Appropriations committees in both the state House and Senate this week are set to consider a proposal from majority Republicans to fund the Division of Developmental Disabilities through the end of the fiscal year.
That money, though, comes with other provisions that Gov. Hobbs says she does not like. The program is set to run out of money next month, and lawmakers and the governor have been fighting for several weeks over who’s to blame, and what to do about it.
Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services joined The Show to talk about what to expect this week at the state Capitol.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Good morning, Howie.
HOWARD FISCHER: Good morning. I am not to blame. Honest.
BRODIE: No, I don't think you had anything to do with this one. So let's talk about some of those provisions that a majority of Republicans are trying to put in this bill that would essentially fund this program, a big part of which allows parents of kids with developmental disabilities to get paid to be their caregivers. What are some of those other provisions Republicans are trying to get included here?
FISCHER: Well, some of it comes down to where they're going to find the money. They want to cut it from other programs, including some housing programs. They also want to cut future expenses right now, parents of children with disabilities are entitled to get compensated for 40 hours per week. They want to cut that back to 20 hours.
Now remember this program didn't exist before COVID and only existed because during COVID the families couldn't find anybody to come in at any price. And so the question I think in lawmakers' minds is why are we continuing this? The families are saying we still can't find people. And then of course you know going beyond that, the lawmakers want to make sure that we don't end up in this situation again.
Part of the reason we're here is that the Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System and Department of Economic Security have been had the ability to go ahead and seek waivers from the federal government to bring in federal money to fund new programs, to fund expanded programs. All of a sudden, when the federal money runs out, the question is who picks up the cost?
BRODIE: Right. Well, so Governor Hobbs has proposed some guardrails, she's calling them on this program, but it seems as though that she's not really in favor of all or most or all of what the Republicans are proposing. So, like, what's the back and forth going to be like here?
FISCHER: Well, as you point out, the governor's idea is just, just give me the money and everything will be fine. No one will get hurt and that's nice, but it lacks the political reality of it. I think there will be money. Nobody wants to be the one to be blamed for having, you know, thousands of kids with developmental disabilities suddenly not getting the care they need.
The question is who gets the pound of flesh and who wants to take the blame. And I think it's gonna come down to one of those, last minute things, you know, we've seen the same thing happen with the budget.
You know you're supposed to have a state budget by June 30, and all of a sudden we're sitting here on June 29 and saying “ruh roh,” and I think we're gonna end up in the same situation this year with this DD program that somebody's gonna have to blink or have to give at least a little bit.
BRODIE: Well, so Howie, you mentioned the budget. Let me, it's just about time we're in mid-April, I should start asking you what's the deal with the budget for next fiscal year?
FISCHER: You got me. I'm sorry. Well, here's the problem. Well, here's the problem. Number one, we're still solving this year's budget, developmental disabilities, additional money for vouchers. Number 2 comes down to nobody knows how much money there will be next year. That hasn't stopped them from proposing cutting income taxes and proposing some new programs. But it's hard enough in a normal year to figure out what are the revenues going to be.
This is not a normal year. We have the on again, off again, maybe yes, maybe no tariffs, and that's particularly crucial to a state like Arizona where half of our income is based on sales tax. If people stop spending, if people spend less, if people move. The spending to things that are non-taxable, then you're definitely cutting into, you know, half of an $18 billion spending program. And again, that's not even counting the ideas of cutting the state income tax, which again Republicans are pushing.
So there is a meeting this week of the what they call the finance advisory Committee. This is a group of economists who get together and they go ahead and they take out the Ouija board and they, they in some, some holy words and then they say, OK, here's what we think the revenues are gonna be next year. But sometimes it's just what they call a scientific wild ass guess.
BRODIE: So, Howie, let me ask you about another bill that's coming up for a final vote this week on putting a volunteer chaplains in schools. What's the purpose behind this?
FISCHER: Well, there's an argument to be made that a schools perhaps need more people to help advise kids, and B, why should chaplains be excluded. Now, the why, from the opponent's perspective is they're not trained as guidance counselors, you know, simply being a chaplain, doesn't mean that you have any special training as as even that a rabbi or priest might have.
Then you get down to the question of, are we mixing religion and schools here in a way, the proponents are saying, well, this would only be done with parental consent that you, your child could go see a chaplain. But there's even a limit on who can be a chaplain, you know, you're not going to have everybody from every religion and sect in there, at least in part because of the fact that in order to qualify in a school district, you'd have to actually have a house of worship within that school district.
So if you happen to belong to let's say an Orthodox Jewish sect, there aren't that many Orthodox Jewish temples around which would essentially lock them out of anywhere where they aren't, even if there are children who are Orthodox Jewish there. So the other piece of it is, I think, assuming this gets to the governor, I think she's going to have problems with it, and that will put a stop to it this year.
