In a flurry of largely partisan votes, House Republicans advanced efforts to renew a funding mechanism for K-12 public schools, approved plans to freeze enrollment for certain Arizonans to the state’s Medicaid program and revived a measure intended to ban foreign adversaries from owning land in the state.
The activity on the House Appropriations Committee signaled a sprint to the end of the current legislative session, as senators across the Capitol hurtled toward passing a bipartisan budget — in contrast to the partisan spending plan House Republicans adopted last week.
Two measures adopted by Republicans on the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday afternoon would bypass the governor and let voters decide whether or not to extend Proposition 123, a funding mechanism that increased the amount of money public schools get from the state land trust fund.
But the GOP-backed ballot referral, HCR 2031, would only allow those funds to be spent on increased pay for certified teachers at K-12 schools. Democrats have argued other school staff are just as vital to student success and also deserve bonuses.
An accompanying ballot referral, HCR 2058, details the creation of a “Teacher Pay Fund” to administer raises to eligible teachers. Union leaders objected to that characterization, arguing that the boost in pay would come not in raised salaries, but bonuses, and only for certain teachers.
And Democrats warned that the revived effort to renew Prop. 123 may be used as a vehicle for a provision to protect Arizona’s school voucher program in the state constitution.
House Appropriations Chair David Livingston (R-Peoria) left open the possibility that the ballot referrals could be further amended on the House floor to include such a constitutional amendment.
“Anything is possible,” Livingston said.
Even some Republicans warned that their support for the measure was tentative, and said they’d oppose the ballot referral if other Republican lawmakers added language to “deregulate” charter and private schools — or as Rep. Walt Blackman (R-Snowflake) put it, exempting those schools from the academic standards to which public K-12 schools are held.
“I truly do not believe that this is the version that will come up for a vote after it is [amended on the House floor],” said Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (D-Tucson) said while voting against the measure.
Republicans on the committee also adopted Senate Bill 1470, a measure that would cut $108 million in funding for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, better known as AHCCCS — the state’s Medicaid program.
Rep. Justin Olson said the proactive cut, as well as a freeze preventing certain Arizonans from enrolling in AHCCCS, was necessary given dramatic cuts in Medicaid funding that have been proposed by congressional Republicans in Washington, D.C.
The freeze would apply to Arizonans who qualify for Medicaid under two previous expansions of the program — an income eligibility adjustment approved by Arizona voters in 2000, and the bipartisan Medicaid expansion approved by state lawmakers in 2013.
The East Valley Republican warned that, if those cuts are adopted and signed into law by President Donald Trump, Arizona would be forced to remove those residents from the state Medicaid rolls anyway.
But Democrats said an enrollment freeze is premature, given continued debates on a GOP spending plan in Congress. And Gutierrez noted that Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs would surely veto this GOP-backed legislation.
“We should be working on the budget,” Gutierrez said. “This is a waste of time.”
Republicans also used SB 1082 to resurrect a legislative effort to dictate who can and cannot purchase land in Arizona — singling out “foreign adversary” nations and individuals. Hobbs vetoed a bill GOP lawmakers passed earlier this month, arguing it was toothless and “ineffective at counter-espionage.”
Senate Majority Leader Janae Shamp vowed that she would work with the governor’s office to find a bipartisan compromise with the revived measure.
