NEWS

Rushed $9.1B Arizona budget lacks transparency

Mary Jo Pitzl
The Republic | azcentral.com
Students at the Capitol to protest cuts to higher education totaling $104 million in the Legislature’s budget proposal crowd the Senate Appropriations Committee room Thursday. The budget deal, which consists of 13 separate bills, was barely 36 hours old before it passed the first legislative hurdle in the committee. Republican legislative leaders are pushing to pass the budget today.
  • Rushed process cloaks budget details%2C critics say
  • Legislative leaders%2C Gov. Ducey pushing for Friday vote
  • If plan holds%2C but could be done 72 hours after unveiling

Legislative leaders are rushing to pass a $9.1 billion budget by today, offering little time for rank-and-file lawmakers and the public to figure out the details of a spending plan that was negotiated in secret.

The rush is coming nearly four months before the budget takes effect and more than a week ahead of the Legislature's informal deadline for producing a budget — the 65th day of its session.

That's prompted a familiar cry from Democrats, advocates for the disadvantaged, the "tea party" and even a few lawmakers: What's the rush?

Gov. Doug Ducey and the Republican leadership of the Legislature agreed on a budget deal earlier this week and unveiled it to GOP members in closed-door meetings late Tuesday.

On Wednesday, summaries of the $9.1 billion spending plan circulated at the Capitol, and late that night the 13 bills in the fiscal 2016 budget were published online. Leaders indicated they wanted a final vote on the budget package by today.

That leaves no time to scramble people to the Capitol to talk about the impact of the proposed budget cuts, much digest the 13 bills that make up the spending plan, said Sam Richard, a social services advocate.

"We want them to slow down," said Richard, who represents the Protecting Arizona's Family Coalition, which advocates for services that strengthen families and help Arizonans in need.

"It's not democracy and it's a bitter pill," he said of the budget. "And bitter pills are usually swallowed fast."

The accelerated pace has left issues related to the budget unexplored.

In addition to the numerous new proposals in the deal —such as a deeper cut to university budgets totaling $104 million — plans that were proposed in Ducey's Jan. 16 budget have yet to be vetted by lawmakers.

Republic file photo A pair of bills sponsored by Republican Rep. Kate Brophy McGee are reasoned efforts aimed at solving long-standing problems with the state?s child-safety system. 0210140339ar PNI House committee hears livestock bill - 2.11.14 - Bill co-sponsor Kate Brophy McGee addresses the House Agriculture and Water Committee's (cq) public hearing on HB 2587 (cq), a bill to overhaul state regulation of livestock cruelty, Tuesday, February 11, 2014 (cq). More than 100 people (cq), mostly against the bill, filled the hearing room. State farming and ranching groups support the bill, but there's a growing crowd of diverse groups opposing the bill. Charlie Leight/The Arizona Republic

Key among them is the transfer of the division of behavioral-health services to the state's Medicaid program, AHCCCS, from the state Health Department, and the merger of four other agencies into two.

Ducey proposed the behavioral-health shift as a logical move because many of the Arizonans who use the program's services are on Medicaid. But the Legislature's budget office could not provide details as of last month; the office was waiting for more information from Ducey's office before weighing the financial impact of the shift.

Emily Jenkins, the CEO and president of the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers, said the suddenness of the budget being pushed to a final vote caught many of the health-care providers she represents, as well as state officials, by surprise.

"They haven't had time to have hearings on this," she said. "I don't think they expected it to move this quickly."

The state held educational briefings with health-care providers in community meetings, but no such briefings for the people who have the final say: the 90 state lawmakers, 20 of whom are brand-new to the Legislature.

As the budget started to move through the legislative process Thursday, people inside and outside the Capitol said lawmakers should slow down.

Wes Harris, leader of the Greater Phoenix Tea Party, said he supports the budget, but not the process.

"Everybody needs a shot at it," he said of the budget deal, which was barely 36 hours old before the first vote was taken in the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday.

Legislative leaders, he said, keep the plan secret until the last minute to minimize protests.

"They're in a rush like the first legislation the governor got: Do it before they're awake," Harris said, referring to the civics test lawmakers pushed through at Ducey's behest in one day in January.

0516131237el PNI0517-met SenateBudget 05/16/2013 Senator Don Shooter (CQ, Republican, District 13) speaks Thursday afternoon during Senate budget/medicaid proceedings. Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic

Senate Appropriations Chairman Don Shooter, R-Yuma, also lamented the process, saying lawmakers have been making yearly decisions on the budget that "kick people in the shins" without the guidance of a strategic plan.

"I'd like to see a long-term solution," Shooter said. "I'm very annoyed, and I'm saddened we have to do this to people."

That said, Shooter likened the rushed process to taking a dose of nasty medicine.

"It's like castor oil, you've got to take it fast. You don't sip it."

But the speed makes it hard to read the budget bills, even by the most ardent budget watchers.

Dana Wolfe Naimark, CEO of the Children's Action Alliance, said she didn't get through all 13 bills before showing up at the Legislature to testify on the budget.

"There's no way lawmakers could have read all this," she said. And it would be especially challenging for the freshman lawmakers, who make up one third of the House, and a majority of the House Republicans.

Shooter, however, said he read each of the 13 bills before signing them — something he must do before the bills can be posted online.

Rep. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, said the rush makes it hard to digest policy changes on everything from education to child welfare.

"I don't want to have to pass a budget to understand it," she said.

Democrats, the minority party at the Legislature, echoed the "slow-down" message.

"It needs more deliberation, more seriousness, more inclusion, maybe more compassion," Bruce Wheeler, the Democrat's assistant minority leader told fellow House members Thursday.

In separate comments, Wheeler, D-Tucson, said the rush is a time-honored tactic to force a vote before lawmakers can return to their districts over the weekend and get feedback from their constituents. The weekend break also gives lobbyists a chance to refine their pitches to lawmakers away from the scrutiny of legislative leaders, he said.

He said he is challenging his GOP colleagues to hit the "pause" button and resume deliberations Monday.

It's unlikely that will happen, most observers say, unless enough GOP lawmakers stand firm against their leadership.

by Dana Wolfe Naimark President and CEO, Children's Action Alliance

The hurry-up-and-vote tactic is not unique to this year, nor to Arizona, said David Berman, a senior research fellow at the Morrison Institute of Public Policy at Arizona State University. There's a tendency among leadership, if it feels it has a deal, to limit debate and rush things through before votes fade away.

"This Legislature is getting to be very imperial," Berman said.

The solution, he said, to the closed-door secretive budget process is to open it up, invite in more viewpoints, and let the media cover it.

Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, made a similar pitch to her colleagues as the Senate Appropriations Committee was voting on the budget bill. She was particularly irritated that Republicans have precluded any talk of increasing state revenues, leaving them with cutting spending as the only option to balance a budget with a $1.5 billion deficit.

"We should be doing this in a different way," she said. "We have to have an open and transparent process, so we can have discussions about both sides of the equation, not just about the spending about revenue as well."

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic. com or at (602) 444-8963.