The budget state lawmakers adopted early Wednesday morning is missing something that a majority of lawmakers might actually support.
Earlier this year, the Arizona House voted 47-12 to restore the KidsCare program which was defunded during the recession. It provided health insurance to children of the working poor, those whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but remain below twice the poverty level.
But senators never got to vote after Senate President Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, refused to give the bill a hearing even though the federal government would pick up the entire tab for the next two years.
So Rep. Regina Cobb, R-Kingman, crafted a new plan to help the 30,000 children who would be eligible: make it part of the budget. But on Tuesday, Cobb balked, saying Republican legislative leaders told her if she pushed that plan they would kill other things GOP moderates wanted, like aid to public schools and highway user revenue funds.
"There's a lot of areas that I felt very strongly about. This was one of those areas. But I also felt very strongly about K-12," she said. "I felt strong about a lot of other issues. And I was not willing to give up all of the other things for this one issue."
Democrats tried pushing the plan on their own, only to have it defeated on a party-line vote. Cobb promised to try again next year.