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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said on April 17 that she would not sign any legislation until Republican lawmakers passed a massive spending bill affecting 60,000 disabled Arizonans.
Hobbs’s moratorium is a counter to House Republicans introducing HB2945, a bill denying Hobbs more funding for Arizona’s Division of Developmental Disabilities program, and instead reallocates funds already under her control.
On April 3, a Republican-formed committee learned at its first meeting that the Hobbs Administration was $122 million short on its budget for fiscal year 2025, jeopardizing the DDD program.
The House Ad Hoc Committee on Executive Budget Mismanagement alleged that Hobbs — without approval from the Legislature — expanded the disabilities program by making a temporary COVID policy permanent, among other allegations. The COVID program paid parents to provide care to their own disabled children, according to a House Republican news release.
$122 million later, Hobbs wants Republican lawmakers to pass a supplemental funding bill to cover the deficit that her policies reportedly created.
“This crisis didn’t happen overnight,” said Republican House Speaker Steve Montenegro in a news release. “The Hobbs administration expanded programs in DDD without legislative approval and delayed or ignored key program limitations. They now want taxpayers to bail them out — without a plan to fix it.”
The DDD program serves nearly 60,000 vulnerable Arizonans, including children and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and other disabilities, according to a House Republicans news release.
If Hobbs doesn’t get her way, the DDD program will shut down May 1, leaving disabled Arizonans without the services they’ve come to depend on.
“What our message has been along is, we want to be responsible,” Montenegro told The Western Journal in a phone interview. “We’ve got families expecting these funds. And we will pass a bill that funds these vulnerable communities.
“We said we’re going to do a full supplemental. However, we want to make sure there are safeguards in this supplemental to make sure this doesn’t happen again. These families deserve stability.”
The Republican House bill, without raising taxes or increasing spending, would reallocate unused or mismanaged funds that are already under Hobbs’s control. Those include:
- $38 million from the Housing Trust Fund
- $10 million from the Arizona Commerce Authority Competes Fund
- $74 million from the Prescription Drug Rebate Fund
Republicans clashed with Hobbs earlier this year about funding Congregate Care, a Department of Child Safety program.
Hobbs’s office told the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in January that the program needed funding, according to KNXV-TV in Arizona.
The JLBC requested more information regarding a deadline, but Hobbs’s office reportedly did not inform the JLBC until March 5, when the default date was March 24.
“Who waits until 19 days before bankruptcy to tell anybody about it?” Montenegro said at a March 17 news conference.
Without finance, around 1,500 children living in DCS group homes would need to relocate elsewhere.
If JLBC approved the funding, the DCS would simply move money from its other programs to cover the budget deficits, something Hobbs’s office said is a routine practice, according to KNXV-TV.
But Republican lawmakers said the issue was Hobbs’ gross overspending.
“This is not a time for bailouts,” Montenegro said. “This is a time for her to learn how to manage her own budget.”
Ultimately, the JLBC voted to approve the transfer fund on March 20, giving the Congregate Care program what it needed, according to AZ Mirror.
“We’re trying to solve the problem, put in those guardrails, which should be expected by our constituency — doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat, so this never happens again,” Republican House Majority Leader Michael Carbone told The Western Journal, regarding the recent DDD program controversy.
“That no one can play politics with these children. And that’s the narrative. They’re trying to put it on us, and it’s not the case,” Carbone said.
The Western Journal emailed Hobbs’s office but has not received a response at the time of publication.
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