Hobbs ready to end moratorium on signing bills

But that doesn't mean state lawmakers are anywhere near ready to end their session that began in January and has already slipped past their self-imposed deadline to adjourn. That was Saturday.

The breakthrough of sorts comes as GOP leaders are set to trot out their plans Monday for a new state budget.

It's far from what the governor wants, spending $900 million less than the proposal she released in January. And it lacks any new taxes and fees to pay for it.

But it does meet the requirements Hobbs set on April 18, weeks after she walked away from talks with Republicans. She said then there was no reason for her to stay until GOP leaders were really interested in negotiations — as opposed to simply saying what they didn't like about her $18.7 billion spending plan.

More to the point, the governor said that day she would veto anything sent to her until Republicans showed they were serious by coming up with and publicly disclosing their own plan to balance the budget.

That is coming Monday. Asked if she intends to start signing bills again once she sees their budget, Hobbs told Capitol Media Services, "That was the plan."

None of that means Hobbs is going to ink her approval to everything lawmakers send her from now on. She said she foresees more vetoes coming, even after the moratorium is lifted.

"They're making it real easy to do that,'' she said, by sending her bills they know she won't sign.

In fact, Hobbs has so far nixed 45 measures this session, while signing 64 bills, a veto radio of 41.7%. At this rate, she's going to top last year, when she rejected 28.4% of the bills that reached her desk. Still, in absolute numbers, the 174 vetoes in 2025 set a new record for any Arizona governor.

That leaves the question of whether Hobbs' next batch of vetoes will be the various pieces of the budget that GOP leaders plan to unveil Monday — and for which they contend they have the votes.

What is clear is that this plan doesn't include any of the things Hobbs wants to provide the revenue for her $18.7 billion spending plan. Missing are:

• Increased fees on private companies that conduct legal sports gaming in Arizona;
• A new tax on vacation rentals to pay for her Arizona Affordability Fund to lower energy costs for families;
• Tying eligibility for vouchers for private and parochial school tuition and home schooling to parental income.

Nor do Republicans intend, at least at this time, to ask voters to extend their 2016 approval of Proposition 123, which provides another $300 million a year for K-12 education by tapping a special state trust fund. It expired last year.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh said it might make sense to put the issue on the ballot at some point. But he said it's wrong to build a budget on the assumption that voters will approve it.

But Hobbs said the failure to include those things she asked for in January doesn't necessarily mean the Republican budget is dead on arrival when it reaches her desk, something that could happen before the end of the week.

"I am willing to negotiate a budget that works for Arizonans and that ensures that we're investing in lowering costs for Arizonans, cutting taxes for middle class Arizonans,'' Hobbs said. "And if they can show us how we can pay for the rest without those revenue enhancements, then I'm looking forward to seeing that.''

What GOP lawmakers have in mind to balance the budget, however, is quite different than the governor's vision. It includes across-the-board cuts in spending for some agencies as well as "sweeping'' up funds that were set aside for special purposes.

Those funds are expected to be identified Monday. But in prior years, lawmakers have targeted things like money set aside to bring more water to the state, and dollars collected by state agencies as part of their licensing fees.

Here, too, Hobbs was noncommittal about whether she's willing to consider such fiscal maneuvers and dollar shifting.

"I'm going to have to see what their proposal looks like,'' she said.

The current plan is to have the Republican budget formally introduced Monday, with a pubic hearing on Tuesday. That could pave the way for adoption on Wednesday.