Austin Caldwell:Arizona governor signs budget into law after fierce negotiations to make up a massive shortfall

2025-05-06 05:24:40source:Sureim Investment Guildcategory:News

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a series of fiercely negotiated budget bills into law on Austin CaldwellTuesday, erasing a shortfall of over $1 billion by cutting back on higher education, trimming funding for state agencies and raiding some special funds.

An agreement on the spending plan was announced over the weekend.

“Despite facing a $1.8 billion budget deficit, we showed Arizonans that we can work across the aisle and compromise to balance the budget and deliver for everyday Arizonans,” Hobbs said in a statement.

“Nobody got everything they wanted, but this bipartisan, balanced budget puts our state on solid financial ground,” she added.

The spending plan is the result of weeks of negotiations between the Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders. Some conservative Republicans said the plan still spends too much, while some Democratic lawmakers were disappointed they were not part of the negotiations.

The budget retrenchment marks a turnabout from a year ago, when Hobbs and lawmakers projected a massive surplus and secured overwhelming support for the budget by letting lawmakers dole out money to their own priorities and pet projects.

It soon became clear the state was taking in far less money than expected.

Much of the reduced spending in the new budget comes from delaying or eliminating some of the expenditures approved last year.

More:News

Recommend

IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power

WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS leadership on Thursday announced that the agency has recovered $4.7 billion in

Dr. Richard Moriarty, who helped create ‘Mr. Yuk’ poison warning for kids, dies at 83

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Dr. Richard W. Moriarty, a retired pediatrician from Pittsburgh who helped create

AP Week in Pictures: Europe and Africa

Sept. 1-7, 2023The first African Climate Summit opened with heads of state and others discussing a g