PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Thursday that she will veto all bills until lawmakers send her bipartisan legislation to fix the massive $122 million budget shortfall for the state’s disability services.
Hobbs, a Democrat, vowed to veto any bill not already on her desk until there is a “serious, bipartisan funding solution” to the Division of Developmental Disabilities’ budget hole.
The Appropriations committees in the House and Senate advanced on Tuesday a Republican-sponsored bill to fix the shortfall. The proposal, which Hobbs has called "a nonstarter," includes several reforms to DDD, including a major cut to the Parents as Paid Caregivers Program.
"This is a move to put the pressure on her Legislature to get something to her desk that she can actually sign," said Brandi Coon, the founder of Raising Voices Coalition, an advocacy group for caregivers and Arizonans with disabilities.
Democrats vote 'no' on all legislation
The House was scheduled to vote on 35 bills Thursday, but cut business short after only an hour, having voted on seven. Democrats voted “no” on all seven pieces of legislation “in solidarity” with the DDD community, Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos said on the floor as lawmakers wrapped up business.
“Right now, we are doing everything humanly possible to make sure that we deliver for people with disabilities, and that includes this strategy of voting no that we did today on every single bill,” he told ABC15 afterward.
State Rep. David Livingston, who as chair of the House Appropriations Committee leads budget talks, said Democrats are playing political games.
"And the governor childishly came out today and said, 'I'm not signing any more bills,' because she's not getting her way," he said on the House floor. "Too bad."
The Senate did not have any votes scheduled Thursday, but one Democrat in that chamber told ABC15 the caucus there also would have voted “no" on any legislation.
De Los Santos said his caucus is open to negotiating, noting that every Democrat on the House Appropriations panel supported a bipartisan proposal put forth by a Republican lawmaker on Tuesday.
“I want to plead for humanity here,” he said. “I want to beg my Republican colleagues to come to the table and negotiate.”
That bipartisan amendment to the DDD funding bill narrowly failed in the House panel after Livingston added three additional Republican members minutes before the hearing began.
Several House Republicans declined interviews Thursday, but several slammed Democrats’ refusal to vote in remarks on the House floor.
“We need to be better than this,” state Rep. Nick Kupper said. “And the way I see it right now, if we’re voting on one bill because of an unrelated bill, we’re failing our people.”
Senate plans to pass its own fix
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope said senators are working on their own solution.
“We're going to get this resolved,” he told ABC15. “People are going to move on. We're going to have ... some reforms that that will happen, but we're going to have a very level head about this.”
Republicans have narrow majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate. Budget leaders in the House have pledged to fix the shortfall before DDD runs out of money at the end of the month — but only with reforms aimed at preventing future money woes.
"He promised this will get done, and it's time for him to deliver on that promise," Coon said of Livingston. "And I'm here willing to work with him to collaborate on what will work for our community and will best serve our legislators at the same time."
Hobbs calls impasse 'unacceptable'
Hobbs has called for lawmakers to pass a “clean” supplemental bill that just funds the $122 million shortfall. A Democratic bill to do so was blocked last month in the Legislature.
The governor also has said she is open to negotiating later for changes to DDD.
She said in a statement Thursday that she wants Republican lawmakers to "end the political theater" and pass a bipartisan supplemental funding bill to protect services for Arizonans with disabilities.
“It is shameful that Reps. Livingston, Gress, and other members of the legislative majority continue to hold Arizonans with disabilities hostage to their manufactured chaos,” Hobbs wrote. “While they leverage a crisis of their own creation to engage in political warfare, Arizonans with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and other disabilities are the ones harmed by their partisan attacks. That’s unacceptable to me, and after meeting with families dependent on these critical services, I know it’s unacceptable to the nearly 60,000 Arizonans who rely on the Division of Developmental Disabilities to live their lives with independence and dignity. Their introduced proposal is unserious and a complete nonstarter."
Republicans have said Hobbs is to blame for the shortfall, while Democrats have said the Legislature has had plenty of time to pass a funding bill.
DDD runs out of money at the end of April. If lawmakers do not pass a supplemental funding bill, the agency would shut down until the state's new budget year begins in July.
Coon said the stakes are high for the nearly 60,000 Arizonans with disabilities who receive DDD services.
"Without this funding, we could unhouse very disabled individuals," she warned. "We could cause the caregivers that they struggle to get, day in day out to actually show up at their home, to quit their job and go work for a fast food restaurant."
