A quick rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly at the Arizona State Legislature:
🎉 Gov. Hobbs Signs DDD Funding Bill: This week, all eyes were on the Department of Developmental Disabilities (DDD). With just 6 days to go until money for services for children with severe disabilities was scheduled to run out, the legislature finally reached a compromise under the leadership of Nancy Gutierrez (D-18) & Julie Willoughby (R-13), sending a bill continuing the program to Hobbs' desk for her signature. Hobbs said in signing the bill, "This bipartisan deal prevents previously proposed 50% cuts to (the Parents as Paid Caregivers Program), adds common-sense guardrails and ensures PPCG will not be held hostage by the legislature again." Even lawmakers like David Livingston (R-28) and Matt Gress (R-4), who had spitefully pushed for draconian cuts to the program and attempted to hijack the process and blame Gov. Hobbs every step of the way, voted for the solution in the end. We encourage lawmakers to bring this spirit into budget negotiations as they begin.
💸 Budget dangers: With a funding continuation for the Department of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) now firmly in place, the next step on lawmakers' agenda is negotiating a state budget. Withered state revenues and federal chaos and uncertainty make this an extremely difficult task. With no budget, Arizona has just over 60 days left until a state-level shutdown. This makes your engagement critical. Stay in contact with your state senator and representatives, as well as the governor's office ([email protected] or 602-542-4331), to be sure they are aware of the public's expectations — to reinvest in PUBLIC education. Click HERE to send your lawmakers email now!
🙅♀️ Ballot referrals: At this stage in legislative proceedings, lawmakers often negotiate backroom deals as the price of an individual budget vote. It's important to know which ballot referrals are still alive and contact your state senator and representatives to express your wishes. Each of these measures needs only a vote in their crossover chamber before proceeding directly to the ballot, circumventing the governor's signature or veto.
SCR1009, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would ask voters to amend the Arizona Constitution to require a two-thirds supermajority vote in the Legislature for fees and assessments. A similar constitutional provision for taxes has crippled revenue for the general fund over decades, making it nearly impossible to fund our state’s many needs and priorities, including public schools. OPPOSE
SCR1014, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would ask voters to mandate that, if Arizona has a budget surplus in any given year, the state must automatically cut income tax rates by 50% for the following year. Arizona’s budget is one of the smallest per capita in the US, and schools are funded at 49th in the country. Meanwhile, Arizona still gives away more money every year ($29.9 billion) in tax credits and carve-outs than it spends in its budget. Any budget surplus isn’t evidence that we’re collecting too much revenue; it’s evidence of lawmakers’ persistent unwillingness to invest in our public schools and services. The fiscal note projects a loss of $175 million in FY2027 alone. The House refused to pass this idea in 2023. OPPOSE
HCR2015, sponsored by Lisa Fink (R-27), would ask voters to amend the Arizona Constitution to let the legislature direct federal funding however they wish if Trump dissolves the Department of Education and turns the money into block grants to states for them to spend as they please, with no strings attached. This could allow the state to redistribute Title I funds (supporting under-resourced schools) and IDEA funds (supporting disabled and special needs students) to private school vouchers with no strings attached. OPPOSE
HCR2025, sponsored by Alexander Kolodin (R-3), is a copy of a failed bill from last year that would ask voters to restrict their own direct democracy powers by requiring a supermajority vote on constitutional amendments. The bill is motivated by majority lawmakers’ increasing frustration with measures they don’t like (voters’ frustration with lawmakers who don’t listen apparently doesn’t figure in). OPPOSE
HCR2042, sponsored by Steve Montenegro (R-29), would ask voters to enshrine racism in the state Constitution. This culture-war-driven measure would prevent the state from giving BIPOC-owned businesses any preference in state contracts, keep school districts from specifically hiring black or brown teachers in an effort to increase representation, block teachers from discussing inclusion and equity issues that have arisen despite the 14th Amendment, and ban an undefined scope of content from being taught in schools. This would negatively impact student learning, as well as teacher retention and recruitment. The legislature would be allowed to also "prescribe related practices or concepts" to ban (also subject to a broad and undefined interpretation). OPPOSE
HCR2057, sponsored by Rachel Keshel (R-17), would ask voters to restrict Arizona’s initiative and referendum process by requiring that ballot measures collect signatures from a percentage of voters in all of Arizona’s 15 counties. This would effectively give any single county veto power over the rest, allowing the most extreme area of the state to veto measures that have broad support. Voters just rejected a similar measure, the "dangerous" Prop 134, in November. OPPOSE
✅ Stay in the know: The SOSAZ 2025 Bill Tracker contains full information about all bills SOSAZ supports or opposes in 2025 and gives you up-to-the-minute information on where these bills stand.
