CEBV Weekly: May 26, 2025
Taking a paid vacation from their paid vacation. Vouchers may not get stuffed in the Constitution after all. A billionaire subsidy in the state budget?
Following the Legislature during budget season can be challenging, even bewildering. That’s especially so when they’re in session but largely shuttered, like right now — this week, just one legislative chamber spent just one day working in public view, but their machinations continued churning behind the scenes. This rundown of this week’s good, bad and infuriating will quickly catch you up.
🍀 The good: no vouchers in the Constitution. Republicans’ plan to hijack Prop 123 (drawing from the state land trust to fund public schools while also stuffing in constitutional protections for Arizona’s runaway ESA voucher boondoggle) appears dead for lack of support. We're told a handful of Republicans have chosen to listen to their constituents rather than go along with this horrible idea. With all Democrats firmly opposed, the mashup cannot proceed. The current iteration of Prop 123 is expiring, but as the state general fund is set to backfill the roughly $300 million, it’s a no-loss situation for public schools.
This outcome is a direct result of your engagement and activism; well done! However, we can’t take it for granted. As one of the architects of the scheme, JD Mesnard, said this week, “I think ‘dead’ is overstating it. To quote The Princess Bride, ‘it’s mostly dead’.” 😒 We must continue the pressure (particularly on Republicans) to ensure that the scheme stays dead — as well as to remind lawmakers that Prop 123 still needs a renewal, and their duty is to fund public education, not to protect their voucher schemes.
⚠️ The bad: stadium giveaway in the budget. Lawmakers’ pay-to-play billionaire stadium giveaway, currently stalled amid an outpouring of fierce public opposition, may get stuffed into the budget. This practice of lumping together various potentially unrelated provisions, known as “logrolling,” is intended to effectively force lawmakers to support measures they would otherwise oppose. Apparently, ramming through a stadium scheme is a continued high priority for Gov. Katie Hobbs and her staff — which means they need to hear from us.
We published an op-ed this week that lays out exactly what a bad deal this idea is. Please read and share, and use the talking points in conversations with your lawmakers, friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc.
😡 The infuriating: extending their paid vacation. The Arizona House returned from a weeklong break Tuesday, engaged in a bit of Republican infighting1, then announced they’re taking another two weeks of paid vacation. The Senate remains on paid vacation themselves; they’re scheduled to come back this coming Wednesday, but we suspect they’ll gavel back in only to extend their own break.
Budget talks with Gov. Hobbs are just barely beginning this week, and House and Senate Republicans aren't on the same page. The Legislature is constitutionally mandated to pass a budget by June 30, or our state government shuts down — and as some Republican lawmakers have personal out-of-country vacations planned for the last week of June2, the effective deadline is even sooner.
First-term House lawmaker Kevin Volk (D-17) is experiencing all this for the first time from the inside, and has some choice words for the Republican legislative leaders who lined this up: “Taking a break from not getting big legislative things done — in order to do nothing — is impossible to understand,” he says. “And it’s infuriating to be a part of it.”
He also observes, “Over the past few years we’ve seen a pattern develop at the Republican-led Legislature: lots of time spent on political statement bills destined for vetoes, delay or avoidance of engagement on major issues, and sessions that go on and on… The only good news is that in our system, there’s always a chance to change what you don’t like. Arizona voters can and should demand better.”
⏰ If you have 10 minutes: Directly contact Gov. Hobbs (602-542-4331 / engage@az.gov), along with your state senator and representatives, to oppose billionaire tax handout HB2704. Refer to this past Weekly for a list of specific lawmakers who need extra attention, and remember: Hobbs being responsive and accountable to her base (us) will improve her re-election chances for 2026. If you’ve already done this, do it again! Sustained pressure is needed to make our voices heard.
⏰⏰ If you have 20 minutes: Also directly contact your state senator and representatives (especially Republicans) to demand they support only a clean renewal of Prop 123, one that contains no poison pills or voucher gimmicks. Though this scheme appears stalled, we can’t take that for granted; we must keep the pressure on. Our friends at Save Our Schools Arizona have more info.
⏰⏰⏰ If you have 30 minutes: Join us on Zoom for our next CEBV Happy Hour conversation. This will be a truncated call (20-30 minutes ONLY) with state legislative updates from our Policy Director Melinda Iyer and no special guest speaker. Happy Hour meets every Sunday at 4 PM through the end of legislative session. As a reminder, we won’t hold a Happy Hour call on June 1. Sign up in advance here.
2025 Session Timeline
Monday, 6/30 Last day to pass a budget before state government shuts down
Flag this handy list of contact info, committee chairs and assignments:
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In other news, it was a Tuesday.
Don’t get us started on the staggering audacity of this.