PHOENIX, Ariz. (KGUN) — Late Tuesday Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed a budget proposed by the Republican majority in the State Legislature.
The veto is the Governor’s pushback to force negotiations on a budget she sees as full of non-starters she can not support.
In a news release, Governor Hobbs says it delivers over 600 million in tax breaks to billionaires and special interests while taking benefits from regular Arizonans.
The way the proposed budget kills Tucson’s Rio Nuevo Downtown Development is number two on her list. The budget took the 19 million Rio Nuevo retains in sales tax.
Rio Nuevo used that as seed money to create downtown projects. Rio Nuevo says those projects return about 60 million to the state budget in sales taxes those businesses produce.
The Governor is not ready to allow 16 million in cuts to the Department of Children Services
And she rips the proposed budget for more than two million dollars Forestry and Fire Management. She says that will compromise fire safety.
The Legislature’s Republican majority wrote the budget to impose a five percent cut on most state agencies. The Governor’s press release accuses legislators of protecting their own interests from cuts including just under six million for legislative office renovations.
Congressman Andy Biggs is running against Hobbs for Governor. He is a former State Senate President who says his years in that role gave him strong experience in developing budgets.
In his own news release he criticises Hobbs for vetoing what he calls a common sense budget that he says would have delivered more than one billion dollars in tax savings for Arizonans.
