Almost three weeks after Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee signaled that they were willing to throw funding ($122 million) to assist disabled children and their caregivers under the fiscal bus, they did just that, voting to deny supplemental funding, sponsored by State Representative Nancy Gutierrez to help these vulnerable Arizonans overlooking the fact that they passed a supplemental appropriation last year to help bankroll their Welfare for the Wealthy Empowerment Scholarship Private School Voucher Program.
According to reporting by KJZZ, Republicans in the hearing (including Doug Ducey’s former budget point person, Matt Gress, and Livingston blamed Governor Katie Hobbs for the funding shortfall, saying she okayed funds to be spent that were not there.
Three weeks ago, Livingston blamed this potential funding shortfall on Donald Trump and his federal budget cuts. Think he got the message to change his tune.
These are the same Gress and Livingston who helped secure Republican tax cuts for the rich and Welfare for the Wealthy programs for the Empowerment Scholarship Program, including, as Hobbs noted in a comment to KJZZ, a supplemental funding allotment last year.
So, in their warped MAGA worldview, billions for tax cuts and welfare programs for the wealthy are justifiable expenses while $122 million to help disabled children is an unaffordable luxury.
How nauseating. How sickening.
To rub salt in the wound and in a strike against human decency, Republican Chairperson David Livingston did not allow supporters of the supplemental to speak at the Committee hearing. Instead, these poor people had the indignity of having to vent their concerns and frustrations outside the House’s front doors.
The woman in the above video said:
“And they should have allowed us to speak today. It is a bipartisan and started under Ducey and they want to blame it on Hobbs. They’ve had the majority for years and years and years. So if the budgets are misaligned, it’s not a Democratic thing to be blamed on and even if it was, is it more important that Hobbs get blamed or is it more important that our kids stay alive?”
Representative Guiterrez met with the families outside, thanking them for their activism and their continued attendance at the Capitol, saying they would continue the fight to secure the additional funding.
Democratic House Leader Oscar De Los Santos jabbed at Gress’s behavior at the Committee hearing, posting:
In a statement from her office, Governor Hobbs blasted Republicans for shortchanging these vulnerable children and called them out for their fiscal hypocrisy, stating:
“It is beyond disappointing that members of the legislature have once again failed to do their job by ensuring the critical services that support Arizonans with developmental disabilities remain funded. This negligence jeopardizes the health, independence, and lives of more than 50,000 Arizonans who depend on the Division of Developmental Disabilities for health services and support for independent living.
“The legislature’s failure to act is both inhumane and fiscally irresponsible. Without these vital services, eligible Arizonans with disabilities will be at increased risk of institutionalization — which would result in significantly more restrictive and unnecessarily expensive care.
“By refusing to pass this bill, legislators are telling hardworking families caring for loved ones with autism, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, and other intellectual or developmental disabilities, that their needs don’t matter. Instead, lawmakers have chosen to use them as pawns and leave them questioning whether they’ll still receive the care they need in a few weeks.
“Instead of working to ensure that DDD can fulfill its obligations to the Arizonans it serves, extremists in the legislature have proposed cutting the program’s budget by 25%. Medical appointments, therapeutic treatments, and in-home care cannot simply be cut without consequences, and individuals who depend on these services shouldn’t be forced into uncertainty while legislators play games in pursuit of a neglectful agenda. Withholding funding for DDD programs is an outright moral failure.
“Meanwhile, these same legislators remain silent on the runaway costs and lack of accountability within the universal ESA entitlement program, which has had cost overruns totaling over $385 million the last two years. I call on our lawmakers to put aside their partisan games and act swiftly to right this wrong and deliver the support that these families deserve. Enough is enough.”
The majority is weaponizing a routine part of the budgeting process to cause “pain” for Arizonans with disabilities and their caregivers, attempting to slash DDD funding due to a supplemental request. Supplemental requests are a routine part of the budgeting process. Under Governor Ducey, the below supplementals were included in budgets:
FY16: $26,000,000
FY17: $117,319,400
FY18: $35,565,700
FY19: $16,427,100
FY20: $48,950,900
FY21: $67,381,900
FY22: $463,090,100
FY23: $691,198,000
Additionally, a $274.8 million supplemental for ESA entitlements was approved in the FY24 budget. Reps. Gress and Livingston voted in favor of the ESA entitlement supplemental.
Hobbs should veto any budget that does not meet the needs of Arizonans.
It is time for the people of Arizona to see the MAGA Republicans at the State Legislature for what they are: People who are not for you unless you have a bank account with a six-figure balance or believe the Gilded Age, the period where women and minorities had little to no rights, was the pinnacle of American Civilization.
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