities with the new Democratic governor, the GOP-led House and Senate voted along party lines in favor of a $15.8 billion package that would extend current-year spending for another 12 months.

House Speaker Ben Toma issued a statement saying the Republican plan is a “responsible state budget” and “was crafted with the needs of the state and of Arizona’s families in mind.”

Hobbs, however, is looking to fund at least some of her priorities in her initial budget.

“The issues Arizonans are facing require more than business as usual,” the state’s first Democratic governor since 2009 said Monday on Twitter after the Legislature passed its spending package for fiscal 2024, which starts July 1 of this year.

“I will not sign a budget that is just more of the same and does nothing to demonstrate a desire to move our state forward.”

Democratic lawmakers criticized the GOP for pushing a continuation budget without negotiating across the aisle.

“Put simply, this is a do-nothing budget guised as an attempt to outsmart the hardworking people of Arizona,” House Minority Leader Andrés Cano said in a statement.

“I’m here to tell my colleagues across the aisle what they already know: This budget will be vetoed.”

Soon after taking office in January, Hobbs released an executive budget that emphasized public education, affordable housing and water resources.

Toma called Hobbs’ plan a “left-wing wish list” that was “dead on arrival.”

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