Ducey, Republican leaders eschew real solutions for partisan politics

Sen. Katie Hobbs, Senate Democratic Leader

Sen. Steve Farley, Asst. Senate Democratic Leader

Sen. Martin Quezada, Senate Democratic Whip

Sen. Lupe Contreras, Senate Democratic Whip

 Rep. Rebecca Rios, House Democratic Leader

Rep. Randall Friese, Asst. House Democratic Leader

Rep. Charlene Fernandez, House Democratic Whip

STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – Democratic leaders of the Senate and House released the following statement on the introduction of budget bills:

"Yesterday Governor Ducey and legislative Republican leaders introduced their budget bills, including a separate bill on university bonding.

"Republicans have known they don't have enough votes of their own members to pass university bonding, so we have been negotiating in good faith to support it in exchange for a clean restoration of the cruel and unnecessary TANF cut made in 2015, and diverting the governor's inequitable results-based funding to go toward teacher raises of 4%.

"Instead of working across party lines, they have decided to play partisan politics and pulled university bonding out of the higher education budget bill with the hope that enough Dems will be willing to leave struggling families and teachers behind to pass the bonding.

"That will not happen.

"Dems have always and will always stand up for our state's universities, which have been seen their budgets negligently slashed by Republicans for years. But we have also always stood up for Arizona's poor families and hard-working teachers who have been scapegoated and sacrificed in the name of conservative ideology.

"There is still an opportunity to work together to achieve both of these goals. We do not disagree with Governor Ducey's university bonding proposal. So long as our cities and towns are held harmless, it is a reasonable way to put a meaningful band aid on the damage that years of Republican neglect have caused.

"But rather than work with Democrats in true bipartisanship, Governor Ducey and Republican legislative leaders have decided they would rather risk university bonding than make a humane gesture to poor Arizona families and give our teachers a truly meaningful raise.

"Until they are willing to put ugly partisan politics aside and work with us, they will lose that gamble."