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Arizona Gov. Hobbs vetoes partisan Republican budget bills, renews calls for negotiations

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a partisan budget sent to her by legislative Republicans — a plan she described as hollow and one-sided.

In a statement, Hobbs said the budget was an “insult” to Arizonans who need leaders to address affordable housing, invest in public education and put money back in their pockets.

“Rather than tackling difficult choices, this budget presents Arizonans with false choices,” Hobbs said. “The purely-partisan budget says that we can’t invest in our state now and invest in our future. It says that we can’t address the challenges of today and save for the challenges of tomorrow. It says we can’t disagree with each other and work together in the best interest of the state.”

The $15.8 billion spending plan introduced by Republicans and passed on party lines was pitched as a skinny budget – a baseline spending proposal that at least keeps the government afloat if negotiations over other spending goes sour.

In passing the budget, Republican House Speaker Ben Toma described it as a responsible course of action amid an economic recession — and contrasted it with Hobbs’ own budget proposal, a $17.1 billion spending plan that provided new tax credits to low-income parents and boosted funding for K-12 public schools, among other new investments.

“The budget proposal put forward by Gov. Hobbs is full of irresponsible spending and partisan, left-wing demands that are out of step with Arizona — a non-starter in this time of divided government,” Toma said.

It was an unprecedented move for legislative Republicans, who unilaterally moved the bills and bypassed traditional negotiations with the Governor’s Office, now occupied by a Democrat for the first time in more than a decade.

House Minority Leader Andrés Cano described the maneuver as a “sham budget” that Republicans knew would get vetoed.

“This was a colossal waste of time by the GOP,” he said in a statement. “Our doors remain open to Republican lawmakers who are serious about tackling the pressing needs of our state.”

Ben Giles is a senior editor at KJZZ.