by Jonathan Eberle | Jun 29, 2025 | News
By Jonathan Eberle |
After weeks of political brinkmanship and competing proposals, Arizona lawmakers have approved a bipartisan state budget that combines Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs’ “Arizona Promise” priorities with over $100 million in conservative-driven spending cuts secured by House Republicans. The compromise averted a potential government shutdown.
The $16 billion spending package reflects a rare show of collaboration in a divided government, incorporating elements from both the governor’s agenda—focused on opportunity, affordability, and social services—and Republican demands for fiscal restraint, public safety funding, and government accountability.
“I am thrilled that the legislature passed the bipartisan and balanced Arizona Promise budget to expand opportunity, security, and freedom in our state,” Hobbs said in a statement. “We showed Arizonans what is possible when we are willing to reach across the aisle and deliver common sense solutions for the people of our state.”
House Republicans, meanwhile, emphasized that the final deal bears the mark of tough negotiations, resulting in meaningful structural reforms and a $100 million reduction in planned spending compared to earlier drafts.
“This revised budget isn’t the one we would have written,” said House Speaker Steve Montenegro. “But with time running out and the risk of a shutdown increasing, we fought for and secured serious improvements. We cut spending, added strong transparency requirements, and locked in public safety pay raises. Those changes matter.”
The final package maintains many of Hobbs’ original proposals while adopting Republican-backed amendments. “This was not a blank check,” said House Majority Leader Michael Carbone. “We held the line on conservative principles, cut unnecessary spending, and demanded accountability. This budget is better because of our efforts.”
While the Arizona Promise budget may carry the governor’s name, its final version reflects the realities of a politically split state government. The result is a package that funds long-term priorities across education, health care, infrastructure, and public safety, while also maintaining fiscal discipline and Republican values like limited government and transparency.
“We’ve led responsibly in a divided government,” Speaker Montenegro said. “We held the line, improved the bill, and protected the priorities of our voters.”
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Jonathan Eberle | Jun 26, 2025 | News
By Jonathan Eberle |
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs on Tuesday vetoed a continuation budget passed earlier in the day by the state House of Representatives, sharply criticizing House Republicans for what she called “pointless political grandstanding” just days before the June 30 budget deadline.
The House-passed stopgap measure aimed to keep the government operating past the end of the fiscal year while negotiations continued over a full budget agreement. But Hobbs swiftly rejected the proposal, calling it a “sham budget” that threatens critical state services and derails the bipartisan progress already made in the Senate.
“For months, I worked with leaders of both parties, in both chambers, to craft a bipartisan, balanced, and fiscally responsible budget that the majority of Senate Republicans support,” Hobbs claimed in a statement. “That budget has pay raises for State Troopers and firefighters, cuts taxes on small businesses, invests in combatting Veterans homelessness, and makes childcare more affordable and accessible.”
The governor’s veto comes amid rising tensions between the House and executive branch. House Speaker Steve Montenegro (R-LD29) had framed the continuation budget as a responsible step to avoid a shutdown after the Senate-negotiated agreement failed to garner enough support in his chamber. “We owe it to the people we serve to take the time needed to get this right,” Montenegro said. “This continuation budget ensures state services remain funded while giving lawmakers the time to work toward a better, more responsible solution.”
Governor Hobbs, however, dismissed that reasoning and accused House Republicans of endangering essential state services for political gain. “I have long made clear that both of the partisan and reckless House Republican budgets are unacceptable,” she said. “They gut public safety, slash health care for Arizonans, harm businesses, fail to lower costs, and leave our Veterans out in the cold.”
With just five days remaining before the state’s fiscal year ends, the legislature remains without an approved budget. Hobbs urged lawmakers to abandon political brinkmanship and adopt the bipartisan budget already passed by the Senate.
“Now, it’s time for House Republican leadership to move past their political stunts and work productively with their colleagues before they force an unnecessary state government shutdown of their own creation,” she said.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Jonathan Eberle | Jun 16, 2025 | News
By Jonathan Eberle |
The Arizona House of Representatives passed a structurally balanced, conservative budget on Thursday, advancing a financial plan that focuses on strengthening public safety, reducing costs for families, and increasing government accountability.
Speaker Steve Montenegro (R-LD29) called the budget a reflection of voter priorities. “This budget delivers safe communities, strong families, and a government that works for the people — not the other way around,” he said. “It cuts tuition, raises pay for law enforcement, fixes critical roads, and reins in waste — all without raising taxes.”
Key components of the budget include a 5% pay raise for Department of Public Safety and corrections officers, $94 million for repairs to major highway infrastructure, and a 2.5% in-state university tuition reduction alongside a freeze for the subsequent two years. The budget also fully funds school choice programs and clears a backlog of Empowerment Scholarship Account applications.
Additional funding is designated to keep voter rolls accurate and up to date, fully fund payments for parents acting as caregivers, and provide developmental disability services. An expanded adoption tax deduction is also included.
“The House-passed budget puts the House Majority Plan into action,” Majority Leader Michael Carbone said. “We’re protecting opportunity by lowering costs for students and parents. We’re backing public safety with strong support for our law enforcement officers. And we’re holding government accountable by cutting waste and demanding better results — this is the kind of leadership Arizona voters asked for.”
Speaker Pro Tempore Neal Carter stressed the budget’s potential for boosting small business. “The House-passed budget gives long-overdue relief to Arizona’s small businesses by eliminating the administratively burdensome business personal property tax under the $500,000 threshold,” Carter said. “This helps local job creators grow, hire, and invest in their communities — and makes Arizona a more competitive place to do business.”
The budget package — HB2945 through HB2961 — now moves to the Senate for consideration.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 12, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona’s embattled Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs is facing new scorn and a veto override threat from Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives Steve Montenegro after what Rep. Michael Way (R-LD15) called her “most disgraceful veto yet,” of the Antisemitism in Education Act. The act, known also as HB 2867, was passed by the legislature on June 4th. If enacted, it would have “prohibit(ed) teachers, administrators, and university faculty from promoting antisemitism or forcing students to support antisemitic viewpoints in exchange for credit or advancement.” It also would have prohibited the use of public funds for “antisemitic instruction, training, or programming.”
The seemingly straightforward bill, sponsored by Way, was expected to meet with Hobbs’ approval with the Republican saying Wednesday, “This should be an easy decision for the governor. The Legislature has done its job. The public supports this. Now it’s up to the governor to do hers and show that Arizona won’t tolerate antisemitism in public education.”
But this wasn’t to be. Hobbs panned the bill, armed with a letter from Lori Shepherd of The Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center in which she emphasized inviting students “to ask tough questions about the legacy of the Holocaust today… that often touch on the history of Zionism, the founding of the State of Israel, and the persistence of global antisemitism.”
Hobbs claimed, “This bill is not about antisemitism; it’s about attacking our teachers.” She added, “It puts an unacceptable level of personal liability in place for our public school, community college, and university educators and staff, opening them up to threats of personally costly lawsuits.”
She contended the bill, “sets a dangerous precedent that unfairly targets public school teachers while shielding private school staff,” and characterized it as an attempt by the legislature to “single out and attack our public education system.”
Rep. Way quickly took to X to express his outrage writing, “In her most disgraceful veto yet, Governor Hobbs struck down a bipartisan bill to stop antisemitism in Arizona schools. I am deeply disappointed by her decision—paying lip service to opposing antisemitism while backing away from a law with real teeth. Instead of standing with Jewish students and faculty, she sided with those who promote hate and hostility on campus. This bill was aimed at prohibiting the teaching of egregious and blatant antisemitic content. To suggest that it threatened the speech of most Arizona teachers is disingenuous at best. House Republicans acted to confront antisemitism—Hobbs’ veto protects it. I will continue to stand with the Jewish community in Arizona and in my district to ensure taxpayer dollars are never used to fund violent political indoctrination.”
Speaker Steve Montenegro addressed the veto as well just over an hour later in a statement posted to X, vowing to move to a veto override before the end of the legislative session. He wrote, “Katie Hobbs has issued hundreds of misguided vetoes to date, but THIS one bolstering the hateful teachings of antisemitism in public school classrooms takes the cake. Every child deserves a quality education free of the abhorrent rhetoric that promotes hostility toward our Jewish communities. This veto is beyond the pale, and the House WILL proceed with a veto override before this session adjourns.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | May 16, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, House Speaker Steve Montenegro, and State Treasure Kimberly Yee are continuing a legal battle against the administration of former President Joe Biden and his surrogate, Attorney General Kris Mayes to defeat what they say is an “unlawful, dictator-style land grab in northern Arizona.”
The lawsuit, currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, centers around the confiscation of a massive tract of Arizona land in Coconino and Mohave Counties which bans “the productive use of almost 1 million acres in northern Arizona,” and “permanently entombs one of the nation’s largest and highest-grade uranium deposits,” in addition to forbidding any road or infrastructure development in “an area the size of Rhode Island,” according to a legal brief submitted Wednesday.
The Biden White House, via Presidential Proclamation launched this audacious expropriation of Arizona land in August 2023 under the color of the Antiquities Act, creating “the Ancestral Footprints Monument.” In February 2024, Petersen launched a lawsuit to stop him.
“Former President Joe Biden and his army of radical bureaucrats abused their constitutional authority on countless levels during his failed administration. Their infatuation with locking up federal lands from productive uses is a prime example of the harm inflicted on states like Arizona,” said Petersen. “As we have argued throughout this case, Biden’s maneuver had nothing to do with protecting actual artifacts. This was an attempt to halt all mining, ranching, and other local uses of federal lands that are critical to our energy independence from adversary foreign nations, our food supply, and the strength of our economy. Republicans in the Arizona Legislature will continue to fight these actions to free our state from the grasp radical environmentalists had over the previous administration. Thankfully, we now have President Donald J. Trump in office, who has a consistent track record of safeguarding state sovereignty and promoting common-sense uses of federal land. I am continuing to work with his administration in an effort to end this legal battle.”
As Petersen and his legal team point out to the court, the unlawful seizure by the Biden administration stood in direct violation of the 1909 Antiquities Act. It uses as a basis given that a president is only empowered to reserve “the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”
In a press release, the Republican group said the coalition assembled to oppose Biden’s act of illegal seizure asserts that Biden failed to follow the law, “and the guardrails Congress established to create a check on the president’s power were violated.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
