(The Center Square) – Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Friday afternoon she will sign the bills for the bipartisan $17.6 billion budget passed by the Legislature earlier in the day.
Hobbs said she expected to sign the legislation later on Friday. When she does, that will avert what would have been Arizona’s first state government shutdown on Monday.
Earlier Friday, the Senate approved the budget bills with the help of a bipartisan coalition.
“I am thrilled that the legislature passed the bipartisan and balanced Arizona Promise budget to expand opportunity, security and freedom in our state,” the Democratic governor said in a statement Friday afternoon.
“By working together, we have secured pay raises for state police and firefighters, made child care more affordable and accessible, taken action to stop drug smuggling and human trafficking, and invested in public education from kindergarten through higher ed,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs noted the budget includes 5% pay raises for state troopers and 15% pay raises for state firefighters and $8 million for the governor’s SAFE Initiative to secure the border by helping law enforcement fight drug smuggling and human trafficking. The governor added the budget fully funds K-12 education and includes $297 million to build new K-12 schools and improve existing school facilities.
The budget was championed by Sen. John Kavanagh, the Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. He noted it ultimately took “three to tango,” with the House on Thursday night passing a budget that Hobbs would sign. That came after Hobbs vetoed two House budget proposals Wednesday, but Kavanagh said the latest budget had the support of the two chambers and the governor.
After the budget’s passage Friday in the Senate, House Speaker Steve Montenegro said the chamber’s Republican majority had a choice: “Allow a shutdown or improve the plan left on the table.”
“We chose to fight — and secured more than $100 million in savings and critical reforms that would not have happened without us,” the Republican said in a statement emailed Friday afternoon to The Center Square.
Back in the Senate, lawmakers quickly approved a series of bills on the budget and other matters before adjourning and ending the chamber’s 2025 session at 1:20 p.m.
And in other legislative news, Republicans announced they decided to promote Kavanagh to majority leader. He succeeds Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise.
“As a state lawmaker for 19 years, Sen. Kavanagh brings a wealth of experience and institutional knowledge of the inner-workings of state government and will be able to unite the caucus as we work to advance a conservative agenda for the citizens of Arizona,” Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said in a statement emailed Friday afternoon to The Center Square.
Kavanagh said he was humbled to be elected to the position and wanted “to concentrate on moving forward — united.”
The next regular legislative session will start in January 2026.
