Arizona House passes budget amid shutdown threat
PHOENIX - The Arizona House of Representatives passed a continuation budget bill in an effort to avoid a state government shutdown.
What we know:
This comes after the House could not agree with the budget passed by the Senate. The governor has made it clear she would not sign this bill.
The Arizona House says the executive budget deal negotiated by the Senate and Governor lacked the support to pass the House. That's why this continuation budget was voted on.
It's also referred to as a skeleton budget and now heads to the Senate.
House Speaker Rep. Steve Montenegro says the House passed the budget to make sure there is no government shutdown. However, there were some House Democrats against the continuation budget, and said that the House should have voted on the bipartisan agreement instead.
Rep. Oscar De Los Santos says the Gov. Katie Hobbs, Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, and House Democrats all came to a bipartisan agreement on a budget. But, House Republicans decided to not come to the negotiating table, which is how we got here.
The governor has expressed on X that she is not in support of this continuation budget.
"The governor certainly has her decision and she was elected in that place, but the House also has a voice, and we want to make sure we are doing our job and representing the people who sent us and making sure that we're talking about their concerns," Rep. Montenegro said. "We want to make sure that in the process of us having the conversations and negotiations that need to happen for a budget, that the state is able to function and continue to move forward without a shutdown."
Democratic Minority Leader, Rep. Oscar De Los Santos said, "There was so much wrong with it – it was a disaster from start to finish."
He adds, "Unfortunately, the House Republicans decided not to come to that negotiating table. Their top negotiator was at his vacation home in Michigan and so was completely MIA. As a result, they cut themselves out of that negotiation. Here we are. They are upset that they were not at the table because they were on vacation."
What's next:
There are only a few more days left for the budget to get approved. The deadline is June 30.