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Hobbs vetoes both House GOP budgets as Arizona government shutdown looms [1]

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Date: 2025-06-25

A feud over Arizona’s budget is slogging toward a possible government shutdown, after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed two budget packages drafted by Republicans in the state House of Representatives.

The Arizona Senate returned to the Capitol Wednesday — after unilaterally seeking to end the annual legislative session — for rapid-fire votes on two separate state budget plans drafted by the House. One was a fully fledged spending plan that included a host of conservative priorities, the other merely maintained the current year’s funding.

Both budget packages passed through the Senate with only Republican support, and those supporters knew they were headed for vetoes.

That leaves the House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, with just days to come to a budget agreement by a June 30 deadline, when the fiscal year ends. If the two chambers — which have been feuding over the budget for weeks — can’t come to an agreement by then that the governor will sign, the state government would shut down for the first time in history.

Hobbs called the House budget plans a “sham” and accused the Republicans who lead that chamber of wasting time with “reckless and partisan budgets.”

“I have long made clear that both of the partisan and reckless House Republican budgets are unacceptable,” Hobbs said in a written statement. “They gut public safety, slash health care for Arizonans, harm businesses, fail to lower costs, and leave our Veterans out in the cold. These unserious budgets are wrong for the people of Arizona.”

House Speaker Steve Montenegro said in a statement that he was disappointed in Hobbs’ vetoes and blamed her for a possible government shutdown.

“The House has done its job, twice,” Montenegro said. “We passed a balanced budget that prioritized responsible spending and core needs. When that plan was rejected, we advanced a continuation budget to avoid disruption and allow time for further negotiations. Both were rejected.”

Montenegro promised that House Republicans would work to ensure government continues to operate and to “protect Arizona taxpayers from the consequences of political brinkmanship.”

But it was House Republicans who abandoned budget negotiations several weeks ago, prompting the Senate and Hobbs to strike a $17.6 billion deal without them.

Hobbs praised the bipartisan deal for its raises for state troopers and firefighters, tax cuts for small businesses and funding to help homeless veterans obtain shelter along with an initiative to make childcare more affordable.

House GOP leaders criticized that plan and instead passed their own budget — without input from Hobbs or Senate Republicans — chock-full of conservative spending and policy priorities, which Hobbs promised to veto.

Senate Republicans worked last week to incorporate some items from the House Republican wish list into their proposal to get them on board with the bipartisan plan, but that plan soon fell apart. So, the Senate passed its bipartisan budget last week, and moved to end this year’s legislative session, in an attempt to force the House to vote on the Senate budget plan.

Instead the House decided to create a “continuation budget” which extended spending at current levels beyond June 30, with the hopes of then working out an agreement with the Senate and Hobbs. The House voted Tuesday evening along party lines to pass the continuation budget.

Senate President Warren Petersen on Wednesday expressed exasperation with political performances by members of his own party that are holding up the passage of the Senate’s negotiated budget

“We have to pass bipartisan budgets,” Petersen said. “It doesn’t take competence or courage to pass a budget that only has Rs on it, because that is how you live and achieve and score short-term political points. And with the help of the shock jocks and troll farms, you can fool some of the people, some of the time. It takes leadership, competence and courage to pass a bipartisan budget in divided government.”

Petersen and other GOP senators have been smeared by some fellow Republicans as RINOs, or Republicans in name only, for daring to negotiate with Hobbs.

Although Petersen didn’t mention anyone by name, it’s clear that at least some of his comments were directed at Sen. Jake Hoffman, a Queen Creek Republican and leader of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus. Hoffman is known for running online troll farms alongside Turning Point USA ahead of the 2018 midterms.

Hoffman delayed the Senate’s vote on its bipartisan budget for hours last week as he proposed numerous amendments copied from the House budget, and pontificated on each of them at length, even though he knew they had no chance of making it into the final Senate budget.

Hoffman accused Petersen and Sen. John Kavanagh, the Senate’s chief budget negotiator, of bowing down to Hobbs’ demands. Kavanagh repeatedly explained that he opposed all of Hoffman’s proposals because they would result in a veto from Hobbs. He reminded Hoffman that a divided government requires compromise.

Petersen on Wednesday said that, in his 13 years at the legislature, he has never seen a more toxic political environment than the current one.

“Optics matters more than substance, and no actual work gets accomplished,” Petersen said, adding that he’s astonished that experienced legislators have been “hoodwinked by charlatans.”

“Let’s stop wasting our time,” Petersen said. “Let’s end the chicanery.”

In her veto letter to House Republicans, Hobbs also urged legislators to set aside their “partisan antics” and to pass the Senate’s bipartisan plan.

“Now, it’s time for House Republican leadership to move past their political stunts and work productively with their colleagues before they force an unnecessary state government shutdown of their own creation,” Hobbs said in the statement.

***UPDATE: This story has been updated with comments from House Speaker Steve Montenegro.

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[1] Url: https://azmirror.com/2025/06/25/hobbs-vetoes-both-house-gop-budgets-as-arizona-government-shutdown-looms/

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