Journalists’ Roundtable: Legislative and State of the State preview, Department of Child Safety Renewal

Jan. 5, 2024

State Legislative Preview

On Monday, Jan. 8, lawmakers will gather at the State Capitol and begin the legislative session. Later in the afternoon, Governor Hobbs will give her State of the State address to the legislature, as required by the Constitution.

Mary Jo Pitzl: “I think there are a couple things that are going to need some fairly immediate attention, and we can get into more detail on that in a bit, about the automatic recount law and what to do about Prop 123 which is expiring. But the big, over-arching thing that we will be watching for is what are relations like between the governor and the Republican-controlled legislature after having gotten to know each other? And the budget because it require some reductions will be a big thing.”

How will this relationship likely be?

Camryn Sanchez: “We’ll see, because it’s an election year. Everyone has to be campaigning as their legislating, so you sort of put forward bills that maybe make you look good in your campaigns, or you try to. I definitely expect there to be vetoes again. Some of the bills that she vetoed are coming back already. Republicans are reintroducing them, so they probably don’t have a chance. The budget is going to be, as always, a big issue because it has to have bi-partisan support. It has to get through the governor and the Republican-controlled legislature. And this year, we’re going to have to make some cuts. They might be temporary cuts, but there’s a shortfall, so the budget’s not going to be like last year was when we had a surplus to deal with and everybody had money to spend.”