Republicans and Democrats continue pointing the finger at one another after the Joint Legislative Budget Committee approved a transfer of funds to help a state program.
JLBC approved a $6.5 million transfer in addition to $10 million from other Arizona programs to aid the Department of Child Safety’s Congregate Care program. The program involves a network of licensed and contracted institutions providing care for minors in group homes, shelters and treatment centers.
The Center Square reached out to Republicans and Democrats for comment and was directed to press releases dating back to last week.
Republicans on the JLBC said the program is on the edge of bankruptcy due to Gov. Katie Hobbs’ “repeated failures to manage the budget responsibly” and help agencies.
“It should never have come to this,” said Republican Rep. David Livingston, who chairs the joint budget committee, in a press release. “Her administration had the ability to fix this months ago, but instead, they sat on it — waiting until just 19 days before bankruptcy to sound the alarm.”
Livingston went on to say that, in Arizona, families must live within their budget. “We expect the Governor to do the same.”
Democrats in the Arizona Legislature called this “theatrics” over a routine line-item transfer to cover higher-than-estimated expenses. Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan went as far as to accuse the legislature’s Republican majority of stretching facts and manufacturing outrage over something that Sundareshan said has happened in the past under Republican and Democratic governors.
“Under Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, the legislature approved nearly $50 million of these requests to move money from one line item to another within an agency budget, all without batting an eye,” said Sundareshan. “This Republican behavior was disgusting, and their grandstanding puts Arizonans at risk of losing desperately needed services.”
Hobbs did not hold back her comments and accused Republicans of grandstanding. Hobbs, a former social worker who engaged with homeless youth, also called on Republicans to pass supplemental funding for the Division of Developmental Disabilities and help special needs children.
“It’s about time Republican lawmakers get their act together and take immediate action to pass a clean DDD supplemental instead of wasting time with even more unnecessary committees,” the governor said. “If they refuse to pass my commonsense funding measures, they need to show Arizonans their plan and send me a budget.”
Still, Livingston is not budging.
The Republican from Peoria pointed to a Joint Legislative Budget Committee investigation that found Hobbs “failed to disclose federal funds” from the American Rescue Plan Act that could have been used to keep Congregate Care afloat.
Instead, Livingston said the money was put toward Kinship Support Services, something the lawmaker argued the state has never funded.
“This raises serious questions about her administration’s priorities and decision-making,” said Livingston.
Earlier this month, Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro said the governor has a “habit of overspending, ignoring reality and then sounding the alarm” when disaster appears imminent.
“This is not leadership,” said Montenegro. “This is incompetence.”
House Democratic Leader Oscar De Los Santos has another word for this situation: “Pathetic.”
