Bob Christie
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX — Three months into the Arizona Legislature’s annual session, lawmakers are ready to take some time off and go to a work schedule many would love to have — just one day a week.But the move to Wednesdays-only at the Capitol is a sign that lawmakers are ready to finally start tackling the most serious issue facing the Republican-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs this year: hammering out a state budget deal.Getting to an agreement will be a hard lift this year, because a massive budget deficit means cuts, and lots of them. And there’s new spending that needs to be squeezed in as well, including more than $100 million to meet a federal judge’s order to improve prison health care; and a projected $450 million boost for the state’s Medicaid program.Hobbs acknowledged last week that she’s hoping new revenue forecasts due April 11 will help close a massive gap between the shortfall her office’s budget team projects and the deficit expected by the Legislature’s budget team.
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“I certainly think that those projections will help us have a better picture of where the revenue is because I think that’s one of the biggest places of contention right now,” Hobbs said.Her office projects a deficit nearing $1 billion between the current and upcoming budget year. Analysts for the Legislature’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee put that number at $1.7 billion. And that doesn’t include $300 million in K-12 education spending labeled as “one-time” in the current budget that is likely to continue in the coming budget years.’Some of those are not going to happen’Republican lawmakers have been griping for more than a month about Hobbs’ budget staff delaying the start of negotiations, with some early meetings canceled and others reset.The governor said last week she wasn’t aware of any cancellations.The first talks finally happened last week, GOP House Speaker Ben Toma said, nearly three months after Hobbs released her proposed state spending plan for the budget year that starts on J …
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