This Week At The Legislature
The final week of budget negotiations was not without its twists and turns. In a last-minute maneuver, a third “skinny budget” was introduced and pushed by House Appropriations Chairman Livingston as the only way to avoid a government shutdown. That simply wasn’t true. I stood on the House floor to correct the record: we had three budgets before us, and one already had the backing of the Governor, the Senate, and House Democrats. The introduction of yet another budget without broad support felt performative and unnecessary. Fortunately, by late Thursday evening the bipartisan budget was brought to the floor for a vote, passing with a 40-19 vote.
I supported this year’s bipartisan budget because it reflects real progress on the issues I have heard our LD 5 community cares most about: access to quality child care, affordable health care, strong public schools, higher education opportunities, and targeted homelessness prevention. These wins were the result of hard work by House Democratic leadership, who negotiated tirelessly to prioritize working families and ensure the most harmful proposals were kept out of the final deal.
This budget has earned the support of advocates and leaders across the state including the Arizona Education Association, AARP, our universities and community colleges, the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona, frontline health care providers, labor unions, and the Arizona Food Bank Network. When such a broad coalition comes together, it’s a sign we’re on the right path. There’s more to do, but we worked hard and took a meaningful step forward.
What we delivered for Arizonans in this budget:
$45 million to cut the child care assistance waitlist in half and boost quality
$37 million in Opportunity Weight funding for students in lower-income schools
$3.8 million to provide free meals for students
$15.5 million for homelessness services, including eviction and utility assistance
$2 million for Homes for Heroes to end veteran homelessness
$34 million for the Promise Program, offering full-ride scholarships to working-class students
$9 million for the Teachers Academy to grow our educator pipeline
$4 million to train more doctors through Graduate Medical Education
$7 million for Area Agencies on Aging that supports seniors with housing and services
$3 million for Tribal health care investments
$3 million in legal aid for workers fighting exploitation
$3 million to protect our share of the Colorado River and fight for Arizona’s water future
$3.9 million for firefighter and law enforcement pay raises (15% and 5%, respectively)
Bill Updates
Early this week we voted on the Ag-to-Urban and Chase Field renovations bill. Both bills were supported by the Governor and passed in the House. I voted in support of the Chase Field bill and against the Ag-to-Urban bill.
